The Call for a New Science and... the New Science     OBJECTIVES: 1. Be able to discuss the theses of Bacon's New Organon. 2. Be able to explain Bacon's critique of the four idols of knowledge. 3. Be able to explain Bacon's critique of Aristotelian logic and philosophy. 4. Be able to explain the primary characteristics of knowledge for Bacon, and how those characteristics separated his system from those of the medievals, Greeks and Romans. 5. Be able to discuss how Galileo, Newton and the other scientific revolutionaries of the seventeenth century are examples of Bacon's new methodology for acquiring knowledge. 6. Be able to explain the primary contributions of Galileo and Newton to science, and how their world view differed from that of their predecessors. 7. Be able to explain Galileo's interpretation of the Bible, and his arguments as to the relationship of his discoveries to the Church's interpretation of the Scriptures. 8. Be able to discuss Newtonian mechanics, and Newton's position on the role of God in the universe.   FOOD FOR THOUGHT:   from Bacon's New Organon:   "The logic now in use serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their foundation in commonly received notions than to help the search after truth. So it does more harm than good." "The idols and false notions which are now in possession of the human understanding, and have taken deep root therein, not only so beset men's minds that truth can hardly find entrance, but even after entrance is obtained, they will again in the very insaturation of the sciences meet and trouble us, unless men being forewarned of the danger fortify themselves as far as may be against their assaults. There are four classes of Idols which beset men's minds. To these for distinctions sake I have assigned names, calling the first class the Idols of the Tribe; the second, the Idols of the Cave; the third, Idols of the Market Place; the fourth, Idols of the Theater." "It is not possible to run a course aright when the goal has not been properly placed." "Man, being the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of nature. Beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything." "Human knowledge and human power meet in one." On Newton:  "Nature and nature's laws lay hidden in the night, and God said "let Newton be and there as light." Alexander Pope  "Descartes put us on a road to truth; Newton took us unto the end of that journey." Voltaire  "Nearer to the gods no mortal has come."  OUTLINE  I. Francis Bacon  A. Brief bio B. Cambridge University i) The Aristotelian climate C. Critic of Aristotelianism i) what was wrong with European philosophy a) mixture of religion and natural philosophy b) The mind and its relationship to words, and things c) The need for a "chaste, holy, and legal wedlock" ii) method a) analogies b) The New Organon i) what it is to be human ii) what it is to be Christian iii) Themes of the New Organon; a) Knowledge is power b)Separation of natural philosophy from Theology c) Induction i) vs. Deduction a) the syllogism ii) rejection of authority iii) Progress and cooperation a) vs. Authority iv)The Three kinds of minds a) ants b) spiders c) honey bees D. The New Atlantis E. Summary II. Bacon's philosophy in action: Galileo and Newton A. Galileo i) his observations ii) his conclusions iii) overthrow of Ptolomaic universe a) geocentric universe iv) his trial and condemnation B. Isaac Newton (1642-1727) i) Brief Biography ii) the counter institutions of the seventeenth century a) The Royal Society b) Bacon as hero: origin of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences iii) 1661 entry into Cambridge University a) The Cartesians iv) The Plague year: 1665 a) to Woolsthorpe and the country b) most phenomenal 18 months in human history c) gravitation d) laws of motion e) differential and infinitesimal calculus f) optics g) thermodynamics h) his discoveries still a secret v) 1684: "And God said let Newton be and there was light." a) Halley, Wren, and Hook and the problem of Huyghens b) advice from Newton c) The Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica: 1687 d) seeing into the mind of God vi) appraisals of Newton a) Alexander Pope b) Voltaire c) "Nearer the gods no mortal has approached." d) The Cartesian Appraisal of Newton vii) summary: The Newtonian Revolution