© 2010, TESCCC

Scientific Revolution

© 2010, TESCCC

Why did it start?

• It started with the Renaissance!

– A new secular, critical thinking man began to

look at the world around him.

– New Greek resources were available that

expanded on the Latin resources that learning

was based

– The weakening of the Church’s

intellectual/scientific control of thinking.

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“The Star Gazers”

Men who studied the heavens

© 2010, TESCCC

Ptolemy

• 2nd Century Roman Astronomer

• Geocentric world view (Earth Centered)

– Series of concentric spheres surrounding a

motionless earth

• Christianity shaped its view of heaven to

correspond to Ptolemy’s world view

– Heaven above the outer sphere and Hell in

the interior of earth.

© 2010, TESCCC

Nicholas Copernicus

• Polish astronomer

• 1543

• On the Revolutions of the Heavenly

Spheres

• Concluded that the sun is the center of our

solar system, or Heliocentric world

• The earth is merely one of several planets

revolving about the sun.

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Johannes Kepler

• German Astronomer & Mathematician

• Kepler used math to prove and extend the

ideas of Copernicus

• Determined that the planets follow an

elliptical, not a circular, orbit in revolving

about the sun.

• Helped explain the paths followed by

human-made satellites today.

© 2010, TESCCC

Galileo Galilei

• Italian Astronomer and Physicist

• First to use a telescope to study the heavens; discovered the moons of Jupiter and mountains on the moon; – Shows that the universe was made of the same

material

• Demonstrated the law of falling bodies and greatly improved the telescope

• Did the most to bring the heliocentric conception of the universe to the world

© 2010, TESCCC

Galileo and the Church

• The Church took a stand against the

Copernican idea and brought Galileo to

Rome for a trial in 1610

• Faced with the choice of recanting his

beliefs or execution, Galileo chose to

recant and abandoned his studies of the

heavens.

© 2010, TESCCC

The Thinkers

© 2010, TESCCC

Isaac Newton – English mathematician, astronomer, and physicist

– Principles of Natural Philosophy or Principia 1642

– Invented calculus

– Discovered laws of light and color

– Formulated the laws of motion • Objects are in a state of rest or motion in a straight line;

• Rate of change is proportional to the forces acting on it;

• For every action is a opposite and equal reaction;

– Law of gravitation, which explains why the heavens are in motion

– World as a machine view of natural laws!

© 2010, TESCCC

Francis Bacon

• Lawyer from England

• Concept of inductive, experimental

thinking

• He popularized the new scientific method

of observation and experimentation.

• English Royal Society: Meetings of

scientist who share ideas.

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Rene Descartes

• French Scientist, Mathematician, and philosopher

• Discourse on Method 1637

• Cartesian Dualism: Separation of Mind and Body - father of Rationalism

• Discovered laws of optics and is considered the founder of analytic geometry.

• Doubt everything; all must be proven

– “I think, therefore, I am.”

© 2010, TESCCC

Studying the Body and the World

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Vesalius

Flemish Physician

• On the Fabric of the Human Body

(1543)

• Undertook dissections of the human

body as a professor of surgery

• Founded the science of anatomy

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William Harvey

• English Physician, demonstrated that

blood circulates through the body

• On the Motion of the Heart and Blood

(1628)

• Disproved the Greek Galen’s theories that

had been held for 1500 years.

© 2010, TESCCC

Leeuwenhoek

• Dutch naturalist

• Perfected the microscope and the study of

micro-organisms.

© 2010, TESCCC

What was the Impact of the

Scientific Revolution on:

• Philosophy: Enlightenment and ideas on

government

• Religion: the Church, rather than embracing the

ideas created a conflict between faith and

science;

• World: challenged traditional beliefs about the

organization of society, application of science to

solve problems in society