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New Directions in Thought And Culture in the 16 th & 17 th Cs. Overview. Sweeping change in scientific thought in the 16 th & 17 th Cs New ways of looking at astronomy, physics, anatomy
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Overview • Sweeping change in scientific thought in the 16th & 17th Cs • New ways of looking at astronomy, physics, anatomy • These new ideas challenged the traditionally theological and superstitious approach to explaining phenomena of the universe. • The Scientific Revolution is rooted in the questioning spirit of the Renaissance and the rediscovery of classical thought. • It is a movement that occurs happens at the same time that European question the Church in the Reformation and encounter previously unknown civilizations in the Age of Exploration. • The anxiety that grew out of rapid change in thought and challenges to traditional life gave rise to a new wave of superstition – the witch hunts
The Scientific Revolution • Causes – • 1) Philosophy grew out of theology as an independent discipline in the Medieval university. The study of science then grew out of philosophy. • 2) Patronage of the sciences in the Renaissance by the elites. Rediscovery of the classical thinkers in the Renaissance.
The Scientific Revolution • Causes – • 3) The need to solve navigational problems during the Age of Exploration. The telescope, barometer, thermometer, pendulum clock, and microscope all came out of attempts to solve problems faced by sailors/explorers. • 4) The rise of the scientific method of Bacon and Descartes.
Nicolaus Copernicus • Polish astronomer. • Rejected geocentrism (earth-centered world view). • In the year of his death he published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543) - a revolution-making text that provided an intellectual springboard for a complete criticism of the dominant view of the position of the earth in the universe.
Challenged Ptolemaic view but transferred many of Ptolemy’s ideas to a heliocentric model of the universe Dedicated his book to Pope Paul III. Waited until near death to publish book because he feared a backlash. Luther and Calvin condemn the heliocentric theory. By 1616 the RCC also condemns the theory. Impact of his work – Allowed others to also challenge his ideas. Nicolaus Copernicus
Tyco Brahe • Danish astronomer • Believed in earth-centered system, constructed scientific instruments with which he made more extensive observations of planets than anyone • Provided vast body of astronomical data from which his successors could work
Johannes Kepler • German astronomer, convinced Copernican, • More rigorous advocate of heliocentric model than Copernicus. • Used Brahe’s records for research. • Discovered that planets motions were elliptical, the speed of their orbits is not uniform, and the time of the orbits is based on a planet’s distance from sun. • Published findings in The New Astronomy, used Copernicus’s model and Brahe’s empirical data to solve the problem • Still no explanation of why orbits were elliptical.
Galileo Galilei • Italian mathematician and natural philosopher • Used newly invented telescope to discover new stars and moons • Named the moons of Jupiter after the Medicis • Popularized the Copernican system • Articulated the concept of a universe subject to mathematical laws • All falling objects descend with equal velocity regardless of their weight. Gravity was a universal force that produced uniform acceleration
Isaac Newton • Question of planetary motion and how heavenly bodies moved in an orderly fashion • Established a basis for physics in Principia Mathematica (1687) • Reasoned that the planets and all other physical objects in the universe moved through mutual attraction, or gravity • Upheld importance of empirical data-as Newton’s own theory • Newtonian physics would be the basis of the physical sciences until Einstein challenges some of his teachings in the 20th C.
