SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION
I. Introduction: ways of looking at the world: paradigms
A. Ptolomaic view of the
world
1. Ptolomy defined the world as center of the universe
a. after all, that's how it looks!
b. concentric spheres
2. Ptolomaic theory worked logically, theologically, and
by observation
B. Aristotle also relied on observed reality
1. from observation to logic
a. salamander theory--
b. does it burn or not?
2. Aristotelian theory had explained the world
3. The ancient thinkers keep their authority
a. accepted in medieval period
b. celebrated in the Renaissance
II. What is a Scientific Revolution? Scientific Revolution
involves a paradigm shift. Earlier versions of the history of science claimed a
kind of additive effect, rather than the creation of new paradigms that would
alter understanding of every part of life. This can help explain lots of
different phenomena, and perhaps social as well as physical ones.
A. Defining a paradigm
1. context for all thinking
2. often unconcious acceptance of a perceived reality
3. Ptolomaic/Aristotelian paradigm very attractive
B. Shifting a paradigm
1. takes generations, even centuries to do
a. Ptolemey/Copernicus – 1543
i. On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres
ii. 1543 publication first doubts Ptolomy
iii. maintains the idea of spheres, though
iv. bridges observation, mathematics
b. Newton/Einstein
2. "moving from observed nature to hypothetical nature"
3. breaking boundaries of human observation and logic--can't see it but
can prove its existence
a. void
b. resistance
c. infinity
d. gravity
4. Copernicus and Galileo literally break the earthly spheres
5. New laws of nature not built on observation – inertia, for
example
a. mathematically proven
b. difficult to visualize
c. beginnings of the “mathmatized world” – starting with Kepler’s
Laws
III. Relationship to Religion--pro, con, or neutral?
A. Central question--who will control teaching about the world?
B. Growing new paradigm and international phenomenon--old spheres shatter
all over Europe
1. Copernicus--Poland (1473-1543) grandfather of them all
2. Brahe--Denmark (1546-1601) astronomer
3. Kepler--Germany (1571-1630) astronomer
4. Galileo--Italy (1564-1642) astronomer
5. Descartes--France (1596-1650) philosopher
6. Newton--England (1642-1727) physicist (!)
C. Protestantism
a. anti Galileo and Copernicus based on literal Bible
b. how could "the sun stand still" if it never moved?
c. therefore a threat to Biblical authority
D. Catholicism a more difficult problem
a. no literal Bible
b. but, the logic of scholasticism based on aristotle
c. therefore it broke up RCC's views of the world too
E. Galileo and Catholicism
a. Office of the Inquistion questions Galileo's ideas
b. 1632--Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolomaic and
Copernican
c. obviously shows the shift in paradigm
d. 1633--RCC dragged to the Inquisition again
e. made to recant for his views, put under house arrest
f. but the legend has been overplayed
IV. Newton and a Unified Theory--A New Cosmology
A. Second generation of scientific revolution
1. Newton creates the rational world
2. Builds on work of Kepler – shows that all activity can be
described mathematically
B. Principia of 1687
1. universal natural laws (inertia, energy, etc.)
2. earth, cosmos, all the universe run like a huge machine – like a
clock
3. humans could understand that machine
4. humans could therefore theoretically affect that machine
5. begins the quest to understand, mentally, how the whole cosmos work
6. Suggests that the whole universe can be understood – the
rational, mathematical universe
V. René Descartes (1596-1650)--The Logical Consequences of Science
A. Rejects all past forms of knowledge as unable to illuminate the world
B. Since World can not be understood through observation, material world
must be doubted.
C. Turns to the importance of thinking
1. Only mind can be trusted
2. the body and material world can be doubted (not as it looks)
3. therefore the mind must be radically different from the world
4. creates therefore a split between man and the natural world
5. man's identity is mental, not organic
6. therefore "I think therefore I am"
D. Man is mental, not organic – separate from the world
E. Places preeminence on doubt
1. methodological basis of modern science – basis for the scientific
method
2. becomes by now a bumper sticker--Question Authority
3. will affect religion, which based on faith not doubt
F. Affects not only religiosity, but even religion itself
1. less emphasis on the body, more on the mind
2. in a way the extension of humanism
a. logical, not mystical
b. human centered
c. mind is the agent of religion, not feeling or body
VI. Scientific ideal & modern thought
A. secular
B. rationalistic
C. independence of man's mind from nature
D. technologically based
1. experimentation tied to technology, not theology/otherworldliness
2. desire for practicality
E. Biology, experimentation in medicine to produce real results
F. power-oriented: humanity
can "conquer nature in action"
1. now coming into question by ecologists
2. differentiation between stewardship and exploitation of nature
VII. How well is this accepted?
B. Witchcraft--Who?
1. scapegoats
a. old, widowed, women
b. wise women vs. witch (herb sellers, etc.)
c. "white" magic vs. "diabolism"
d. often "unpleasant" neighbors who don't fit in
e. seen as a threat on more than one level
(1) woman without a man
(2) woman without a master?
C. Witchcraft--Why?
1. religious intolerance
a. Roman Church takes interest in witchcraft Malleus Maleficarum (The
Hammer of
Witches) in 1480s.
b. Protestants also afraid of Catholic witches
2. communal values make way to economic self-reliance
3. worry about the poor, the outcast--were they a threat?
D. Symbolic of a changed world order--the fear of the new
1. politics
2. economics
3. social relations
4. modernity
E. Elite Non
Rationalism
1. the interest in secret, magical knowledge (ie. Gnosis)
2. Renaissance interest in magic, alchemy
3. Laws of Nature could be understood, manipulted
4. Yet what are those laws? Not
yet a completely rational science
F. Newton, others
for example, interested in these ideas
1. numerology (?)
2. astrology
3. magic
4. shows a belief that everything is possible!
G. today's revolutions
1.relativity
2.chaos theory
H. Do we live in mostly in a
Newtonian paradigm still, even though science is calling for an Einsteinian or a
"chaotic" paradigm?