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The Death of Nature: the Scientific Revolution. Making the world rational Last gasp of the medieval mind. I. Pre-scientific worldview. A. Medieval cosmology. natural/supernatural combined monotheistic/animistic. B. Aristotelianism. 1. Thomas Aquinas = blend Christianity and
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The Death of Nature: the Scientific Revolution Making the world rational Last gasp of the medieval mind
A.Medieval cosmology • natural/supernatural combined monotheistic/animistic
B. Aristotelianism 1. Thomas Aquinas = blend Christianity and rationalism (1200s)
A. the Universe 1. Copernican Revolution - 1543 On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres
2. Kepler’s laws of planetary motion - universe not “perfect” - challenges Aristotelian logic
- 3 Laws of Thermodynamics * objects at rest… * redirection proportional to force * equal & opposite reaction - Principia Mathematica, 1692
B. The human body 1. Chemical theory = Paracelsus (1500s AD) chemicals can be measured amount v. nature
3. Robert Boyle The Sceptical Chymist (1661) physiology & natural law
4. William Harvey - body as machine scientific methods & anatomy
C. Implications for the non-human world 1. Holistic ecology - peasant culture 2. Arcadian ecology - Gilbert White, Natural History of Selborne
3. Imperial Ecology - Francis Bacon - deductive reasoning - form understanding of universe by collecting vast amounts of data - “reductionist” = make nature a machine
D. Science Enthroned 1. Government Support Royal Academy, Academie de Science 2. Technological advances - James Watt’s steam engine; navigational techniques; metallurgy; chemistry; explosives; mining; etc.
A. The Inquisition 1. Heresy
B. Witchcraft hysteria 1. Causes? - social dislocation - religious wars 2. The Hammer of Witches, 1486[Sprenger & Kramer]
3. “traditional” witchcraft expression of holistic ecology “big” & “little” magic 4. Role of women
Anti-witch hysteria: last gasp of the medieval world - division of Christianity - market dislocation - decline of the irrational