Scientific Revolution

1600-1750

Ptolemaic Geocentric Universe

Heliocentric Universe

• The following scientists proposed the heliocentric theory to replace the geocentric theory– Copernicus (Poland), On the Revolution of the

Heavenly Spheres (1543)– Kepler (Germany): elliptical motion of planets– Galileo (Italy): his telescope proves heliocentric

theory (“But it does move!”)

Heliocentric Universe

Elliptical Motion

Galileo and Milton

Methods of Reasoning

• Inductive: empirical evidence leads to axioms: Bacon and Locke (English tradition)

• Deductive: general premises lead to particular truths: Descartes (French tradition)

English Garden

French Garden

Inductive Reasoning

Bacon and Locke

Francis Bacon, Novum Organum (1620)

• Points out four Idols or “false notions” that corrupt our reasoning– Idols of the Tribe– Idols of the Cave– Idols of the Marketplace– Idols of the Theatre

Bacon: Idols of the Tribe

• False notions based in “human nature itself”

– “a false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things”

– “the human understanding is like a false mirror” (585)

Bacon: Idols of the Cave

• False notions that come from an individual’s:– “own proper and peculiar nature”– “education and conversation with others”– “reading of books”– “authority of those he admires”– “impressions” dependent on the mind’s nature– Etc. (585)

Bacon: Idols of the Marketplace

• False notions coming from “the intercourse and association of men” through “discourse”

– “the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding” (585)

Bacon: Idols of the Theatre

• False notions coming from “various dogmas of philosophies, and also from wrong laws of demonstration” (585)– Philosophies, both old and new– Scientific principles received uncritically

Which Idol is it?

• Galileo claims that the earth is revolving around the sun. However, many people criticize his idea because they see the sun move across the sky during the day. Therefore, they say, the sun is obviously moving around the earth. These people are confused by the Idols of the __________.

Which Idol is it?

• Galileo claims that the earth is revolving around the sun. However, many people criticize his idea because they see the sun move across the sky during the day. Therefore, they say, the sun is obviously moving around the earth. These people are confused by the Idols of the Tribe.

Which Idol is it?

• As a boy, King Rex of Country Y once lost a game of cards to a courtier with red hair, and he suspected the courtier of cheating. Even since then, he has not trusted red-haired people: people with red hair are not allowed to serve in the court. King Rex is suffering from a bad case of the Idols of the

__________________.

Which Idol is it?

• As a boy, King Rex of Country Y once lost a game of cards to a courtier with red hair, and he suspected the courtier of cheating. Even since then, he has not trusted red-haired people: people with red hair are not allowed to serve in the court. King Rex is suffering from a bad case of the Idols of the

Cave.

Which Idol is it?

• Aquinas reasoned that woman is inferior to man because, according to Aristotle, the male sperm ideally forms a male offspring, and female gender results from some defect in the reproduction process. Aquinas shows signs of Bacon’s Idols of the __________.

Which Idol is it?

• Aquinas reasoned that woman is inferior to man because, according to the great philosopher Aristotle, the male sperm ideally forms a male offspring, and female gender results from some defect in the reproduction process. Aquinas shows signs of Bacon’s Idols of the Theatre.

Which Idol is it?

• The Aztecs often talked about “a great white god” that would come and rule over them. So, when Cortez arrived with his men, they believed that this white man was the great white god. The Aztecs were confused by the Idols of the ____________.

Which Idol is it?

• The Aztecs often talked about “a great white god” that would come and rule over them. So, when Cortez arrived with his men, they believed that this white man was the great white god. The Aztecs were confused by the Idols of the Marketplace.

John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)

• At birth, the mind is a “white paper” (tabula rasa, “blank slate”). How does this blank slate get written on?

• The answer: experience. Two kinds:– Sensation– Reflection

Locke: Sensation

• The senses “from external objects convey into the mind what produces there those perceptions” – “yellow, white, heat, cold, soft, hard, bitter,

sweet” (589)

Locke: Reflection

• “the perception of the operation of our own mind within us, as it is employed about the ideas it has got”– “perception, thinking, doubting, believing, reas

oning, knowing, willing, and all the different actings of our minds” (589)

Deductive Reasoning

Descartes

Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method (1637)

• Decides to reject anything he can’t be certain of:– He rejects sense perceptions because the senses

can deceive– He rejects thoughts because thoughts can be

unreal (for example, dreams)

Descartes

• Even though he can’t trust his thoughts, he concludes that there must be an “I” doing the thinking.

• He arrives at the following as his “first principle”: “I think, therefore I am” (“Cogito, ergo sum”)

Cartesian dualism

• By basing existence on thinking rather than sense perception, Descartes separates the mind from the body

• He identifies the self (“I”) with the mind rather than the body; the self is “a substance the whole essence or nature of which is to think” (587)

• The soul is totally separate from the body

Descartes: How do we know anything is true?

• “the things which we conceive very clearly and distinctly are all true” (587, italics added)

Descartes’ Idea of God

• I have doubts, therefore I can conceive of a more perfect knowledge with no doubts

• This more perfect knowledge must come from a more perfect nature– Thoughts about external things equal to me

must come from inside me, if true; or from nothing, if false

– Thoughts about something more perfect than me must come from a more perfect being, God

Deism

• The new “natural” religion of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment (Descartes, Newton, etc.)

• God is a clockmaker—the “master mechanic”—who built the “World-Machine” then stepped aside to let run

• No ritual, no miracles, no myth • God = Reason

17th. Cent. Dutch Painting

• Empiricism and detail; precision– Camera obscura

• Light and space– Sense of space beyond the picture

• Secular focus: funded by middle class commerce

Vermeer

TheGeographer

(c. 1668)

De Hooch

A DutchCourtyard

(1658-60)

Ter Borch

The Suitor’sVisit

(c. 1658)

Vermeer

Woman HoldingaBalance

(c. 1664)

Vermeer, View of Delft (1658)

De Hooch

A DutchCourtyard

(1658-60)