The Scientific Revolution: circa Late 16th Century - 18th Century.

The scientific discoveries of the 16th - 17th centuries brought upon a fundamental change in the ways Europeans viewed the natural world. It had significant implications in areas such as political and religious thought. Why did the Scientific Revolution occurred? Look: The period of exploration led to discovery of new plants and animals and encouraged great interest in the natural sciences, and there was also a new interest in navigation and astronomy. Thanks to the Printing Press, scientific knowledge spread more rapidly at that time than at any other time in previous history. The constant warfare between the various nation-states may have pushed scientific development because they wanted to have new technologies. The Protestant Reformation also pushed the revolution since it created a larger reading public, and Luther and Calvin's opposition to Rome provided an example of challenging established authority. Lastly, Renaissance Humanism contributed to it.

Medieval View Prior to the Revolution: Christian Theology was associated with scientific beliefs of the ancient authors. One of the followers of this was Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). In the middle ages, the main purpose of science was that it offered a possibility of a better understanding of the working's of God. They thought that material world (thanks to Aristotle) was made up of four element: earth, air, fire and water. This notion of four elements gave rise to the idea of alchemy. The 4 elements combined in the human body to create the four humours: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. People in the middle ages, followed the teaching of the Greek astronomer, Ptolemy (c.85 - 165 AD). The Ptolemaic system put the earth in the center of everything. Later on epicycles were added to the system. Nobody contested this system starting until...

In 1534 Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) wrote Concerning the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres. Yet he was afraid of what he wrote because he didn't want to piss off the Church. After many years he decided to finally publish it, and Copernicus cautiously dedicated the book to Pope Paul III. This book would only solve some of the problems concerning the epicycles of the Ptolemaic system.

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) tried to come up with different ideas, yet he kept the earth at the center. Brahe's system: moon and sun revolve around the earth, every other planet revolves around the sun. His student Johannes Kepler would use Brahe's calculations and come up with the idea that planets moved elliptically.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Designed telescope that magnified to 30x than that of the naked eye. Saw that moon had mountainous regions like that of the earth, thus Galileo thought that both were composed of similar material. Also got information that posed challenges to the Catholic Church-backed Ptolemaic System. Wrote Dialogues on the Two Chief Systems of the World (1632). The Catholic Church got mad. After Galileo wrote another book, the Pope Urban VIII, placed him under house arrest. The thing is that unlike Copernicus, Brahe, and Kepler, Galileo lived in Italy. Thus it was far harder for him to pose a challenge to the Church.

Greatest person of the Scientific Revolution. Isaac Newton (1642-1727), put the works of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo together (explain planetary motion) and tried to solve the dilemma. He worked for almost 20 years before he published his findings in Principia in the year 1687. After the apple hit him across the head, he came up with gravity. Newton is the father of differential calculus (A course that I would never take in my right mind!)

Contributed experimental methodology. Attacked scholasticism. Inductive Reasoning - go from specific to general.

Descartes (1596-1650) believed in Deductive Reasoning - go from general to specific. Famous Quote: "I think therefore I am." Invented analytical mathematics. Wrote Discourse on Method, reduced nature to mind and matter.

Hobbes (1588-1679). Knew most of the people above mentioned. Was horrified at the turmoil of the English Revolution (Remember Cromwell), and in Leviathan said that life was "nasty, brutish, and short." Called for absolutism.

Locke (1632 - 1704) wrote Two Treatises on Government, written before the Glorious Revolution. The founders of the U.S. looked as this as a sort of guide to their experiment. Locke: man is born free in nature. Because man is free and rational entity, he has a contract with the state in which he does not give up his inalienable rights of life, liberty, and property. Should an oppressive gov't challenge those rights, then man should rebel.