Professor Brophy
History 102

The Scientific Revolution
-the new philosophy of nature
- the ancients vs. the moderns
-contextualizing the scientific revolution in early modern period; medieval origins and the twisted path to modern science
-applying science: warfare, navigation, state-building
-medicine:  Galen’s humors (129-c.210) vs. Vesalius’s biology (1514-1564)
-William Harvey’s On the Circulation of Blood (1620)
    The Medieval Cosmos
-geocentric: fixed stars, separate celestial spheres
-Aristotle’s different set of laws guiding earth and heavens: earthly elements vs. celestial perfection
-veneration of Ptolemaic universe; interconnection of Ptolemy and Bible
-scientific inquiry’s relationship to theology: is explaining nature heretical?

The New Science
-The Copernican Revolution:    On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres (1543): proof of heliocentrism; overhauls science of astronomy
-Tycho Brahe (1546-1601): precise measurement and recording of stars
-Johannes Kepler (1571-1630): builds on Brahe’s data to construct laws of planetary motion and elliptical courses: The New Astronomy (1609)

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
-empirical refutation of medieval cosmos
-knowledge derived from observation of nature; The Starry Messenger (1610)
-mechanical physics: reliance on experimentation; the independent value of discovery
- mathematics as universal language: the heavens and all physical nature conform to mathematical laws
-problems with Catholic Church; condemnation by Inquisition in 1633

The New Method
-Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
-The Great Instauration (1620)
-attacks fallacious thinking & slavish reliance on Aristotle; assaults metaphysics
-powerful advocate of experimental science, inductive reasoning, and scientific collaboration
-spurs discussion on new method: hypothesis, observation, generalization from observation, tests of the generalization

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
-two categories of reality: mind and matter
-laws of matter to be mathematically deduced
-deductive reasoning: begin with general principle, move from simple to complex
-the power of abstract reasoning to comprehend world and to intuit “innate ideas”
-Cartesianism: subordination of experimentation to reason

The Newtonian Synthesis
Isaac Newton (1646-1723)
-completion of scientific revolution;
-laws of universal mechanics (motion and gravitation) for earth and heavens
-universe as giant clock; God as clockmaker
-the new world-view: a rational, mechanistic world

Legacies of ‘Scientific Revolution’:
     -shapes modern outlook: a materialist, mechanistic world
    -establishes method for investigating nature and acquiring and advancing knowledge
    -demonstrated power of human mind; new confidence in reason to solve problems
    -spurs rejection of other traditional beliefs