The Scientific Revolution

1. The Scientific Revolution The Scientific Revolution was a product of the Renaissance and influenced by Reformation.

2. The Major Players Copernicus (1473-1543) Vesalius (1514-1564) Bacon (1561-1626) Galileo (1564-1642) Kepler (1571-1630) Harvey (1578-1657) Descartes (1596-1650) Boyle (1627-1691) Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) Newton (1642-1727)

3. The transformation of medieval universities during the Renaissance included the study of natural philosophy: mathematics, astronomy, and physics • Scientists like Galileo and Newton were university professors, working in a community of scholars • The Renaissance brought to light Greek mathematical texts, which helped improve European mathematics • Many Renaissance patrons supported scientists. • Navigational needs, such as the calculation of latitude for long distance travel, prompted technological advancements useful for sea travel and other important scientific instruments • The telescope, pendulum clock, microscope, and air pump, among others

4. Positive Impact of Religion • Protestantism may have fostered scientific thinking in that it made scientific work a matter of conscience and not of faith. • Some Protestant countries like England, Denmark, and Holland typically encouraged science and, with their interest in international trade, promoted technological innovation. • The independence of science from religion was promoted during the English Revolution

5. The Scientific Method • Francis Bacon & Rene Descartes, with different views, helped to developed the scientific method of forming a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis with observation and/or experiment, and drawing conclusions. • Bacon advocated experimental research and the inductive way of reasoning, meaning that general truths are drawn from many empirical facts. • Empirical truths are ones that can be confirmed through the senses. • Descartes was a mathematician who developed analytical geometry, bringing together algebra and geometry. • Favored deductive reasoning- going from the general to the specific • Cartesian dualism: There were only two types of substances, matter and mind, or the physical and the spiritual.

6. New ideas in science based on observation, experimentation, and mathematics challenged classical views of the cosmos, nature and the human body, although folk traditions of knowledge and the universe persisted. • New ideas and methods in astronomy led individuals such as Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton to question the authority of the ancients and religion and to develop a heliocentric view of the cosmos. • Anatomical and medical discoveries by physicians, including William Harvey presented the body as an integral system, challenging the traditional humoral theory of the body and of diseases espoused by Galen. • Alchemy and astrology continued to appeal to elites and some natural philosophers, in part because they shared with the new science the notion of a predictable and knowable universe. • In the oral cultural of peasants, a belief that the cosmos was governor by divine and demonic forces persisted.