How Scientific and to what Degree

a Revolution?

Before Scientific

Revolution the west

was steeped in

superstition—science

hadn’t existed since a

brief showing under

the ancient Greeks

Once Scientific

Revolution took place,

superstition and

religion (seen largely

as the same thing)

were out and the west

became rational and

orderly

SCIENCE BEFORE THE

REVOLUTION

Always making advances—

since Mesopotamia and Egypt

Mechanical advances in the

Middle Ages

• Black Death scientific

exploration of the human

body

Religious reformationsnew

questions about nature of God

and the world and the

relationship between the two

RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND

CONNECTIONS PERSIST,

EVEN AMONG BIG NAMES

OF SCIENTIFIC

REVOLUTION

UNSCIENTIFIC PURSUITS

FOLLOWED BY KEY

FIGURES

Copernicus’ lectures heard

with interest by Pope

Clement VII and he

dedicated De revolutionibus

orbium coelestium to Pope

Paul III

Pope Urban VIII a patron to

Galileo until 1633

Pascal a Jansenist

Newton interested in

alchemy

Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo

and Newton all followed

Hermeticism and astrology

and alchemy

1536 John Calvin publishes The Institutes of the Christian Religion

1543 Copernicus publishes On the Revolution of the

Heavenly Spheres

1545 Start of Council of Trent

1555 Peace of Augsburg ends religious wars in

Germany

1588 Defeat of Spanish Armada

1598 end of French Wars of Religion with

Edict of Nantes

1603 death of Elizabeth I

1610 Galileo publishes

Starry Messenger

1637 Descartes’

Discourse on Method

1686 Newton finishes Principia

PROTESTANT RESPONSE CATHOLIC RESPONSE

Martin Luther one of first to

speak out against

Copernicus—defied his

literal interpretation of the

Bible

Catholic court, the

Inquisition, tried Galileo for

heresy for teaching

Copernican ideas as more

than a hypothesis

Popes patrons of scientists, such as

Copernicus and Galileo

Royal Societies in England and France

endorsed by their respective monarchs,

who were religious leaders

Together with end of religious wars and

spread of official religious toleration,

intellectual world questions religious

assumptions• Does not mean religious feeling ends

Long span of time—over a century• Small increments of

change

Women go from being seen as created by God to serve men (Genesis) to being seen as biologically inferior to men (anatomy and physiology)

Center of the world changes from earth at the center of the universe to sun at the centerIntellectuals go from seeking proof of God’s existence (St. Anselm’s ontological argument) to proof of man’s own existence (Descartes’ cogito ergo sum)

Change from geocentric to heliocentric

theory of the universe

His observations with the telescope moved

the Copernican system beyond hypothesis

Universal law of gravity

Idea of world machine

More accurate view of human anatomy

The circulatory system confirmed by

Harvey• His teacher, Realdo Columbo, discovered the

clitoris

Questioned over reliance on reason

Cartesian dualism—mind and body

separate

Reason the key—I think, therefore I am

Queen Christina of• Sweden and Descartes

Deductive reason

Famous wager

Attempt to reconcile faith and reason

Abandoned math @age• 23 after mystical experience

Urged a scientific method built on inductive

principles (begin with specific

observations, then make generalizations)

Bacon’s inductive

reasoning (start w/observations)

Descartes’ deductive

reasoning (start w/principles)

Newton’s Scientific Method

Specific observations

GeneralizationsTested by

experiments

At “end” of Scientific Revolution still largely

an intellectual, elite conversation taking place

at meetings of the Royal Societies or among

highly educated and literate peoples