THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW OF THE WORLD Part 1 Scientific Revolution Chapter 6 THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW OF THE WORLD Part 1 Scientific Revolution

Scientific Revolution Descartes’ Discourse on Method Montaigne’s Essays Johann Kepler’s Rudolphine Tables Tycho Brahe’s Observations 1543 1572 1580 1620 1627 1632 1637 1687 Galileo’s Discourse Concerning the Two Chief Systems Copernicus’ On the Revolutions of Heavenly Orbs (1543) Bacon’s Norganum Organum Newton’s Principia

Changes in Intellectual Environment Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation man past knowledge as the most reliable source of wisdom Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas Geocentric (Ptolemaic) world 8-10 crystal (hierarchical spheres 4 elements/ 4 humours Great Chain of Being Hierarchical link from God down to insects abstract wisdom would help man turn away from the corruptibility of the earth Enlightenment man rejected ancient authority relied on their own observable intellects Modern Science A fusion of experimental observation & mathematics Heliocentric world Sun-centered World Machine Universe was demystified & worked like a mechanical clock (predictable & understandable, orderly and harmonious saw knowledge as useless unless it could be put to use “the relief of man’s estate”

Prophets of a scientific Civilization The seventeenth century has been called the century of genius. It was the age when science became “modern.” scientific methods of inquiry had been defined. It was the great age of Galileo and Sir Isaac Newton, whose combined lifetimes spanned the century. The fist modern scientific synthesis, or coherent theory of the physical universe, had been presented by Newton. Science was accepted as the main force in the advancement of civilization and progress.

Science before the Seventeenth Century Can we mark the advent of sceince with Leonardo? Anatomy, astronomy, engineer dissected over 30 bodies conceived of circulation of the blood movement of the earth around the sun designed submarines, airplanes BUT didn’t publish anything Isolated genius and did not transmit his ideas to others SCIENCE depends on the transmission of ideas

Science before the Seventeenth Century The scientific view became characteristic of elite European society about the middle of the Seventeenth Century Leonardo da Vinci: the universal genius of the Italian Renaissance, who had been artist, engineer, and scientific thinker all in one.

Witchcraft panic A century after the death of Leonardo da Vinci educated Europeans were by no means scientifically minded. One the one hand there was a great deal of skepticism, a constantly doubting frame of mind. One the other hand, there was also a tendency to over-believe in mysterious, supernatural powers, arising from the same inability to distinguish between true and false. The two centuries from about 1450 to about 1650 were also the period when fear of witches was at its height. The witchcraft panic lasted longest in Germany and central Europe, probably kept alive in the insecurities engendered by the Thirty Year’s War.

Bacon and Descartes 1620 to 1640 Fathers of Scientific Revolution Go beyond skeptics Truth is not postulated from the start and then worked within a paradigm It is something found at the end of long process or investigation, experiment, observation How is truth attained? inductive reasoning proceeding from the particular to the general, from concrete to abstract This ice is cold. All ice is cold. deductive- start with general information and infer specific All apples are fruit. All fruits grow on trees. Therefore all apples grow on trees. True and reliable knowledge exists and can be employed to the benefit of humans In the Center is a bust of the Society's Founder - Charles II Left is William Brouncker- The first President On the Right is Francis Bacon the Inspiration of the Royal Society

Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Novum Organum (New Instrument) (1620) The New Atlantis (1627) championed empiricism- knowledge based on observation and experience wanted people to rid themselves of preconceptions, traditional ideas and look with fresh eyes, use their senses portrayed a scientific utopia: society based on the results of science Inhabitants enjoyed a perfect society through knowledge and control of nature Usefulness of knowledge became main element of Baconian tradition It can be used for practical purposes ex. Weapon are more accurate (science of ballistics) Called on scientist to share their knowledge by recording their experiments and to rid themselves of superstition and religion in science (he called philosophy) Fails to recognize importance of mathematics It proceeds deductively from axioms to theorems Science is both inductive and deductive

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) All knowledge of past should be discarded Considered the inventor of coordinate geometry Any algebraic formula could be plotted as a curve in space and any curve in space could be converted into an algebraic term Knowledge is worthy if it is useful to mankind

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) Discourse on Method (1637) Proposed the principle of systematic doubt 1st rule was “never to receive anything as a truth which he did not clearly know to be such” after doubting everything he realized his mere process of thought confirmed his own existence (I think, therefore I am) (Cogito ergo sum) used this as his starting point and began to reconstruct the universe, the existence of God could not be empirically verified but he believed that nature is so small that it eludes our senses anyway

Descartes Influence Although his system of thought did not reveal any new discoveries it did help disprove errors of ancients Stress on math to pursue science proved invaluable Cartesian Dualism-God created two kinds of reality: Thinking Substance- Mind, spirit, consciousness subjective experience Extended Substance- matter, & everything outside the mind Objective experience

Descartes Influence Mind belonged to man alone Everything else was matter and operated according to physical laws everything else was a machine therefore the entire universe could be understood without the help of religion apparent attribute to matter (sound, light, taste) were subjective impressions of the mind and not subject to science The natural world can be controlled!