Dr. Vess's World Civilization Virtual Library

The Scientific Revolution

Objectives:

1. Be able to discuss the new outlook of the seventeenth century as compared to that of the western Middle Ages.
2. Be able to explain the discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, and Galileo. Why were these discoveries so revolutionary?
3. Be able to contrast the theories of Copernicus et. al with those of Ptolemy, 2nd century C.E.
4. Be able to discuss the work of Descartes and Bacon, and to explain the impact of these works on European thought in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
5. Be able to discuss the achievements of Isaac Newton and to trace the impact of Newton on our world view today.
6. Be able to discuss the impact of the Scientific Revolution on religion and politics.
Food for Thought:

Famous Quotations:

Finally we shall place the Sun himself at the center of the universe. All this is suggested by the systematic procession of events and the harmony of the whole universe, if only we face facts, as they say, "with both eyes open." Copernicus, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (1543)
If I have seen further [than you and Descartes] it is by standing upon the shoulders of Giants.
Newton, Letter to Robert Hooke, 1675/6
I do not know how I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
Newton, Memoirs of Newton, 1855, vol. II, chapter 27.
It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well. Cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am.) The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt.
Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method
I have taken all knowledge to be my province.
Francis Bacon, Letter to Lord Burleigh, 1592
Knowledge is power.
Bacon, Sacred Meditations
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will begin with dounts, he shall end in certainties.
Bacon, The Advancement of Learning
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.
Ibid.
OUTLINE

I. The concept of Modernity
A. The Breakdown of the old Order: the end of Christendom the growth of secularity
B. the end of superstition: reason and rationality
II. The Age of Genius: The seventeenth century
A. The Scientific outlook
B. contrasted with philosophies and belief systems of the past.
III. The Revolutionary thinkers
A. Nicholas Copernicus On the Revolution of the Heavenly Orbs, 1543
i. the heliocentric theory of the universe
ii. the Ptolemaic conception of the universe
B. Tycho Brahe's observations
C. Johann Kepler -- (1571-1630)
i. Kepler's Laws of Motion:
*elliptical orbits
*planets move faster the closer they approach the sun
*the length of orbit is proportional to the planet's distance from the sun
D. Galileo (1564-1642)
i. Proved the truth of the Copernican model ii. Jupiter's moons and the new emphasis on observation the sun spots
iii. his condemnation by the Church
iv. his vindication by the Church 1992!
E. Isaac Newton -- (1642-1727)
i. synthesized all previous systems
ii. went further than others by explaining the WHY of planetary motion
iii. Universal Gravitation:
*Every body continues in a state of rest, or in a uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed on it.
*The change of motion is proportional to the motive force impressed, and is in the direction of the straight line in which that force is impressed.
*To every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction.
iv. The Impact of Newton: "Nature and nature's laws lay in the might and God said 'let Newton be' and all was light!"
Alexander Pope.
v. the mechanical universe and modern assumptions about life.
vi. the impact of the scientific revolution on religion
IV. The Philosophers
A. Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
i. New Organon and empiricism
ii. the critique of old forms of knowledge:
a. Plato and the forms medieval scholasticism b. deductive logic
ii. his new system -- inductive logic (from specific truths to more general claims)
iii. the emphasis on experience vs. preconceived notions
iv. disciples of Bacon: The Hartlib papers
B. Rene Descartes (1596-1650): works i. problems with our belief systems
ii. the need for a certain foundation upon which the erect our system of knowledge
iii. The Meditations and the Evil Demon
iv. clear and distinct ideas
v. cogito ergo sum -- rationalism
V. The impact of the seventeenth century
A. Baruch Spinoza -- (1632-1677)
i. science emphasized nature, therefore, Spinoza equated nature with God Pantheism
B. Richard Simon's Critical History of the Old Testament the bible as another text
C. Locke's natural rights theory of government
i. The Laws of Nature in politics cause and effect -- checks and balances