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Nature of scientific revolution
The impact of science on society
The importance of scientific revolution
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During the sixteenth century and even into the seventeenth century, scientific discoveries and new empirical ways of thinking began to emerge. This period of history is commonly referred to as the Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution challenged past authorities by challenging church teachings, philosophy, and traditionally held views of humanity’s place in the cosmos. Previous to the Scientific Revolution, it had been thought that the majority of truth was already known to man and that it merely required someone to explain and understand it. However, the discoveries occurring as a result of the rise in empiricism during the Scientific Revolution demonstrated that new truths could and were being discovered. Furthermore, empiricism, inductive reasoning, and scientists slowly began to replace philosophers and deductive reasoning. Men such as Francis Bacon were behind this shift in thinking. The new wave of scientific discoveries also led to a change in the way people viewed the natural world. People increasingly began to accept the view of mechanism, which viewed the world ...
Herbert Butterfield stated that, "Since the Scientific Revolution overturned the authority in science not only of the middle ages but of the ancient world...it outshines everything since the rise of Christianity." During the scientific revolution Nicholas Copernicus, Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton all voiced their opinions that contradicted the views of the church.
...came to be, No one knew exactly and looked at religion for answers. Religion has always been the “answer” for everything and science has always been closer to the answer than religion. When members of the church started realizing that science was challenging them they got frustrated and punished those who opposed the word and work of god. This would be the most important turn in scientific revolution.
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed a colossal transition in the scientific view of the universe. During this period a profound rethinking of scientific theory as well as moral and religious matters took place. Traditional ideas were reconsidered by religious thinkers. Philosophers began applying rational scientific thought to problems that they considered. The main concept of the Scientific Revolution was to "question everything". The Scientific Revolution was an elaborate movement. Many brilliant people with a wealth of new ideas contributed to this movement. The French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist Rene Descartes was one of these people.
Scientific Revolution has not only widened our eyes towards new inventions but it has also unlocked our brains to question and intellect to rationalize. In fact, Scientific Revolution in seventeenth century is the period of a new change in World History. Renaissance, a revolutionary period in which people developed the study of arts, their new thinking skills become the leading cause of scientific revolution. Europeans gave importance to learning and application of knowledge which gave birth to new scientific theories and revolution. However, the whole period from 17th to 19th century brought the new changes in people’s lives through new discoveries and inventions in the field of medical and education. The impact of Scientific Revolution in early modern period is an essential factor to create an interest in scientific subjects; amalgamation with religion and philosophy lead towards critical thinking. This critical thinking and observation become a big challenge to the political and religious authorities of the era. The Scientific Revolution enhanced the study of scientific subjects and reduced false beliefs of religion through critical thinking and observations.
One of the most important developments in the western intellectual tradition was the Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution was nothing less than a revolution in the way the individual perceives the world. As such, this revolution was primarily an epistemological revolution -- it changed man's thought process. It was an intellectual revolution -- a revolution in human knowledge. We have read some revolutionary pieces of literature from this period of time that were extremely important for the evolution of science and human thought and what they had in common. But nobody influenced this huge movement more than Sir Francis Bacon, through his works and his legacy. Bacon’s political science appears to separate religion and science. However, Bacon most likely believed that the advancement of humankind and the goal of achieving knowledge involves a complementary relationship between science and religion.
Revolutions have always been a catalyst of change throughout history. They may lead to the creation of nations, or a rapid change in society’s ideals. Due to a shift away from such strong religious ties during the early modern period, more distinctly from 1543 through 1632, scientific advancements of varying degree were able to occur. From the founding of chemistry to various discoveries in physics and mathematics, the Scientific revolution most definitely laid the backbones for various inventions and discoveries further along the timeline of history. Overall, the Scientific Revolution was a rapid stage of development in the field of science, and it led to many new views in reference to nature and humanity.
People began rely more on experimentation and reason, instead of age-old superstitions and religious beliefs. The Scientific Revolution also had a profound impact on the church and its role in society. Some of the great innovators of the Scientific Revolution went against the church in order to prove their experiments and theories. This led to religion taking a lesser role in society due to the fact that reason became more important than faith. Ultimately, the Scientific Revolution led to a cultural change that emphasized the importance of knowledge and science in daily life. Another facilitator that allowed the Scientific Revolution to spread was a common vocabulary and ideology that could be shared across Europe. If scientific work was to be expanded upon, a common vocabulary that could be universally understood was necessary. After a struggle between various philosophical practices and languages, an agreement was finally reached to establish “mechanical” science as the common vocabulary. The new form of communication included new learned academies, courts and print culture. At first, understanding these new terms was a male privilege, but by the mid eighteenth century women took part in learning the new science as
Eighteenth Century Europe was in turmoil, “characterized by dramatic revolutions in science, philosophy, society and politics” (Bristow, 2011, para. 1). Revolution was afoot in France, while earlier scientific discoveries from Copernicus to Newton drastically changed how humans understood the world. Empiricism and Skepticism rose with modern science to challenge the prevailing Rationalism (Murphy, 2010).
The scientific revolution was a time of inquisition, discovery, and new ideas. The scientific revolution started at the end of the renaissance, with Nicholas Copernicus, who said that the earth revolves around the sun. and ended in the late 18th century, with Isaac Newton, who proposed the three universal laws of motion, and proposed a mechanical universe.1 The scientific revolution lay a foundation for what is now modern science. Many achievements in the numerous fields of science where accomplished in this time period. Because modern science is so heavily based on the achievements during the scientific revolution, the scientific revolution set the starting point for what is now modern science.
"We arrive at truth, not by reason only, but also by the heart"(1) said Blaise Pascal, one of the greatest minds of the 17th Century. The 17th Century was the time of the scientific revolution. During this period the main idea for everyone, was to question everything not to just listen to what is told. This caused a transformation in thought in both religious and scientific areas. Science allowed the questioning of the teachings of the old church. Scientists battled with ideas in math and physics, while philosophers battled with ideas of God. It was an intellectual revolution concerning the methods for determining humanity's place in the universe. Blaise Pascal was a physicist, a mathematician, and a man of God. He was a Renaissance man of the scientific revolution.
The scientific revolution was the emergence of modern science where the development of the scientific method was established, which had reshaped the views of society and nature. This period had began during the Enlightenment period (1650-1800), which facilitated the pace of social change and understanding our world. It was based on positivism, which is an approach to thinking that considers all knowledge and understanding to be based on science, and anti-positivism, which is an approach to thinking that considers all knowledge and understanding to be based on subjectivity. Positivists approach the world with assumptions that science is the main focus and there is no room for our values and opinions, while anti-positivists approach the world with assumptions that go against science and arguing that
...volution aided the beginning of the Enlightenment because the people began to comprehend that the things they had been told to believe in can’t be true unless it is proven. The Scientific Revolution caused people to start to question their government. The Scientific Revolution inspired people to inquire everything, to accept nothing unless it was proven, it made people start to think for themselves and not just to believe in what they were told.
With a new focus on rational thinking came a new perspective in which to look at the world. Obtaining knowledge from direct observation and study of the natural was no longer frowned upon and was even encouraged by the Church. Development and progress was encouraged. With this inquiry a veil was uncovered and thinkers of the time wanted to understand why things are the way they are, and sought order through knowledge and not supernatural explanations prescribed by the Church.
Over the course of the years, society has been reformed by new ideas of science. We learn more and more about global warming, outer space, and technology. However, this pattern of gaining knowledge did not pick up significantly until the Scientific Revolution. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the Scientific Revolution started, which concerned the fields of astronomy, mechanics, and medicine. These new scientists used math and observations strongly contradicting religious thought at the time, which was dependent on the Aristotelian-Ptolemy theory. However, astronomers like Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton accepted the heliocentric theory. Astronomical findings of the Scientific Revolution disproved the fact that humans were the center of everything, ultimately causing people to question theology’s role in science and sparking the idea that people were capable of reasoning for themselves.
The journey of science has come a long way in analyzing how knowledge developed over the years as it continues to expand its boundaries towards new ideas and discoveries. It changed the perspective of life and assigned different roles in our society. All the literatures that were written and the scientific data gathered through observations and performance have proven to expand the cultural beliefs of Enlightenment, which impacted how humanity is defined by. These contributions that influenced the approach of life, such as subject matters, reasoning, and society practices, has created a diversity of ideas and concepts that shaped our modern world.