scientific revolution: 1550-1750

Scientific Revolution: 1550-1750

What was it?

1. A time of major change in Europe, in which people made decisions based on careful observation, and they questioned old ideas.

Why did it happen when it did?1. Church was challenged in Reformation. People were open to question old ideas.

2. Renaissance emphasis on Greeks (Plato and others) revealed contradictions with Aristotle (darling of the medieval church) and others already challenged in the Reformation.

3. Also, emphasis on math and science in desire to

imitate nature.

Changes in ideas of the Universe

Old View--Geocentric1. Earth was motionless and at the center of the universe.2. 10 transparent spheres; heaven after the 10th. 2. Different physical laws applied to the earth and outer space.3. Aristotle and Ptolemy both supported this theory.4. Fits with church belief that God made the earth as a special place for mankind.

Ptolemaic universe

Then there was a Revolution

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)

1. Polish clergyman and astronomer.2. Published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies--challenged geocentric view just before he died.3. Still accepted Aristotle’s concept of spheres.

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are needed to see this picture.

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)

1. Dane who studied extensively the stars on his own island.(had part of his nose cut off in a swordfight)2. Doubted Ptolemy but couldn’t accept Copernicus.3. Eventually moved to Prague and took on an apprentice named…



Check out the nose. Also had a pet moose.



Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)1. Took Copernicus’s ideas from logic to observation. 2. Used Brahe’s data on planetary motion to determine three laws of planetary motion– 1. orbits are elliptical, not

circular– 2. Planets move more rapidly as

they approach the sun (against Aristotle and Copernicus here).

– 3. Time a planet takes to orbit the sun varies based on distance from the sun. (earth 365 days, mercury 88)

But what kept planets in their orbits? Why didn’t they crash into the sun?

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)1. Italian scientist who used controlled experiments to formulate laws of motion and inertia that were expressed in math formulas.2. One of the first to use a telescope. Heavenly bodies weren’t perfect!--craters, sun spots, four moons around Jupiter, etc.3. Supported Heliocentric view.4. Pope Urban VII forced him to recant.

Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany (1615)

Written to address the conflict between the Bible and heliocentric theory

Argued that the Bible must be interpreted in light of scientific knowledge

Argued for a non-literal interpretation of the Bible

Galileo declared the Bible teaches how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go

The letter began Galileo’s troubles with the Catholic Church



Starry Messenger 1610

Revealed the flaws of the heavenly bodies: craters, sun spots, extra moons, etc.QuickTime™ and a

TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.

Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems (1632)

This book showed his true acceptance of the heliocentric view of the universe. He was called to the Inquisition and forced to recant.Science, as preached by Galileo, became a threat, and scientists looked to Protestant countries to study, publish and work, to the benefit of Northern Europe



1. Galileo made two contributions to the problem of motion– 1. Objects move at

accelerated speed if a uniform force is applied

– 2. Principle of inertia--a body in motion continues forever unless deflected by something else.

– But why were there changes in motion?

Isaac Newton--Mathematical Principals of Natural Philosophy

1. Principia--1687--combined Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, Galileo’s laws of inertia and falling bodies, and Newton’s own idea of gravitation.2. Described earthly and heavenly motion



Newton’s Universe1. Universe was created by God and governed by laws that we could discover2. Law of universal of gravitation--All objects are attracted to each other.1. Every object continues in a sate of rest or motion unless deflected2. The rate of change of motion of an object is proportional to the force acting on it.3. To every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Ike’s other contributions

Calculus (mathematical means of calculating rates of change), along with Gottfried Leibniz

Composition of light

Universal gravitation– The universe was one

huge regulated, uniform machine that operated in absolute time, space and motion

The medieval picture of the universe as closed, earthbound and earth-centered was replaced by a universe seen to be infinite and governed by universal laws.

But what of God’s role? For Newton, this, “can be the effect of nothing else than the wisdom and skill of a powerful, ever-living agent.”

Newton disproved once and for all Aristotle’s idea that two different laws governed the earth and the heavens.

Medicine and Chemistry

1. Old View--Galen--4 humors

2. Two separate blood systems: muscular and digestive.



Medicine and Chemistry--New Views Paracelcus (Philippus von Hohenheim (1493-1541)

1.--macro-microcosmic view of nature and chemical philosophy. 2. Against Galen. Not 4 humors and imbalance. Rather chemical imbalances.Like-like remedies.3. Father of modern medicine or homeopathy?



Andreas Vesalius (1514-64)

On the Fabric of the Human Body (1543)

Actually dissected humans

Blood flows from the heart

Father of modern human anatomy



William Harvey (1578-1657)

On the Motion of the Heart and Blood (1628)Destroyed Galen--heart rather than liver originated blood circulationSame blood flows in arteries and veins in a circle. Charles I’s personal physician.



Women in Science

Margaret Cavendish

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Cavendish’s Ideas

Especially critical of the growing belief that through science, humans could be masters of nature.

Felt that man was just a small part of nature

Maria Merian



Entomology



The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam



Maria Winkelmann



Winkelmann--Astronomy

Women not allowed in universities.

Educated in astronomy by father, uncle, and another self-taught astronomer

Became an assistant at the observatory at Berlin Academy of Science (husband=foremost German astronomer)

She made original contributions (comet)

Alas…

When she applied for a position at the university, she was denied. – “mouths would gape,” they said.

Barriers…

Women excluded from university study

Women excluded from science societies until the 20th century

Querelles des Femmes(arguments about women)

Women portrayed as: inherently base, prone to vice, easily swayed, and “sexually insatiable”

Men felt they needed to control these “out of control” women. (huh??!?)

Learned women were seen as somehow overcoming their natural tendencies and to be more like men.

“You’d hardly believe this was written by a woman.”

Women Argued…

That they were every bit as rational as men were.

That they were in fact, temperate, chaste, and pious (therefore, did not need to be “controlled”)

Even with all the progress…Science was used against women.

Biological differences were seen as weaknesses for women

Women meant to be mothers

Science “proved” male dominance

Scientific revolution reaffirmed the traditional gender roles….sigh…

Scientific Revolution

With all these breakthroughs in science, people started to realize that we could learn more about ourselves and our universe through study and reasoning, rather than by simply relying on past ideas. This was the “revolution” in thinking. With this revolution came a new method of figuring things out, the…

Scientific Method--procedure for gathering and testing

ideas.

Characteristics of the Scientific Method

1. Belief in regular patterns in nature

2. Use of controlled experiments

3. Search for mathematical formulas to explain nature.



There are two basic schools of discovery and thought

1. The Empiricists use Inductive Reasoning: Discovering/observing physical information and data and arriving at a general conclusion.

2. Rationalists. Used logic and thinking to arrive at conclusions using deductive reasoning: moving from general ideas to more specific conclusions

Which is deductive and which is inductive?

1. Mr. Gnass is mortal

2. Socrates is mortal.

3. Charles I was definitely mortal

Therefore:

Yep, sorry folks, but all humans are mortal.

1. All men are mortal.

2. Mr. Gnass is a man

Therefore:

Yep, Mr. Gnass is mortal.

Fun!!!!!!!!!

Now let’s guess who was a rationalist and who was an empiricist!!

I never thought history could be so fun!



Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)1. Father of the scientific method that you use in…science; urged people to experiment.2. Advocated the ______ method (moving from specific data to general conclusions).3.Controlled experimentation could lead to the formulation of universal principles of science.



Rene Descartes (1596-1650)1. Used logic and thinking rather than experimentation to come up with new ideas. Used a method of reasoning (going from the general to the specific).2. Began by doubting all notions based on authority or custom (even his own existence). Started with a self-evident axiom or truth and used logical reasoning“cogito ergo sum”

What’s this?

Cartesian dualism--

Mind and body split.

The mind is a res cogitans (thinking thing).



Who’s the rationalist and who’s the empiricist?

Importance of the Scientific Revolution

1. Unheard of confidence in the ability of the human mind. 2. Old ideas were out, as was unquestioned obedience to church thinking. Old institutions/ideas could be questioned.3. God resembled a masterful clock maker. His laws were ours to understand4. The belief in progress through scientific discovery was born!

Beginning of the Enlightenment

1. As people began to figure things out in the world, they also began to think of the limitless potential of humans and new ideas of government. All this would continue to take place in the Enlightenment.



scientific revolution: 1550-1750

Documents

heliocentric view

old ideas

laws of motion

universeold view

geocentric view

copernicuss ideas

laws of planetary motion1

heavenly bodies werent