Humans and Nature during the Scientific Revolution
The Scientific Revolution took place in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It was not a "revolution" in the classic sense as it did not involve rapid political changes nor large numbers of people, but it was revolutionary in the sense that it completely changed people's way of thinking and their outlook on the world we live in. It was definitely one of the most important events in history as it marked the birth of modern science. With the Scientific Revolution, man became more curious about nature. He wanted to learn more about natural phenomena and the mechanisms of nature, and he also adopted a new method for the study of nature.
The Scientific Revolution began with "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres" (1543), which was written by Nicolaus Copernicus' (1473-1543). He was the first to challenge the Ptolemaic view of an earth-centered universe and claim that the earth revolves around the sun. He did not come up with any revolutionary scientific discovery but he triggered the Scientific Revolution by stirring an incredible amount of thinking. His work allowed people who were dissatisfied with the Ptolemaic view to consider other possibilities.
Another important figure of the Scientific Revolution is Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). He was the first to use the telescope to observe the stars and come up with the idea that the universe is completely subject to mathematical laws, and he was an ardent supporter of this novel concept. The heavens before the Scientific Revolution had been considered as the most mysterious part of the universe. With the heavens explained, people started to believe that it would be easy to understand humans as well. They felt that science...
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...ents in the history between humans and nature.
Notes:
1. Steven Kreis, Lecture 7 - The Medieval synthesis and the Secularization of Human
Knowledge: The Scientific Revolution, 1642-1750 (2),
<http://www.pagesz.net/~stevek/intellect/lecture7a.html> (August 8, 2000).
2. John Torrance, The Concept of Nature (Clarendon Press, 1992) , 74.
3. Kreis <http://www.pagesz.net/~stevek/intellect/lecture7a.html>.
4. Torrance, 64.
5. Steven Kreis, Lecture 6 - The Medieval synthesis and the Secularization of Human
Knowledge: The Scientific Revolution, 1543-1687 (1),
<http://www.pagesz.net/~stevek/intellect/lecture6a.html> (August 8, 2000).
6. L. Pearce Williams and Henry John Steffens, The Scientific Revolution, vol. 2 of The
History of Science in Western Civilization (Washington D.C.: University Press of
America, 1978) , 1.
The Scientific Revolution, during the 16th and 18th centuries, was a time of conflict. It was not a hand-to-hand martial conflict. It was a conflict of advancement, similar to the Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union. However, it was between the thinkers of the Scientific Revolution, such as Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei, and the Roman Catholic Church. At the time, the Catholic Church was the most powerful religious body in Europe. It controlled everything from education to faith to finances. Thinkers like Galileo took the risk and went against the church. This is shown through the documents below. Those documents tell the story of Galileo and how he was forced to revoke his support of heliocentrism by the church. The documents below also show the struggle between faith and reason that existed during this era of advancement by hindering the flourishment of the sciences by stating that it did not agree with the Bible and naming these early scientists as heretics.
The essay starts off by stating, “One could say that the dominant scientific world-view going into the 16th century was not all that “scientific” in the modern sense of the
In conclusion, the Scientific Revolution helped influence the great thinkers of the Enlightenment and the future progress of mankind. Paine, Franklin, and Condorcet all used reason and logic when examining the former tyrannies of religion and the teachings of the middle ages. They removed the dogma and doctrine and extracted what was good and valuable for the teaching and improvement of mankind.
Wolf, A. A History of Science, Technology and Philosophy in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Vol. 2. New York: Harper, 1959.
The Scientific revolution in the 16th and 17th centuries changed the way that people views the world. Scientific philosophers such as Galileo and Descartes threw out the old teachings of the church and challenged them with new ways of thinking. These men sought to prove that rational thought could prove the existence of God. They also challenged that it was an understanding of a series of rational thoughts, not faith, would bring understanding of how the world worked. Traditional ways of thinking were ultimately challenged by logical and sensible rationale.
The Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment period were both a time of immense growth in scientific discovery and an increase in the secular view of the world. The Scientific Revolution would include the use of direct observation and experimentation, dependence on mathematical confirmation, and inventions to test new scientific discoveries (Kwak). The new discoveries of the Scientific Revolution led the growing number of literate middle class individuals in the Enlightenment period. This growth of enlightened individuals led to more intellectual and cultural attitudes that shaped modern history throughout the world (Fiero, 134). This paper will analyze the impact of the
Wolf, A. A History of Science, Technology and Philosophy in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Vol. 2. New York: Harper, 1959.
Shapere, D. (1964). Review: The structure of Scientific Revolutions. The Philosophical Review , 73 (3), 383-394.
The modern science view as well as the Scientific Revolution can be argued that it began with Copernicus’ heliocentric theory; his staunch questioning of the prior geocentric worldview led to the proposal of a new idea that the Earth is not in fact the center of the solar system, but simply revolving around the Sun. Although this is accepted as common sense today, the period in which Copernicus proposed this idea was ground-breaking, controversial, and frankly, world-changing. The Church had an immense amount of power, and was a force to be reckoned with; in the beginning of the Scientific Revolution, new scientific proposals and ideas were discouraged in many cases by the Church. A quote from Galileo’s Children does an excellent job summing up the conflict: “The struggle of Galileo against Church dogma concerning the nature of the cosmos epitomized the great, inevitable and continuing clash between religion and reason.” If evidence goes against scripture, the scientist is considered a heretic and is, like in Galileo’s case, forbidden to discuss the ideas any further. Galileo Galilei, who proposed solid evidence and theory supporting the heliocentric model, was forced to go back on his beliefs in front of several high officials, and distance himself from the Copernican model. This, luckily, allowed him to not be killed as a heretic, which was the next level of punishment for the crimes he was charged with, had he not went back on his beliefs. Incredible support was given through the young developing academies with a sense of community for scientists and academics; “Renaissance science academies represent a late manifestation of the humanist academy movement.” Since the Church was grounded traditionally evidence that went agains...
Wolf, Abraham. History of Science, Technology, and Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century. New York: MacMillan Press, 1968. Web. 5 June 2012.
The revolution brought about many radical changes and ideas that helped to strengthen it and the scientists that helped to bring it about became significant persons in history. "The emergence of a scientific community is one of the distinguishing marks of the Scientific Revolution."2 It was this form of community that gave a foundation for open thinking and observing throughout the sixteenth century and through twenty-first century. It was the first revolution that had more of a dedication to the ongoing process of science than of a goal to achieve scientific knowledge.3
Through the ingenious works of poetry the role of nature has imprinted the 18th and 19th century with a mark of significance. The common terminology ‘nature’ has been reflected by our greatest poets in different meanings and understanding; Alexander Pope believed in reason and moderation, whereas Blake and Wordsworth embraced passion and imagination.
In conclusion, the scientific revolution brought dramatic change in the way people lived their lives, and it certainly influenced eighteenth century free-thinking. The scientific method was comprehensively utilized during the eighteenth century to study human behavior and societies. It enabled scientist and scholars alike to exercise their freedom of rationality so they could come to their own conclusions about religion and humanity as a whole. They could finally do so without having to defer to the dictates of established authorities.
The Scientific Revolution, perhaps one of the most significant examples of human beingsí relationship with the natural world, changed the way seventeenth and eighteenth century society operated. The power of human knowledge has enabled intellectual, economical, and social advances seen in the modern world. The Scientific Revolution which included the development of scientific attitudes and skepticism of old views on nature and humanity was a slow process that spanned over a two century period. During the Scientific Revolution, scientific knowledge enabled humans to control nature in order to improve society. With leaders such as Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, and Rene Descartes, the Scientific Revolution proves to be a crucial piece to the puzzle of understanding the effects of humansí interactions with the natural world.
...pted by people of the Late Middle Ages. More importantly, it brought out the idea that the Bible could not be interpreted for science, instead, people were to experiment or observe for themselves. The strongly supported heliocentric theory no refuted the favorable idea of humanity being in the center. The Scientific Revolution revealed the fact that the sun was in the universe, at the same time, it encouraged people to become innovators, thinkers, and experimenters instead of being dependent on theology. The Scientific Revolution was a big step forward for humanity. It showed that everyone was capable of thinking logically. In our society today, people can freely debate, read, and discover for themselves. Without the Scientific Revolution, the modernization of science may have been delayed, and our present ideas of the universe and humanity may have been different.