Scientific Revolution Objective: Explain how the Scientific Revolution challenged peoples’ view of the world

Scientific Revolution  The Enlightenment grew out of the scientific revolution, an intellectual movement that emphasized studying the natural world and the heavens (space) rather than blindly accepting old ideas about these subjects.

Center 0f the Universe ???  Most Europeans believe the theory of the universe as described by Ptolemy (Second Century A.D.). He stated that the earth was the center of the universe.  By the 1500s and 1600s, scientists began to question this commonly held belief.  The first, Nicolas Copernicus, who developed a theory that the sun was the center of the universe and the earth and other heavenly bodies (planets) revolved around it.  Galileo Galilei built the first telescope. Through it, he saw that the planets did indeed revolve around the sun.

Significance  The discovery contradicted the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, a major power in Western Europe.

Development of the Scientific Method  Early 1600s  Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes began to devise new methods of explaining the natural world.  The result was the development of the scientific method—the study of the natural world by means of direct observation and experimentation.  This method enabled the English scientist Isaac Newton to develop a theory of gravity.

Significance  The principles of the scientific method were soon applied to the study of human behavior.  People began to use reason rather than faith to answer questions about human nature and society.  This way of thinking was so strong an influence on all kinds of intellectual activity in the 1700s that the period became known as the Age of Reason.