Post on 14-Apr-2017
Chapter 6The Scientific View of the World
1540-1700
Old and Incorrect “Scientific” beliefs
“Natural Philosophers”
Witches and Satan Trampling The Cross
Fear of Witches
Common by mid 1500s
-------------------------------------
Why an increase?
Women the primary target
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Misogynist views of women
“Weaker Sex” and more likely to give
into desires (Genesis)
Tools of the Devil for Evil
Ultimate Enemies of
God
Malleus Maleficarum “The Witch-Hammer” (1486)Standards for the Torture of Witches by Heinrich Kramer, German Clergyman
First the jailers prepare the implements of torture, then they strip the prisoner …. And when the implements of torture have been prepared, the judge, …tries to persuade the
prisoner to confess the truth freely; but, if he will not confess, he bids attendants make the prisoner fast to the strappado or some other
implement of torture.
Some hold that even a witch of very ill repute, … may be assured her life, and condemned instead to perpetual
imprisonment on bread and water, in case she will give sure and convincing testimony against other witches…
Others hold, as to this point, that for a time the promise made to the witch sentenced to imprisonment is to be
kept, but that after a time she should be burned.
A third view is, that the judge may safely promise witches to spare their lives, if only he will later excuse himself
from pronouncing the sentence and will let another do this in his place. . . .
But if, … the witch can be induced to speak the truth, then the jailers must carry out the sentence, and torture the prisoner according to the accepted
methods… And, while he is being tortured, he must be questioned … And note that, if he confesses under the torture, he must afterward be conducted to
another place, that he may confirm it and certify that it was not due alone to the force of the torture.
But, if the prisoner will not confess the truth satisfactorily, other sorts of torture must be placed before him, with the statement that, unless he will
confess the truth, he must endure these also.
Up to 200,000 tried for witchcraftUp to 60,000 executed (16th-17th cent)
Thomas Szasz 1970Hungarian psychiatrist
“In the past men created witches, now they create
mental patients.”
Scientific RevolutionWhy Now? Effects?
Causes of the Scientific Revolution• Interest in the Classics• More Universities (late middle ages)
• Government Funding (ex. exploration)– And other Patrons
• New Technologies (ex. printing press)
• Protestant Reformation
Theses two men are generally given credit for creating the modern
Scientific Method
Experimental MethodControlled experiments to
prove hypothesis and find facts
Francis Bacon(1561-1626)
England-----------------------------------------
EmpiricismThe only way to
gain knowledge is with
experimentation
Bacon felt knowledge was power, but failed to recognize the power
of mathematics
Rene Descartes(1596-1650)
France
Doubt everything
until proven
“Doubt is the origin of wisdom”
Father of Rationalism
Reason = Knowledge
Invented coordinate geometry
Cartesian Dualism
Matter (physical)and
Mind (soul)*Just for humans, animals
are only physical
“I think, therefore I am”
cogito ergo sum
Physical world governed by natural laws
Could not doubt his own existence
MedicineScience, Tradition,
and Superstition
Clash“Demonic”
View of Disease
Pharmacies and Apothecariesadvancements in botany
Faith Healers and Mystics
Purging and bloodletting
Trepanation
Dangerous Hospitals
Wars Provided Many Corpses To Study
Andreas Vesalius
(1514-1564)Belgium
(Flemish)
Dissected Cadavers at
the University of Padua,
Italy
1453 published
On the fabric of the human body
William Harvey
(1578-1657) English-------------------------------------Heart = Origin of
Blood---------------------------------------circulates in veins
& arteries
Madame Angelique
du Coudray(1712-1789)
Midwife in the Court of
Louis XV
The “Machine”
Small Pox InoculationEarly attempts by the
Turks in Constantinople
Edward Jenner
(1749-1823)English
---------------------------1796
Smallpox Vaccine
James Gillray “The Wonderful Effects of the New Inoculation”
Major Accomplishments in Astronomy
Babylonia 400s BCE to 200s BCE
Greece600s BCE to 200s CE
Arab Middle East800s CE to 1500s CEEurope 1500s CE
Nicholas Copernicus
(1473-1543) Polish
Heliocentric1543 On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
The Rotation of the Earth accounts for apparent rotation of stars
We know that the sun is the center of our Solar System, not the universe
Solar system
Milky Way galaxy
Universe
Criticism From Protestants and Catholics
Johannes Kepler
(1571-1630) German
Heliocentric
Elliptical Orbits
No Uniform Planetary SpeedOrbit time related to distance
from Sun
Galileo Galilei(1564-1642)
Italy1610 The
Starry Messenger
Improved the
telescopeObserved the Moon
Saturn, and Venus
The Moon has surface and is
not a “Heavenly
Crystal Sphere”
Ocean Tides
Moons of Jupiter
Io Europa Ganymede Callisto
Galilean Moons
Law of Inertia
Rest is not the natural state
of objects
1633 Arrest and heresy trial
1992 the Vatican formally cleared Galileo of any wrongdoing
Isaac Newton(1642-1727)
English
“Synthesis”combined new and old ideas
1687 Principia
Newton wanted to balance religion and science and find
how God ordered the universeThis most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.
From The Principia
Laws of Motion and
Universal Law of Gravitation-------------------------------------
All objects are attracted to
each other by gravity
• Law 1: An Object Will Stay At Rest Or Continue At A Constant Velocity Unless Acted Upon By An External Unbalanced Force
• Law 2: Momentum Is The Product Of Mass And Velocity (F = ma)
• Law 3: Every Action Has An Equal And Opposite Reaction
The moon orbits the earthSame laws in “heavens” and earth
Studied color and light with
prisms
Separated the different
colors from the sun’s light
Developed Calculus in his mid 20s
Developed the Reflecting Telescope40X magnification compared to Galileo's 3X
Newton and
others practiced Alchemy
j
Creation of a Scientific Community
Funding, Competition, Correspondence
Many Royal Academies founded
European Global DominanceMilitary Longitude
More interest from the masses
Michel de Montaigne
(1533-1592)
Cultural Relativism
“Everyone calls barbarity what he is not accustomed
to.”
“Life in itself is neither
good nor evil, it is the
place of good and
evil, according
to what you make it.”
Influential to the Enlightenment
Pierre Bayle(1647-1706)
France1697 Historical and Critical Dictionary
Skepticismthe denial of absolutes
“I am a good Protestant, and in the full sense of
the term, for from the bottom of my
soul, I protest against everything
that is said, and everything that is
done.”
Response to the Cancellation of the Edict of Nantes
If a multiplicity of religions is harmful to the State, that is only because one religion will not tolerate the other but wants rather to swallow it up by dint of persecution.
… in short the whole disorder springs not from toleration but from non-toleration.
The Study of History and a Common System of Dating