SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION (Magic Notes!

Were the forces for change stronger or the forces for continuity stronger? Was there actually a Scientific Revolution?
The Scientific Revolution did overturn centuries of authority, but only in a gradual and piecemeal fashion. Forces for Continuity 1. Roman Catholic Church In every country, Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox alike, even ecclesiastical reformers took it for granted that religion should be upheld and protected by the law and the coercive apparatus of the state.

Forces for Change

Monopoly over knowledge and wealth Resistant to science that contradicted it Predominance of theological thinking Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit? (John Calvin)

1. Protestant Reformation Provided momentum to challenge church's authority Beginning of dissidence against the RCC in the theological arena, e.g. Faith vs. good deeds as a method to salvation, practice of purchasing indulgences Increased literacy reformers stressed importance of teaching believers how to read the Bible This can also be seen as a force for continuity because it triggers a counterattack from the church against all dissidents, e.g. Galileo

2. Scientific Revolution Scientists It [The Scientific Revolution] largely resulted from the work of a handful of great This fool (Copernicus) wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; individuals. but sacred scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still Galileo and not the earth. (Luther) Copernicus Bacon Religion had a powerful psychological grip. People tend to want to Newton maintain status quo, and many prefer the psychological peace of knowing there is life after death. Hence many are unwilling to change their whole 3. Circumstances perception of science to accommodate Galileo & co. They rather hang on Emerging from Renaissance: Interest in Classical Greek teaching revived to their own comfortable, unchallenged beliefs. Originally Greek texts are used to justify what the RCC says, but later on Believed we could only understand truth through revelation and faith people are beginning to derive other things from the Greek texts in the Medieval scholars believed you only needed to think to gain knowledge scientific arena that actually challenge the church. Example of Da Vinci the typical Renaissance Man: scientist, 2. Geocentric system mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, Creates idea that man is central, fits with church's theology that man is musician and writer. o_o;; most important/ significant because he is created in the image of God Following his example, people want to learn more and diversify It gave people a distinct place in a world they could understand. their interests Diversification of Education: Although education is not made much 3. Society/Hierarchy more common, the kind of education that is offered changes from solely King, who is above the law and has the divine right to rule religious to include more disciplines, e.g. Alchemy 1st Estate: Clergy 2nd Estate: Nobility Medieval Universities: study of ancient texts: Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy 3rd Estate: Everybody else The study of Aristotle: began to realise his errors Bourgeois (traders, teachers, lawyers, skilled artisans etc) William Ockham. Ockham's Razor: idea that cut away the surplus

Forces for Continuity

Forces for Change of much speculative thought - "Do not multiply entities more than necessary" simpler explanations preferable Heliocentric theory was simpler than Geocentric theory

Sans Culottes (urban poor who had 'no culottes') Peasants (who just plant things like carrots and don't really care whether the earth or sun is in the centre of the universe... yet)

Characteristics of Society Medieval science rested on assumptions which were untested, in part because the means of testing them could not be grasped, in part because the wish to test them did not exist. Contented They're all happy with their lot in life and have no desire to move up the social ladder... generally. To medieval people, everything in nature and society was connected: social system was a part of nature and God's plan. This way of looking at the world did not encourage change. They accept the Church as all knowing and all powerful. Education still not very important Education was not valued and largely restricted to the upper classes and the bourgeois. This is why the bourgeois later become an important force for change: they are the relatively underprivileged portion of society that is still educated about all these 'modern' ideas by Galileo and co. They are not able to move up the social ladder despite their educational qualifications/ amount they are contributing to society. Hence they begin to doubt how right the Catholic Church is. Based on birthright Your lot in society is dependent largely on who your parents are. If they're noble, you become noble. If they're peasants who plant carrots, you become a peasant who plants carrots. This is largely akin to the society in the Bible though not necessarily derived from it. Notice large portions of the Bible devoted to genealogy, and which tribes people came from as different tribes had different jobs, e.g. Levites were priests and in charge of the Tabernacle and the such, so if you're born a Levite that's automatically what you grow up to do. Nobody has experienced meritocracy and therefore nobody yearns for it, as it still is with almost any civil liberty today.

Spread of printing: e.g. Technical knowledge was available in print very quickly and specialists had to know how to read to keep up Navigational problems in sea voyage generated scientific research.

4. Heliocentric System Contradicts Church's depiction of the universe If the church can be wrong about something as fundamental as the position of the earth, what else are they wrong about? Opens the door to erosion of the RCC's authority in other things e.g. Knowledge, politics, tax reforms, etc 5. Inventions Inventions of microscope (revealed many previously unknown of organisms), telescope, thermometer, bubble-level and screw-micrometer

What were the effects of the Scientific Revolution in the way people thought?
Effects on Man's Worldview Copernicus Effects on Methodology/ Thinking Heliocentric universe (very important! Because without him there Inference/Deduction Versus Observation/Experience would be no Kepler and no Galileo etc and no Scientific Revolution! And we'd all be studying Bede and mysterious heavenly lights shining on Copernicus also believed that knowledge did not just have to come from martyrs) observation and experience, but could be derived from inference, reasoning, logical deduction. This contradicts Aristotle who placed a lot Bear in mind that Copernicus did not 'come up' with the heliocentric of emphasis on the senses and observations that one can make. theory: rather, he developed/ proposed it. Why is this so revolutionary? 1. Challenged the Church Challenged traditional Christian view of humanity as the centre of God's universe REMEMBER: you cannot challenge the authority of only one part of the church's teachings! By implication you are attacking Every Other Part, like the way removing a single card from a pyramid card tower makes the whole thing fall down. 'To attack any part of this anomalous and fossilized structure was to attack by implication every other part, including royal power itself (Thomson) 2. Challenged People's Thinking If people are not centre of the universe, does that mean we are not centre to God's creation? Does that notion contradict the Biblical version of creation? Of man's role in the universe? Of the idea of life being a constant struggle between the forces of good and evil? (Ok I just made it sound like Star Wars. But this is really how people saw the world think Shakespeare, for example. There's heaven, there's hell, and there's us in the middle.) If science can explain the rotation of the earth around the sun, then what else can it explain? Can it explain why humans have souls and consciences (something commonly attributed to God)? If science can explain everything, then what is God's role? (since we humans tend to attribute the unknown to the supernatural)

Effects on Man's Worldview Hence the church was fed up. Galileo Father of Science - recognised a need to separate science from religion. He would rather believe his experimental results than what the Church declared as truth. Discovered: mountains and craters on the moon, four moons revolving around Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and sunspots. 1. Challenged the Church Yet while adamant that the earth moved around the sun, Galileo insisted that it was not incompatible with the Bible's passages that seemed to suggest otherwise. He suggested that these passages were to be taken as poetry/song. 2. Challenged People's Thinking (Similar to Copernicus) Does this mean the heavens are no longer a spiritual thing but something that can be defined in the physical realm? If 'the heavens' are accessible by physical means, where is Heaven, and is it a physical place or a spiritual place? Does it even exist? Galileo remained a Catholic even after developing the heliocentric theory; he attacked dogmatism, not he Church. Bacon (15211626) Impact of Empiricism on History 1. Makes History more objective People start observing the world around them to gain knowledge. Previously Bede's historical accounts talking about bodies floating upstream and heavenly lights shining upon them were taken as gospel truth. Now people notice things don't flow upstream and heavenly lights don't exactly always shine down on dead bodies, so they begin to question previously accepted accounts of the past. Using this approach, all accounts of History ought not to contradict the laws of Science in the world around us, in order to have credibility.

Effects on Methodology/ Thinking

Improved Precision and Accuracy Emphasised experiments that focused on mathematical precision Understood the rift between theory and practice, and recognised assumptions that needed to be made, etc. Content to create conclusions from mathematical reasoning alone others had to confirm his theories by observation and practical experiment

Empiricism It is the philosophical belief that knowledge is based on experience and observations, mainly through the five senses. Bacon also explored the difference between rationalism (branch of philosophy where truth is determined by reason) and empiricism. Until common prejudices are eliminated from the mind of the scientist, they will constantly interfere with an objective approach. These are the prejudices, called "idols": Idols of the Tribe: These are any prejudices that arise from human nature Idols of the Cave: Any prejudices that come from the

Effects on Man's Worldview 2. People start looking for patterns in history Just like in a science experiment, where people look for patterns through repeated experiments, people are beginning to look for patterns in history. They begin to study History like a Science, by applying the Scientific Method to history. For example, if they are studying the causes of various revolutions, they list down all the ingredients that caused each one. This gradually forms a pattern. Hence when they see similar ingredients being stirred together Now, they predict a revolution again. This approach revolutionises history, resulting in theories like Marxism, which take a very scientific approach to the study of history.

Effects on Methodology/ Thinking psychological state of the human mind Idols of the Marketplace: Prejudices that result from social relationships Idols of the Theater: These are prejudices that derive from false ideological systems

The Scientific Method The first step involved careful experimentation and observation The next step called for the use of reason to interpret the experiment's results From this, scientists could draw valid conclusions, which in turn might be tested through further experimentation. Inductive Reasoning: philosophers would arrive at truth by combining evidence from a huge number of particular observations to draw general conclusions. In inductive reasoning, you can make your argument more convincing the more experiments you conduct. This opposed Deductive Reasoning (Ancient Greeks' method) Deductive reasoning accepted generalisations, using reason to arrive at specific details. In deductive reasoning, no experimentation is involved; everything is derived by logical conclusion. Impact (a) Quickened pace of scientific discovery Better, faster way of finding out how nature actually worked (b) Changed the way knowledge was judged and accepted (very significant!) Most educated people no longer accepted explanations based on miracles, supernatural power, or magic (i.e. No more Bede and bodies floating upstream and heavenly lights etc) Now focus was on reasoning, logic, etc

Descartes

Many of his theories were wrong, unfortunately.

1. Very firmly against anything that could not be proved with

scientific evidence; emphasised scepticism 2. Didn't think experimentation was very important believed reason and rationality were more important (a bit like Copernicus I think) 3. He believed that outside the human mind, everything worked

Effects on Man's Worldview

Effects on Methodology/ Thinking according to rational and natural laws I think, therefore I am. (Descartes)

Kepler (not very important)

Published 3 laws of planetary motion 1. He believed the orbits of the planets around the sun were not circular but elliptical in shape. Galileo made a mistake by disagreeing. 2. The speed of a planet is greater when it is closer to the sun 3. The square of a planet's period of revolution is proportional to the cube of its average distance from the sun. Discovered:Gravity Earth and Sun not perfect spheres Challenged the church Broke their monopoly of knowledge Truth did not depend on what the Church/ State said at all: truth was now to be established by the methods that operated independently of them. The secrets of the natural world could be known by human investigation and not what the Church said. Challenged People's Thinking If the movements of all matter in space are known, what about our own bodies? Are all their movements subject to scientific laws? If so, does this mean there is no such thing as free will? Are we not in control of our own bodies? If there is no such thing as free will, does this mean there is no such thing as morality? And if an exhaustive and accurate explanation of all physical phenomena can now be provided by science, what need is there to believe in God?

Newton

Any description of reality had to incorporate the reality revealed by science Any account of the nature of knowledge itself, and of the way it was arrived at, and its foundations, had to apply to science if it was to command credibility. Newton is also important because he combined the works of Bacon and Descartes to give a more modern Scientific Method. He combined Inductive and Deductive reasoning, thereby making it easier to conduct experiments etc. Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, 'Let Newton be!' and all was light. -Alexander Pope

Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians... (JM Keynes)

Overall

Mechanistic World View: People began to see the universe operated according to fixed rules like a machine. They began to see God as the divine watchmaker, who set the clock of the universe into place and then retired from worldly affairs. Now it was up to people to discover the rules that governed the machinelike workings of the universe. Prior to the SR, the attitude of questioning was not present. How could belief in God be reconciled with Science?

This gave rise to a quest for objectivity: the presentation of the TRUTH apart from emotion, intuition or supernatural forces. But of course we are never completely objective. In other words, objectivity is like an asymptote that we can tend to but never quite reach.

Effects on Man's Worldview How could morality function in a world governed by scientific laws? How could there be free will in a deterministic1 universe?

Effects on Methodology/ Thinking

What were the effects of the Scientific Revolution in other areas?

Arena Philosophy Effects Science had originally evolved as a branch of philosophy, so its impact on this discipline can be observed. It involved the application of scientific ideas on human behaviour and society. Newton's Rules of Reasoning Rule 1: Rule of Parsimony "We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances."

Newton tells us philosophers say 'less' is better, and that simplicity pleases Nature Scientists should make no more assumptions or assume no more causes than are absolutely necessary to explain their observations.

Rule 2: Rule of Cause and Effect "As to the respiration in a man and in a beast, the descent of stones [gravity] in Europe and in America, the light of our culinary fire and of the sun, the reflection of light in the earth and in the planets."

The belief that what occurs in nature is the result of cause-and-effect relationships, and where similar effects are seen then the same cause must be operating.

Rule 3: Principle of Universal Qualities the belief that those qualities, such as mass or length, that describe bodies exposed to our immediate experience also describe bodies removed from our immediate experience, such as stars and galaxies. This rule insists that if observational or experimental evidence conflicts with any theories I have put forward then I must accept the evidence of observations and experiments It also implies that if a simple and a complex theory explain the evidence then I accept the simpler option. 1 A deterministic universe is the idea whereby people use scientific methodology to observe patterns in history, and then believe they can predict the future. They believe the future is predetermined according to a certain pattern. This idea is known also as historical inevitability (ie. Something is bound to happen in Marxism, it is the revolution of the proletariat, in Christianity, the 2nd coming of Christ, for example). Hence if such events are bound to happen, then how does it affect our impressions of everyday life? Free will loses its importance: after all, regardless of what we do, certain life changing events are bound to happen. Moreover, if everything, even history, acts in accordance with the laws of science, why does morality exist?

Arena

Effects Rule 4: Principle of Induction The process of deriving conclusions about a class of objects by examining a few of them Reasoning from the particular to the more general. The rule states that concepts, hypotheses, laws, and theories arrived at by induction should be assumed as universal both in time and place until new evidence proves the contrary to be true. This rule says that I must make my theories fit the facts and not try to adjust the facts to fit my theory. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) Mechanistic view of universe Translated Galileos ideas of motion, and applied it on his views of psychology. He believed that all human motivation could be explained through motion (pushing & pulling). Through this, he rationalised that humans form societies as a result of their repulsion for death Advocating absolutist government in his book Leviathan (1651) He saw chaos as worse than tyranny John Locke (1632-1704) Empirical view of nature His understanding of humans was restricted to their physical and observable qualities Did not believe that there were any such thing as innate ideas Did not agree with Descartes Propagated the notion that humans are blank slates, and everything is acquired subsequently. As such, people could be liberated from oppressive social systems by education.

Social Sciences (LIKE HISTORY)

"This (the scientific way of approaching History) is the Holy Grail of the social sciences, at least under the model of Levi-Strauss, which seeks to find immutable laws or patterns of behaviour. And in classifying history as a 'science', arguably historians are also seeking this aim." (D Leong) The Social Sciences include: Anthropology Communications Economics, production and allocation of wealth Linguistics Political Science Psychology, human mind and behavior Sociology History of Social Sciences There wasnt always a distinction between the study of philosophy and mathematics With the proliferation of scientific thought and application of mathematical equations as proof of theories, there generated a pressure to apply similar mathematical foundations to explain human relationships. Ideas were now expressed in the form of mathematical relationships and such relationships were called laws.

Arena

Effects Economics as Social Science Economic activity was not always quantifiable or viewed statistically. Adam Smith (1723 - 1790) published The Wealth of Nations in 1776; studied economic activities in more quantifiable means. Today, we have assumptions like 'ceteris paribus2' in economics because we want to make economics like a science where we can hold certain factors constant. However, such theories or laws are often criticised for being unrealistic, because there is no 'ceteris paribus' in real life. We can't control factors affecting human desires and wants so simply. History of Social Sciences Karl Marx was among the first to claim that his methods of research represented a scientific view of history. By the 20th century, there was an ever increasing application of statistical study to understand human behaviour. True, Marxism was later proved to be an inaccurate view of history, but the methodology that Marx used to arrive at his theory became integral to the development of history as a subject - and this method originated from the Scientific Revolution. "Those who fire away at its (Marxism's) redundancy must be unable to distinguish between the ideology and the methodology." "This new 'utopia' shifted the focus of history away from the myopic study of politics, and put on equal status the many sub-disciplines such as military history, cultural history and economic history." But remember... history cannot always be scientific! "While scientists can remove one gene from a rat to deduce what it does by observing the effects on the rat, historians are not allowed to tamper with the genome of the past in the same way." (D Leong) Human beliefs, like all natural growths, elude the barriers of system (Eliot) Historians should not be seen as scientists; they should aspire to be so, but while scientific rigour is a requirement, it only forms the foundation upon which the "craftsman" must sculpt an interpretation. (D Leong)

Politics

People started to apply the Scientific Method to Politics In America 1776, the Declaration of Independence... All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In Europe, the Enlightenment... ... advocated a rational approach to problems, rejecting ideas that were based on superstition and theology, instead favouring explanations based on observation, experiment, and logic. (Peter Gay)

2 Ceteris paribus is a Latin phrase, literally translated as "with other things [being] the same," and usually rendered in English as "all other things being equal."

Arena

Effects Enlightenment Ideas that emerged Rationality Freedom of thought Progress (believed 'golden age was in the future', not gone with the Renaissance) Humanitarianism Voltaire

Bitterly opposed religious persecution, especially that by the church Supported Locke in his belief in individual human rights to life, liberty and property

Montesquieu One of the founders of political science Studied various forms of government Introduced the idea of having executive, legislative and judicial departments in a government Influenced the writing of the US constitution Rosseau Faith in the common people 'Man is born free and everywhere is in chains' Human nature is basically good (unlike Hobbes who thought human life was 'nasty, brutish and short') Catholicism as an ideology was rejected for its irrationalism, the Catholic Church as an institution was rejected for its wealth, power, corruption and intolerance. (Blanning) Together with the church, the other great culprit was the absolute monarchy, which was incapable of appearing before the court of reason. (Furet) Industry Providing the Means Rationalist Movement: Use of science and reason applied to human concerns Because of the new emphasis on experimenting and scientific advances during the SR, the pace of invention increased New machines were developed, making the Industrial Revolution possible Providing the Will Enlightenment popularised liberal attitudes towards profit motive (Adam Smith popularised profit maximising) The SR laid the basis for the modern view of the world as a rational, ordered place. Forward looking, Progress oriented Nature was now viewed as mechanical, and could be harnessed to make economic profit

Porter: Science too was a mighty generator of optimism. Langford: A nation of Newtons and Lockes became a nation of Boultons and Watts.

Arena

Effects Effect of social sciences like Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations

In the 18th century, attention focused, perhaps for the first time ever, on the future rather than the past, and the drive to create a better future generated a belief in progress. The achievements of scientists like Isaac Newton [1642-1727] and John Locke [1632-1704] bred new faith in mans right and power to achieve knowledge of himself and the natural world, and encouraged practical action in such fields as overseas exploration, technology, manufactures, social science and legal reform.Progress proved the ultimate Enlightenment gospel (Porter) James Watt He began to study steam engines. He managed to get hold of a model of a Newcomen Engine - which was broken - and tried to repair it. Through the repair work, he noticed that it was inefficient. He designed his own improved engine, and set to work producing a full-scale model for demonstration. After a number of struggles, he was eventually able to complete the engine when he partnered with businessman Matthew Boulton. Together, they were able to both build the machine - and battle through the legal problems trying to get it patented. He died in 1819.