Chapter 17

On the next slide I am going to show you a picture with a

small message – Read the message and then DO NOT

SAY ANYTHING

Little Elm High School is Home of the

the Lobos, Which is Spanish for wolf.

Scientific Revolution

• Definition:– Period of time

when people began to define scientific method and apply it to search for truth

•During the Middle Ages, people and the church thought that the Earth was the center of the universe

•They thought that God purposely placed the Earth at the center of the universe because it was a special place to live

•Nicolaus Copernicus changed this old view of the universe

•He figured out that the Sun is the center of the universe (heliocentric), and that the earth and all other planets revolve around the sun

CopernicusPtolemy NEWOLD

WRONG RIG

HT

A Revolution in Astronomy

• Born in the second-century A.D., Ptolemy was the periods greatest astronomer.

• Medieval philosophers constructed a geocentric (Earth is at the center) model of the universe called the Ptolemaic system.

• It is a series of concentric spheres with a motionless Earth in the middle.

Earth

Moon

Mercury

Motion of Mercury

Ptolemy Model of the Universe

A Revolution in Astronomy (cont.)

• Nicholas Copernicus of Poland published his famous work, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, in 1543.

• He believed his heliocentric (with the Sun in the center) system was more accurate than the Ptolemaic system.

• Copernicus argued that all the planets revolved around the sun, the Moon revolved around Earth, and Earth rotated on its axis.

Copernicus• Realized the

earth turns on an axis

• Proposed a solar centered system– Book of

Revolutions

Hello, I am Copernicus. Why was my new idea a problem?

Goes against Christian Teachings!

• The courts and church put Galileo on trial for going against Christian teachings!

My name is Galileo Galilei. I was fascinated by the planets, just like Copernicus. I developed a telescope, and saw that Copernicus was right!

Click the Speaker button to listen to the audio again.

Click the Speaker button to listen to the audio again.

A Revolution in Astronomy (cont.) • The Italian scientist and mathematician Galileo Galilei

answered one of the two remaining questions for the new astronomy: What are the planets made of?

• He was the first European to make regular observations with a telescope.

• He saw mountains on the Moon and the four moons orbiting Jupiter.

• Ptolemy had said the heavenly bodies were pure orbs of light, but now it appeared they were material.

It is the year 1633 and the Italian scientist, Galileo Galilei faces a life or death dilemma!

The Catholic court put him on trial because the idea that the earth

revolves around the sun was dangerous to the Catholic Church!

•He had to either deny his ideas, or be put to death! If he denied the ideas of Copernicus, the

church would punish him, but not put him to death.•What do you think Galileo did? What

would you do?

•Galileo said that he denies what Copernicus taught. In court, he

stated:“With sincere heart, I detest the

errors of Copernicus and every other error contrary to the holy church”.

*** Was Galileo lying or telling the truth?

•Galileo was not put to death, but he was never a free man again.

A Revolution in Astronomy (cont.) • Galileo’s work began to make Europeans aware of the new

view of the universe.

• He got into trouble with the Catholic Church, which ordered him to abandon the new system because the Copernican conception contradicted that of the Church and the Bible.

• In the Copernican system, the heavens were not spiritual but material, and God was no longer in a specific place.

• Most astronomers believed the new conception, however.

Galileo Galilei

In 1992, Pope John Paul II officially acknowledged that Galileo was right

about the earth revolving around the sun. The Pope

concluded that church leaders were wrong to put Galileo on trial. The Pope also said that the church at the time was acting in good faith and was only

working within the knowledge of their own

time.

Did you know…..

Newton was another important scientist from the scientific

revolution.

This law said that all motion was controlled

by the same force.

I discovered the lawof gravity!

A Revolution in Astronomy (cont.) • The Englishman Isaac Newton responded to the second

question for the new conception of the universe: What explains motion in the universe?

• He was a mathematics professor at Cambridge University.

• Newton published his views in Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, also known as the Principia.

• He defined the three laws of motion in the universe.

A Revolution in Astronomy (cont.) • Crucial to his view was the universal law of

gravitation: every object in the universe is attracted to every other object by a force called gravity.

• This explained why planetary bodies did not go off in a straight line, but traveled in elliptical orbits.

• Newton gave the world a picture of the universe as a huge, regulated, uniform machine.

• This picture dominated the modern worldview until Einstein’s theory of relativity.

"If I have been able to see further, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants."                                                                                                   --Sir Isaac Newton

"If I have been able to see further, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants."                                                      --Sir Isaac Newton

ISSAC NEWTON

Breakthroughs in Medicine and Chemistry

• In the Late Middle Ages, medicine was still dominated by the teaching of the Greek physician Galen (second century A.D.).

• His views about anatomy were often wrong because he used animals, not people, for dissection.

The Problem

• The new anatomy of the sixteenth century was based on the work of Andreas Vesalius, published in his On the Fabric of the Human Body (1543).

• He reported his results from dissecting human bodies as a professor of surgery

• He erroneously believed that the body had two kinds of blood.

• The work of Robert Boyle in chemistry was also based on close observation and experiment.

• He was one of the first scientists to use controlled experiments

• He formulated Boyle’s Law about gases–the volume of a gas varies with the pressure exerted on it.

• In the eighteenth century, Antoine Lavoisier, the founder of modern chemistry, invented a system of naming the chemical elements.

Breakthroughs in Medicine and Chemistry (cont.)

Descartes and Reason

• The work of the French philosopher René Descartes strongly reflects the Western view of humankind that came from the Scientific Revolution.

• In his Discourse on Method (1637), he asserts that he can rationally be sure of only one thing–his own existence.

• He asserted he would accept only those things his reason said were true.

Descartes and Reason (cont.) • Descartes asserted that while he could not doubt the

existence of his mind–“I think, therefore I am”–he could doubt the existence of the material world.

• He concluded that the material world and the mental world were two different realms. He separated mind and matter.

• This made matter something inert and independent of the observer that could be investigated by a detached rationality.

• Descartes has been called the father of modern rationalism. This system of thought is based on the idea that reason is the chief source of knowledge.

Renè Descartes

Discourse on Method– Cogito ergo sum

(I think, therefore I am)– Dualism (mind-body

problem)

• Rationalism – accepted the world based on reason

• Banned by Catholic Church

Renè Descartes

• Results of Descartes philosophy

– Basis of French science (theory)

– Scrutiny of ancient philosophers

– Excitement in scientific investigation

Descartes

“To be is to do”-Socrates

“To do is to be”-Descartes

“Do be do be do”-Sinatra

"Being and Doing"

The Scientific Method • During the Scientific Revolution, people were

concerned about how they could best understand the physical universe.

• They created the scientific method.

• The philosopher Francis Bacon was most responsible for this method.

• He believed science was to give humankind new discoveries and the power to serve human purposes by conquering “nature in action.”

• The control and domination of nature became an important concern of science and its accompanying technology.

The Scientific Method con’t

The Scientific Method: Francis Bacon and René Descartes

Popularization of Science

• Scientific method (hypothesis, experiments, etc) became popular and applied to different areas of knowledge

• confidence in reason

• skepticism (doubt) towards accepted beliefs.

Consequences of Scientific Revolution

• Community of scientists formed– Royal Society– Papers were read and

published

• Scientists subjected to critical audience

• Science accepted as the preferred method of getting "truth"

Popularization of SciencePopularization of Science• Voltaire: studied

Newton.

• Voltaire talented in literature and criticism, wanted to free mind of dogma (= accepted beliefs)

• This leads to a new way of thinking or the Enlightenment

"...hard to define, being one of those popular movements which have no obvious beginning or

end, no pitched battles or legal victories with specific dates, no constitutions or formal leaders, no easily quantifiable statistics and no formal set

of beliefs." – Paul Johnson, historian

The Enlightenment

Parallel to the scientific awakening

Application of the scientific method to social problems

Foundation of Classical art and music:The world behaves according to patterns and these ought to be obeyed

Path to the Enlightenment

• The Enlightenment was an eighteenth-century philosophical movement built on the achievements of the Scientific Revolution.

• The Enlightenment philosophers hoped to make a better society by alying the scientific method and reason to social problems.

• They talked a lot about reason, natural law, hope, and progress.

Path to the Enlightenment (cont.)

• Enlightenment philosophers thought that society was governed by natural laws just as the Newtonian physical universe was.

• John Locke’s theory of knowledge greatly influenced Enlightenment thinkers.

• He argued that people are born with a mind that is a tabula rasa, or blank slate, and that knowledge comes to it through the five senses.

• This meant that the right influences could create a new kind of society by creating a new way of understanding.

• Enlightenment thinkers hoped to discover with the scientific method the laws that all institutions should follow to produce the ideal society.

Path to the Enlightenment (cont.)

WHY AM I IN THIS SLIDE???

Even though Frankenstein was written in 1818 it was

about using science to create an ideal figure

Social World of the Enlightenment

• The Enlightenment ideas were most known among the urban upper class.

• They spread among the literate elite.

• Literacy and the availability of books were increasing greatly during the eighteenth century.

• Many titles were aimed at the new, middle-class reading public, which included women and urban artisans.

Social World of the Enlightenment (cont.)

• Magazines for the general public developed during this time.

• The daily newspaper did as well.

• The first was printed in London in 1702.

• Salons were gatherings in the elegant homes of the wealthy.

• The guests took part in conversations, often about the new philosophical ideas.

• Nobles, thinkers, artists, and government officials attended these salons. Some became very famous.

Social World of the Enlightenment (cont.) • Enlightenment ideas also spread at the salon.

• The women who hosted them could sway political opinion and influence literary and artistic taste.

Basic Premises

• Scientific method can answer fundamental questions about society

• Human race can be educated and all people are important– Emergence of the middle class

• Belief in God based on reason

PhilosophersPhilosophers

Emphasized Emphasized science and secularismscience and secularism (= (= world without God) world without God)

Leaders: Voltaire and Diderot Leaders: Voltaire and Diderot Critical spirit, broke with Christian view Critical spirit, broke with Christian view Used Used NewtonNewton to show the universe can to show the universe can

be understood without be understood without Christianity Christianity

Used Locke to show how the mind Used Locke to show how the mind works: works: tabula rasa, or blank slatetabula rasa, or blank slate

Erosion of Christian BeliefErosion of Christian Belief

During the Enlightenment many began to During the Enlightenment many began to reject the Biblereject the Bible as a source of truth as a source of truth

Voltaire and ReligionVoltaire and Religion

VoltaireVoltaire became Enlightenment’s most became Enlightenment’s most anti religious writeranti religious writer and speaker, and speaker, especially criticized Christianity especially criticized Christianity

Voltaire: “In theology we find man’s Voltaire: “In theology we find man’s insanity in its fullness”, and “organized insanity in its fullness”, and “organized religion is evil”religion is evil”

VoltaireVoltaire, cont., cont.

Voltaire hoped Europeans would Voltaire hoped Europeans would abandon Christianity for “deism” abandon Christianity for “deism”

Deism is the belief that God created the Deism is the belief that God created the world, but then leaves it, and man, world, but then leaves it, and man, alonealone, to its own laws. , to its own laws.

Image: God as watchmaker.Image: God as watchmaker.

Idea How it is used today

Thinkers

John Locke

Rights to life, liberty, and

property

Declaration of Independence

Montesquieu

Separation of Powers:

President, Congress

and Courts

We use the separation of powers in our government

Voltaire Freedom of expression and

religion

We have these rights in our Bill

of Rights (1st amendment)

Hobbes and Locke diverge in how government should accomplish the role of government: