History 311

THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONPart III

Francis Bacon1561 - 1626

Novum Organum, 1610

The Four Idols:

The TribeThe CaveThe MarketplaceThe Theater

Bacon and the Four Idols

Idols of the Tribe – Human Tendency to Fall in Love with a Dogma

Idols of the Cave – Excessive Importance Given to Personal Experience; the idol of personal bias

Idols of the Marketplace – The Fallacy of the catch word or unexamined vocabulary

Idols of the Theater – The Fallacy of Theorists to spin seductive theories; plausible but fictitious systems

Title Page from Bacon’s

The Great Instauration

Published 1620

Rene´ Descartes1596 - 1650

Discourse on Method,1637

The Cartesian Method

• Systematic Doubt• Clear and Distinct Ideas

MAN

GOD

Nature Essentiall

y Qualitativ

e

Teleological View of World

AsGreat Chain of

Being

CARTESIAN RATIONALISM

Systematic or Hyperbolic Doubt Deductive Argument from First

Principles– Cogito, ergo sum

Cartesian Dualism– Res extensa - Res cogitans

Physical Universe

Size, ShapeMotion, Rest

Thinking Universe

Soul

Math as Bridge

The first was never to accept anything as true if I did not have evident knowledge of its truth; that is, carefully to avoid precipitate conclusions and preconceptions, and to include nothing more in my judgments than what presented itself to my mind so clearly and distinctly that I had no occasion to doubt it.

The second, to divide each of the difficulties I examined into as many parts as possible and as may be required in order to resolve them better.

The third, to direct my thoughts in an orderly manner, by beginning with the simplest and most easily known objects in order to ascend little by little, step by step, to knowledge of the most complex, and by supposing some order even among objects that have no natural order of precedence.

And the last, throughout to make enumerations so complete, and reviews so comprehensive, that I could be sure of leaving nothing out.

1. We have an idea of that which has infinite perfection.

2. The idea we have of ourselves entails finitude and imperfection.

3. According to the principle of sufficient reason, there must be as much reality (formally or eminently) in the cause of any idea as (objectively) in the idea itself.

4. Therefore, the idea we have of infinite perfection originated from a being with infinite formal perfection.

5. It follows that the idea could not have originated in ourselves or our ideas of ourselves.

6. The origin of the idea could only be the real existence of the infinite being that we call God.

CARTESIAN RATIONALISM

Systematic Doubt Deductive Argument from First

Principles– Cogito, ergo sum

Cartesian Dualism– Res extensa - Res cogitans

Physical Universe

Size, ShapeMotion, Rest

Thinking Universe

Soul

Math as Bridge

Type: Objects Properties

Secondary Objects of Sense

hardness, heat, light, odor, color, taste, sound

Primary Objects of Mathematics

quantity, shape, time, magnitude

God as

First Cause

Nature As

EssentiallyQuantitative

HumanSoul

Cartesian DualismAnd

Modern Worldview

Descartes

“Man as machine”

“The Clock Metaphor”

Shapin, pp. 32-37

Anton Van Leeuwenhoek1632-1723 

Develops an early Microscope

Robert Hooke1635-1703

Robert Boyle1627-1691

Boyle’s Air PumpCorpuscular Theory of Matter

God as

First Cause

Nature As

EssentiallyQuantitative

Man as

Soul

Cartesian DualismAnd

Modern Worldview

Benedict de Spinoza1632-1678

Theological-Political Treatise1670

Influenced by Cartesian Rationalism

Rejects Cartesian Dualism

Theory of “Monism”; equates GodAnd Nature

Sir Isaac Newton, 1642-1727

Title Page ofPrincipia,

1687

Newton’s Three Laws of Motion

Every body perseveres in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by force impressed

The rate of change of momentum of a body

is proportional to the resultant force acting on the body and is in the same direction

For every action force there is an equal, but opposite, reaction force

Sir Isaac Newton, 1642-1727

Principia, 1687

Newtonian Worldview

• One universal, mathematical law explains all motion in universe

• World of nature open to human investigation and knowledge

• Mechanical view of nature• Orderly, regulated, uniform• Machine operates by natural laws

• Natural Laws can be Known by Man

MAN

GOD

Nature Essentiall

y Qualitativ

e

Teleological View of World

AsGreat Chain of

Being

TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE

ARTS & CRAFTS KNOWLEDGE-TRUTH

PRACTICAL/MATERIALWORLD

WORLD OF SUBSTANCEPHILOSOPHY/THEOLOGY

QUANTITATIVEMECHANISTIC

QUALITATIVESPIRITUAL/SOUL

ANCIENT WORLD

CHRISTIANMEDIEVAL

SCIENTIFICREVOLUTION

PHYSICAL UNIVERSE QUANTITATIVE/MATHEMATICALLY STRUCTURED & MECHANISTIC

MATHEMATICS IS BRIDGE FROM HUMAN SOUL/MIND TO KNOWLEDGE OF REALITY

God as

First Cause

Nature As

EssentiallyQuantitative

Man as

Soul

Cartesian DualismAnd

Modern Worldview