Intellectual

Revolutions
By
Prof. Liwayway Memije-Cruz
What is intellectual
revolution?
• refer to Greek speculation about the "nature" in
the period before Socrates (roughly 600 to 400
BCE).
"pre Socratic" or "non-theological" or "first
philosophy". – more on physics and logic
• showed how society was transformed by science
and technology
• What created day and night?
• What heavenly bodies are like stars,
moons and planets are?
• What was actually out there at the
outer space?

Questions:
COPERNICAN REVOLUTION
• Famous Greek
philosopher and
astronomer.
• Stated that the planets,
the sun and the moon
moved in a circular
motion around the earth
– existence of days and
nights

Claudius Ptolemy
 • a superseded
description of the
Universe with
Earth at the center.
• Under the
geocentric model,
the Sun, Moon,
stars, and planets
all orbited Earth.

Geocentrism/
Geocentric Model
• A Polish mathematician
and astronomer.
• developed his model of
a Sun-centered
universe.
• explained the daily and
yearly motion of the
sun and stars in the
universe

Nicholas Copernicus
Revolutionary astronomer
 • The center of the
solar system is not
the Earth but
actually the sun
• Started the birth of
modern astronomy/
• scientific
revolution/
transformation of
society’s thoughts
and beliefs

Heliocentrism/
Heliocentric Model
DARWINIAN REVOLUTION
(one of the most controversial intellectual revolutions of its time)
• An English naturalist,
biologist and geologist.
• all life is related and has
descended from a
common ancestor: the
birds and the bananas, the
fishes and the flowers --
all related.
• Published his book, On
the Origin of Species.
• complex creatures evolve
from more simplistic
ancestors naturally over
time

Charles Darwin
 • Populations pass through a
process of natural selection
in which only the fittest
would survive.
• Organisms have the ability
to adapt to their
environment and would
gradually changed into
something that would be
more competitive to
survive - evolution

Theory of Evolution
FREUDIAN REVOLUTION
• was the founding
father of
psychoanalysis, a
method for treating
mental illness and
also a theory which
explains human
behavior.

Sigmund Freud
 • emphasized the
influence of the
unconscious mind on
behavior.
• Freud believed that the
human mind was
composed of three
conflicting elements:
the id, the ego, and the
superego.

Freud’s Theory
1. Why do you think were most intellectual
ideas controversial?
2. Why did the people accept these new
discoveries despite being contradictoryto
what was widely accepted at that time?
3. How do intellectual revolutions transform
societies?

Questions for Reflection:

• https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-
psychology/chapter/psychodynamic-perspectives-on-
personality/
• https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/scholar
sandscientists/nicholas-copernicus.html
• https://www.britannica.com/science/geocentric-system
• https://www.darwins-theory-of-evolution.com/

References: