The Scientific Revolution

Global Studies 9Mrs. Hart, Mrs. Costello, Mrs. Suto,

and Ms. Soddano

The Scientific Revolution The Scientific Revolution was the time period in history

when modern science emerged. It was characterized by a major change in thinking about the world, influenced strongly by the Renaissance.

Scientists began to question the old ideas about the world and to challenge the teachings of the Catholic Church and the theories of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernius was a Polish scientist who challenged the belief that the Earth was the center of the universe. Using mathematical formulas, he proposed that the universe was heliocentric or sun-centered. He believed that the planets revolved around the sun.

Galileo Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer who helped to prove

Copernicus’s heliocentric theory of the universe by using a telescope he had built.

This angered the Catholic Church because it went against their teachings that the Earth was the center of the universe. The Church put Galileo on trial and forced him to publically take back his ideas.

Sir Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton used mathematics to prove the existence of a force that kept planets in their orbits. He called the force gravity.

The Scientific Method

By the 1600s a new approach to science had emerged based on experimentation and observation. This new way of thinking was called the scientific method.

Rene Descartes and Human Reasoning

Descartes was a Frenchman who emphasized the power of human reasoning, a process of thinking carefully about something in order to make a judgment. He believed that reason, rather than tradition, should be the way to discover truth.

Science and the Enlightenment

During the Scientific Revolution, scientists used reason to explain why things happened in the universe. By the early 1700, writers and philosophers sought to use reason to discover natural laws, or laws that govern human behavior. Using investigation and observation, scholars thought they could solve the problems of society.

The Enlightenment From this way of thinking

came the Enlightenment, the period in the 1700s in which people rejected traditional ideas and supported a belief in human reason. The belief that human reason can lead to truth is called rationalism. The Enlightenment led to new ways of viewing authority, power, government, and law.

Enlightenment Thinkers