Joseph Priestley and His Paradigm Shift

In the mid 1500s, the Scientific Revolution was born. Modern science was born at this time where everything as simple as thermometers and telescopes were one of the most astounding things to ever be seen or heard. New discoveries in science that radically changed the way humans understood the world occurred at this time till the late 1700s. Paradigm shifts were happening in every direction possible. A paradigm shift is a change in basic assumptions that is corrected and makes thoughts shift to another assumption. Thoughts of old theories were destroyed and replaced by modernized and corrected ones. Every scientist at this time was attempting to create a paradigm shift that would affect the world drastically. One of those scientists was Joseph Priestley. This chemist and philosopher discovered one of the biggest things in the world. He discovered oxygen or in other words, dephlogisticated air. Before the 1700s, people believed in the phlogiston theory, which was the belief that we breathe to get rid of phlogiston, which is an odorless, colorless substance that is absorbed into the air after combustion. In 1774, a new theory replaced this. The theory was called the dephlogisticated theory or in other words, oxygen. Joseph Priestley discovered that we do not breathe to let out phlogiston but we breathe to take in oxygen to help us with cellular activities and to release carbon dioxide (Phlogiston Theory). After Priestley discovers this new gas he starts to feel confused with his discovery and goes to France to meet his fellow scientist and together they discuss this new theory of dephlogisticated air. He repeated his experiments and proved to Antoine, the scientist he met, that the theory was true, even though Priestley didn’t agree ...

... middle of paper ...

...tannica, Inc., 2014. Web. 15 May

2014. .

Kingston , Elizabeth. "Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy." Priestley, Joseph . N.p., n.d. Web.

18 May 2014. .

"Oxygen, an Element in Air: Joseph Priestley." Oxygen, an Element in Air: Joseph Priestley.

N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2014.

Schlager, Neil, and Josh Lauer. "Life Sciences and Medicine." Science and its times:

understanding the social significance of scientific discovery. Detroit: Gale Group, 20002001. 192. Print.

Schofield, Robert E. Joseph Priestley, Natural Philosopher. Iowa: Bull. Hist. Chem., 2005.

Print.

"Science and Faith." Chapter 1: What Can We Know and How Do We Know It?. N.p., n.d.

Web. 13 May 2014.