1. The Scientific Revolution
The Scientific Revolution marked the beginning of a dramatic shift in how people viewed the world. The medieval and early modern European outlook had been dominated by religion. As a result of this revolution, many came to see the world predominantly in secular and scientific ways. In the short term, the Scientific Revolution set the stage for the Enlightenment; its long- term repercussions can still be felt today.

2. Essential Questions
What factors in Europe from the 12th century on helped to prepare Europeans and help them make the breakthrough to a modern scientific way of thinking?
Why was the question of the position of the earth and sun in the universe so important in debates about natural science in the late Middle Ages?
In what ways did ancient Greek thinkers like Aristotle, Galen, Ptolemy and others prepare Europeans to make the breakthrough to modern science yet also thwart their efforts to do so somewhat?

3. Essential Questions (continued)
Why are the philosophers Rene Descartes and Francis Bacon seen as key to the development of the scientific method even though neither was actually a scientist?
Why are the contributions of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton often linked together as the key series of contributions that launched the Scientific Revolution?
How did the development of various instruments for making new kinds of observations and measurements contribute to the development of the Scientific Revolution?

4. What Was the Scientific Revolution?
A revolution in human understanding and knowledge about the physical universe
17th century
Began with Kepler, Galileo
Ended with Newton
The Scientific Revolution is generally viewed as a 17th-century phenomenon. Most historians consider it to have started with the astronomical discoveries of individuals like Kepler and Galileo and ended with the publication of Newton’s major works. We will describe these “bookends” of the Scientific Revolution in greater detail later in this discussion.

5. “Science” Before the Scientific Revolution
Based almost entirely on reasoning
Experimental method or observation wasn’t used at all
Science in medieval times
Alchemy
Astrology
More than anything else, science is a habit of mind. It involves using reason, observation, testing, and systematic thought to uncover truths about the world and about people, animals, and things in the world. “Science” as we know it today didn’t really exist before the Scientific Revolution. Instead, scientists in ancient and medieval times were really philosophers who drew conclusions based on deductive reasoning; they rarely conducted practical experiments.
Much of what was considered “science” in medieval times had very little basis in fact and drew more from superstition and religious belief. Similar in many ways to chemistry, alchemy aimed to develop potions that would do things such as change iron into gold, cure all disease, or bestow immortality. Astrology was based on the concept that the positions and conditions of celestial bodies could influence human existence, both positively and negatively. Practitioners of astrology would often claim that human suffering (including sickness) could be explained by the position of the stars.
A medieval alchemist

6. Factors Leading to the Scientific Revolution
Rise of universities
Contact with non-Western societies
The Renaissance
Exploration
A number of factors helped lay the groundwork for the Scientific Revolution:
The first universities appeared during the Middle Ages. Although universities initially focused primarily on topics like law and philosophy, they gradually expanded their offerings and came to establish professorships in areas such as mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and other science-related disciplines. Universities brought together leading scientific minds, encouraged intellectual debate, and sparked interest in research and discovery.
Muslim scholars of the Middle Ages made several important mathematical and scientific discoveries. During the 12th and 13th centuries, both the Crusades and the expansion of trade networks brought Europeans into greater contact with Muslim societies. Both cultural and intellectual exchanges occurred; this infusion of new ideas helped improve Europeans’ understanding of mathematical principles in particular and of science in general.
As the Renaissance dawned and inspired advances in art and literature, educated Europeans began to look beyond the church and the Bible for knowledge and truth. In addition to serving as patrons of the arts, wealthy families such as the Medicis in Italy also supported scientific research.
The Age of Exploration also provided impetus for the Scientific Revolution. The challenges of navigating across the Atlantic Ocean and around Africa motivated advances in mathematics, astronomy, and cartography (mapping). European monarchs interested in expanding their overseas empires (including King John of Portugal, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, and Queen Elizabeth I and King Charles II of England) provided funding and/or support for scientific research.

7. Rationalism Reason, not tradition, is the source of all knowledge
René Descartes (1596–1650)
French philosopher and mathematician
Cogito ergo sum (“I think, therefore, I am”)
Deductive reasoning
The philosophy of rationalism holds that all knowledge comes from reason. René Descartes was one of the most important philosophers and mathematicians of his time; many regard him as the father of modern rationalism. In Discourse on Method and The Meditations, he reasoned that all of his prior knowledge was subject to doubt because it was based on traditional beliefs rather than on reason. He pondered what he could honestly say he knew to be true, going so far as to doubt whether he was awake or dreaming—or if he even existed. He then began to reconstruct his world view: he knew that his thoughts existed, which then suggested the existence of a thinking being— himself. Descartes then came to his famous conclusion, “Cogito ergo sum,” which means “I think, therefore, I am.”
Descartes’ conclusions were based on deductive reasoning, which involves using a general principle to draw conclusions about a specific instance. For example, once he had come up with Cogito ergo sum, he used it to draw a further conclusion: because the mind “cannot be doubted but the body and material world can, the two must be radically different.” In other words, Descartes drew a clear distinction between mind and matter—an idea that helped break down superstitions that had influenced science in the medieval era.
René Descartes

8. Empiricism
The belief that experience is the only true source of knowledge
Roger Bacon
Shift toward empiricism a hallmark of the Scientific Revolution
Helped lead to the development of the scientific method
The philosophy of empiricism holds that the only real way to acquire knowledge is through experience—that is to say, through observation. Empiricism stands in opposition to rationalism, which holds that knowledge could be acquired through the exercise of one’s reason alone. Some of the first writings on empiricism came in the 13th century from Roger Bacon, an English scholar. In his work Opus Maius, Bacon wrote, “There are two modes of knowledge, through argument and experience. ‘Argument’ brings conclusions and compels us to concede them, but it does not cause certainty nor remove doubt in order that the mind may remain at rest in truth, unless this is provided by experience.”
One of the hallmarks of the Scientific Revolution was the new focus on empiricism. Empiricism also helped lead to the development of the scientific method.
Roger Bacon

9. Francis Bacon and the Scientific Method
1561–1626
English philosopher and empiricist
Inductive reasoning
Argued for experimental methodology
English philosopher Sir Francis Bacon laid the theoretical groundwork for what became known as the scientific method. His ideas about science incorporated what is known as inductive reasoning, which involves using concrete facts to extrapolate broader conclusions. (Inductive reasoning is the opposite of deductive reasoning.) Bacon argued that scientists should work from the specific (observable data) to the general (rules and theories based on that data). He believed that all scientific research should rely on careful observation and experimentation rather than simply relying on one’s own thought and reasoning, as earlier scientific thinkers had. The data obtained should then be recorded and analyzed according to logic and reason, then used to produce a testable hypothesis.

10. Science as a multiple-step process:
The Scientific Method
Science as a multiple-step process:
1. Observe an object or phenomenon
2. Develop a theory that explains the object or phenomenon
3. Test the theory with experiments