Chapter 2

Intellectual Revolutions
:
that Defined Society

Reporters:
Guerra, Sheila Bianca F.
Tiano, Daina Francin M.
Tormo, Vanessa V.
 Intended Learning Outcomes:

1. Articulate ways by which society is

transformed by science and technology.
 What is an Intellectual
Revolution?
It is a period where paradigm shifts occurred and where scientific
beliefs that have been widely embraced and accepted by the people were
challenged and opposed.

Historically, this intellectual revolution can be summed up as the

“replacement of Aristotelian ethics and Christian morality by a new
type of decision making which may be termed instrumental reasoning
or cost-benefit analysis” (Wootton as cited by McCarthy, 2019).
The Birth of
Modern Science
 Aristotle
He created a body of scientific
theory that towered like a colossus
over Western Civilization for some
2000 years. Given the limitations
under which the Greeks were
working compared to now,
Aristotle's theories made sense when
taken in a logical order.
 The factors that worked both to overthrow and to
preserve Aristotle's theories.

First of all, Aristotle's theories relied very little on

experiment, which left them vulnerable to anyone who chose to
perform such experiments. But attacking one part of Aristotle's
system involved attacking the whole thing, which made it a
daunting task for even the greatest thinkers of the day.

Secondly, the Church had grafted Aristotle's theories onto

its theology, thus making any attack on Aristotle an attack
on the tradition and the Church itself.
 Finally, there were the Renaissance scholars who were uncovering
other Greek authors who contradicted Aristotle. This was unsettling,
since these scholars had a reverence for all ancient knowledge as being
nearly infallible.

However, finding contradicting authorities forced the Renaissance

scholars to try to figure out which ones were right. When their findings
showed that neither theory was right, they had to think for themselves
and find a new theory that worked. This encouraged skepticism,
freethinking, and experimentation, all of which are essential parts of
modern science.
Pattern of
Development
The combination of these factors generated a cycle that undermined Aristotle, but also
slowed down the creation of a new set of theories. New observations would be made that
seemed to contradict Aristotle's theories. This would lead to new explanations, but always
framed in the context of the old beliefs, thus patching up the Aristotelian system. However,
more observations would take place, leading to more patching of the old system, and so on.
The first person who started this slow process of dismantling Aristotle's cosmology was
Copernicus. His findings would reinforce the process of finding new explanations, which
would lead to the work of Kepler and Galileo. The work of these three men would lead to
many new questions and theories about the universe until Isaac Newton would take the new
data and synthesize it into a new set of theories that more accurately explained the universe.
Copernican
Revolution
A major shift of worldwide views from
believing that the Earth is the center of the
universe to believing the Sun centered
solar system which was proposed by
Nicolaus Copernicus.
 Geocentric system
• Earth is the center of the
universe.
• It was authorized by Aristotle in
Ancient Greece and was fully
supported and documented by
the famous astronomer Ptolemy
in the second century AD.
Nicolaus Copernicus
• Polish scholar working
at the University of
Padua in northern Italy.
• The man who started
the demolition work of
the misconception.
• Proposed the
Heliocentric System.
• The problem Copernicus wrestled with was the paths of
planetary orbits.
• Through the century close observation had shown that the
heavens do not always appear to move in perfect,
uninterrupted circles. Rather, they sometimes move
backwards in what we known as retrogradation.
• By the 1500’s the model of the universe had some 80
epicycles to the ten crystalline spheres.
• Copernicus’s solution was basically geometric. By placing the
sun at the center of the universe and having the earth orbit
it.
• He reduced the unwieldy number of epicycles from 80 to 34.
Heliocentric System
 “Concerning the
Revolutions of the Celestial
Worlds”
(De Revolutionibus
Orbium Coelestium)
 Johannes Kepler
• A brilliant mathematician
who had a mystical
vision of the
mathematical perfection
of the universe that
owed a great deal to the
ancient Greek
mathematician
Pythagoras.
• Tycho Brahe kept extensive records of his
observation, but did not really know what to
do with them. That task was left to his
successor, Johannes Kepler.
• Kepler’s calculation showed that those
planetary orbits were elliptical and not
circular.
• Kepler’s Law of Planetary Motion
Galileo Galilei
• Italian Astronomer
• The telescope
• His work was the first
comprehensive attack
on the Aristotelian/
Ptolemaic cosmic
model.
Galileo saw the sun’s perfection marred by sunspots
and the moon’s perfection marred by craters.
He also saw four moons orbiting Jupiter
“The Starry Messenger” (1611)
The Church tried to preserve the Aristotelian and
Ptolemaic view of the universe by clamping down on
Galileo and his book and made him promise not to
preach his views.
Dialogue on the Great
World Systems (1632)

A dialogue which
presenting both views
‘equally’.
Sir Isaac Newton
• Invented a whole new branch
of Math called Calculus.
• Law of Universal Gravitation.
• He wrote most of his
revolutionary scientific work in
a three-volume set we call
Principia Mathematica (1687).
Principia Mathematica
(1687)
In the first volume, Newton laid
down the Three laws of Motion
Second Volume, Newton built on the
work of Pascal and added many
details to the understanding of the
motion of fluids.
Third volume, he laid down his
universal Law of Gravitation.
The Darwinian
Revolution
Charles Darwin
• The Origin of Species (1859)
• Deservedly given credit for the theory of biological
evolution: he accumulated evidence demonstrating that
organisms evolve and discovered the process , natural
selection by which they evolve.
• Completed the Copernican Revolution .
• Darwin completed the Copernican Revolution by drawing
out for biology the notion of nature as a lawful system of
matter in motion. The adaptations and diversity of organisms
, the origin of novel and highly organized forms, even the
origin of humanity itself could now be explained by an
orderly process of changed by natural laws.
 Origin of Organisms

Attributed to the design of an

Left unexplained
or omniscient Creator

Philosophers and theologians argued that the functional

design of organisms manifests the existence of an all-wise
Creator.
Natural Theology (1802)
by: William Paley
• Elaborated the argument from design as
forceful demonstration of the existence
of the creator.
• The functional design of human eye ,
argued Paley, provided conclusive
evidence of an all-wise Creator.
The Bridgewater
Treatises
• Written by eminent scientists and
philosophers to set forth “the Power,
Wisdom, and Goodness of God as
manifested in the Creation.”
• The structure and mechanisms of man’s
hand were, for example, cited as
inconvertible evidence that the hand had
been designed by the same omniscient
Power that had created the world.
Freudian
Revolution
Sigmund Freud
• Most obvious impact was to
change the way society thought
about and dealt with mental
illness.
• People drew a sharp dividing line between the “insane” and the “sane”. Insane
people were those with physical diseases of the brain. Sane people were those
without diseased brains. Freud changed all of this.
• One of Freud’s biggest influences during his early days as a neurologist was Jean-
Martin Charcot, famous French psychiatrist. Charcot claimed that hysteria had
primarily organic causes and that it had a regular, comprehensible pattern of
symptoms. Freud agreed with Charcot on the latter point , but he disagreed entirely
on the former.
• Freud claimed that neurotic people had working hardware, but faulty software.
• As psychoanalysis became increasingly popular, psychology and psychiatry turned
away from the search for organic causes and toward search for inner psychic
conflicts and early childhood traumas. As a consequence, the line between sane
and insane was blurred; everyone, according to Fraud had an Oedipal crisis , and
everyone could potentially become mentally ill.
Psychoanalysis
• Had an enormous impact on the practice of psychiatry, particularly within the
United States, but today it is regarded by most sources –medical, academic,
governmental, and others –as almost incorrect in its conception of the mind.
• This judgement is based on the crucial test of psychoanalysis; whether or not it
really helps patients with behavioral or psychological problems. The consensus
is that is does not.
• Psychoanalysis in its many varieties appears to have little or no efficacy in
treating mental illness. In contrast, psychopharmacology and cognitive –
behavioral therapies (therapies that simply try to change what the patient thinks
and does rather than analyzing the causes of behavior), while far from perfect,
do appear to help.
Why is Freud still so important?
There are at least two reasons :
First is purely practical: psychoanalysis has enormous historical
significance. Mental illness affects an large proportion of the population,
either directly or indirectly, so any curative scheme as widely accepted as
was Freud’s important to our history in general.
Second, more important , reason is that Freud gave people a new way of
thinking about why they acted the way they did. He created a whole new
way of interpreting behaviors: one could now claim that a person had
motives, desires, and beliefs –all buried in the unconscious –which they
knew nothing about but which nonetheless directly controlled and motivated
their conscious thought and behavior.
THANK YOU!!!