The Scientific Revolution

1650s to 1750s

“The most important event in European History

since the rise of Christianity”

“Real origin both of the modern world and the modern

mentality”

Why a revolution?

Changed mankind’s view of human nature and the human predicament

Christian / Jewish teachings lay at core of spiritual & philosophical beliefs for centuries! Permeated all human thought and activity – even politics

But scientific growth – starting in 16th century – introduces a new critical, scientific, “modern” view of man and world – by the late18th century science is beginning to push religion aside

Outcomes of Sci-Rev

Scientific community emergesEng. Royal Society: improve natural knowledgeFrench Academy of ScienceBoth organizations try to expand knowledge

Modern scientific method arosetheoretical, experimental, criticalNOT based on authority, tradition, ancient texts!Everything can be reduced to mechanical laws!

Weakness?Very little link between pure science and applied technologyPrimarily intellectual

Directly influences the A

ge of E

nlightenment

Physics: Medieval ideas

Scientific thought in early 1500sBased on Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

• Numerous crystal spheres moved around the earth • most desired natural set = at rest • “mover” must set everything in motion• Earth made of 4 elements: fire, air, earth, water

Ptolemy (85-165 A.D.): • geocentric conception • “perfect” circular motion of the heavenly bodies

Why did this idea appeal to Christians?• Common sense for what is seen• Man at center as critical link with God

Planets in Motion

What would rock your worldview?

On your notecard, explain in 2-3 sentences what type of astronomical or scientific discovery could be made today that might completely alter your understanding of the functioning of the universe or humans place within it.

Transition: The Copernican Revolution

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543)Polish; University of Cracow, studied medicine

Formulates the heliocentric conception of universe• On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres (De revolutionibus

orbium coelestium)

• Earth rotates on axis once every day

• Earth rotates around the sun every 365 days

• Universe is finite

Creates doubts about traditional Christian views• Criticized by Luther / Calvin

• Leo X intrigued – but can only be presented as theory

Transition (continued)Tycho Brahe 1546 – 1601

Rejects Copernicus’s idea of heliocentrism

Built observatory (new star 1572)

Collected data on the stars

Mixed theory: All planets, stars rotate around sun and all these rotate around earth

Johannes Kepler, 1571 – 1630 Laws of planetary motion – elliptical orbits – prediction of their movements

Interest in magnetic force (where’s the “mover”?)

Sig: mathematically proved Copernicus’s theory

Does the earth move???Galileo, 1564 – 1642

Professor at University of Padua Studied the heavens with the use of a telescope

• Moon not smooth, perfect circle• Defended heliocentrism of Copernicus in The Starry

messenger, 1610• Church sees Galileo as a threat to the Scriptures• Heavens become a thing of matter (not merely spiritual place)• Corrected – but teaches heliocentrism anyway (as fact)

Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic & Copernican, 1632

• 1633 - tried for heresy once, recants support of heliocentrism BUT, “And yet, it does move.”

• Remains under house arrest until his death

Acceleration & theory of inertia

Galileo

“I feel sure that the moon is not perfectly smooth, free from inequalities, and exactly spherical…it is full of inequalities, uneven, full of hollows and protuberances, just like the surface of the earth…The next object which I have observed is the essence or substance of the Milky Way…the galaxy is nothing else but a mass of innumerable stars planted together in clusters.”

And then there was Newton…

1642 – 1727

English Mathematician and physicist

Developed calculus (Leibniz, as well)

?? Why do stars move in orderly fashion?

Discovers that the physical universe is guided by natural laws (inertia, F=ma, action=reaction)

unchangeable and predictable

KEY: Universal Law of Gravitation

Principia • Mathematical proof that the secrets of the universe can be

made known to man: World = machine that operates in accordance to natural law in absolute time, space and motion

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” (Sir Isaac Newton)

“Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night;

God said, Let Newton be! And all was light.” (Alexander Pope)

Scientific Methodology

Francis Bacon, 1561-1626English, attorney/writer

Father of Scientific Method

Promoted inductive method/ empiricism (experimentalism)

One must experiment & collect data in order to draw conclusions

Science is practical / usefulThe Great Instauration

Novum Organum• Science compliments Bible!

Rene Descartes 1596-1650French philosopher & mathematician

Promoted deductive method = rationalism (systematic doubt)--doubt all – then rebuild

Reason out a general law from specific casesCartesian dualism: matter vs. mind (everything is spiritual or material – no mix)Coordinate geometry“Cogito, ergo sum”Discourse on Method

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

Since “the mind cannot be doubted but the body and material world can, the two must be radically different” ~ Cartesian dualism“…provided only that one abstains from accepting any for true which is not true, and that one always keeps the right order for one thing to be deduced from that which precedes it, there can be nothing so distant that one does not reach it eventually, or so hidden that one cannot discover it.”

Advances in Medical Sciences…

Galen, 2nd century A.D.2 circulatory systems4 bodily humors: blood, yellow bile, black bile, phlegm

Paracelsus, 1493-1541chemical philosophy based on macrocosmic-microcosmic principle THUS disease = chemical imbalance“like cures like” drugs

Vesalius, 1514-1564On Fabric of the Human Body, 1543 – practical research = understandingFather of modern biological science

William Harvey, 1578-1657English physician On the Motion of the Heart and Blood, 1628 – heart = mechanical pump

Advances in Chemistry…

Robert Boyle, 1627-1691Anglo-Irish chemist – Boyle’s Law: volume of gas varies with amount of pressure exerted on itMatter consists of atoms of various chemical elements

Antoine Lavoisier, 1743-1794French chemist, Father of Chemistry – named hydrogen & oxygen – chemical reactions – introduced metric system

Portrait of Monsieur Lavoisier and his Wife, by

Jacques-Louis David

Lavoisier conducting a combustion experiment

Science and ReligionBenedict de Spinoza (1632-1677)

excommunicated Dutch JewGod = Universe/Nature (pantheism)Human beings are merely a part of nature and should attempt to live rationally detached from their passions and emotionsHappiness = living rationally and understanding one’s place within the natural order of the universe

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)keep science & religion united

reason must be tempered by emotions

God is infinite and therefore cannot be know in His entirety

Faith must pick up where reason ends

Blaise Pascal“Let man then contemplate the whole of nature in her full and exalted majesty… We may extend our conceptions beyond all imaginable space, yet produce only atoms in comparison with the reality of things… All things emerge from nothing and are borne onward to infinity. Who can follow this marvelous process? The Author of these wonders understands them. None but He can.”

Pascal – consider this199 Let us then realize our limitations. We are something and we are not everything. Such being as we have conceals from us the knowledge of first principles, which arise from nothingness, and the smallness of our being hides infinity from our sight.

632 Man’s sensitivity to little things and insensitivity to the greatest things are marks of a strange disorder.

739 Truth is so obscured nowadays, and lies are so well established that unless we love the truth we shall never recognize it.

183 Two excesses: to exclude reason, to admit nothing but reason

387 I should be much more afraid of being mistaken and then finding out that Christianity is true than of being mistaken in believing it to be true.