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

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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