Christoph Scheiner was born in, Wald, Swabia, on July 25, 1573. He grew into his youth around the same time as the religious Society of Jesus (Jesuits) became popularized. The Jesuits were an offshoot off traditional Catholicism, whereby the values enacted by Jesuits directly reflected the principals held by the Catholic Church. Some claim the formation of the Jesuits was a retaliatory Counter Reformation of its own, and was enacted in an effort to combat the Protestant Reformation, which had swept across Europe during the first half of the same century (O’Malley, 43). Despite some of the religious restrictions that are implicitly incorporated with working behind the veil of Catholicism, Scheiner produced a number of forward-thinking ideas throughout his career as a mathematician and astronomer. He was both, cursed and blessed, for realizing much of his work during the same period as the famous astronomer, Galileo, who kept a scrutinizing eye on his publications. Although some of Scheiner’s work was misguided, he managed to overcome most of his mistakes and criticisms, and eventually asserted himself as a top authority on sunspots for nearly two hundred years (College, 569). All of Scheiner’s formal education had come by the teachings of Jesuit establishments, where he learned and believed (like most) of the Aristotelian structure of the cosmos. In his later years, he attended the Society’s University, where, in 1600, he studied mathematics and physics under Johannes Lanz (Reeves, 37). Lanz thought highly of Scheiner, especially in his abilities in the arenas of mathematics and mechanics. Over the next few years, Scheiner began teaching mathematics when he had heard of an artist’s mechanical drawing aid, the pantograph, w... ... middle of paper ... ...mos and progressed science towards its true natural place. Works Cited College, Carleton. Popular Astronomy. Vol. 24. Northfield, MN: Goodsell Observatory of Carleton College, 1916. Print Drake, Stillman, N. M. Swerdlow, and Trevor Harvey. Levere. Essays on Galileo and the History and Philosophy of Science. Toronto: University of Toronto, 1999. Print. Feingold, Mordechai, ed. The New Science and Jesuit Science: Seventeenth Century Perspectives. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 2003. Print. Krips, Henry. Science, Reason, and Rhetoric. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh, 1995. Print. Reeves, Eileen Adair., and Helden Albert. Van. On Sunspots. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2010. Print. O'Malley, John W. “The Jesuits: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts”, 1540–1773, Volume 1. University of Toronto Press, 1999. Church History. (1999): 1-746. Online Database.
In his Letter to The Grand Duchess Christina, Galileo challenged the widely accepted religious beliefs of the time, claiming that the conflict lies in their interpretation, not the context. In Galileo’s eyes science was an extremely useful tool that could and should have been used in interpreting the Scriptures. He argued that “the intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven not how heaven goes” (Grand Duchess). The purpose of science was not to counter what the bible teaches; rather its purpose was to help explain the teachings of the scriptures. Furthermore, it was “prudent to affirm that the holy Bible can never speak untruth-whenever its true meaning is understood” (Grand Duchess). However, because of the terminology in which the bible was presented the perception of what the Scripture defined as truth was skewed. The Bible was written so that the common man could understand it and follow its commandments. The people also showed a greater inte...
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 papal Rome in the early 16th century the “Good Book” was the reference book for all scientists. If a theory was supported in its holy pages, or at the very least not contradicted, then the idea had a chance of find acceptance outside the laboratory. Likewise, no theory no matter how well documented could be viewed with anything but disdain if it contradicted with the written word of, or the Church’s official interpretation of scripture. For these reasons the Church suppressed helio-centric thinking to the point of making it a hiss and a byword. However, this did not keep brave men from exploring scientific reason outside the canonical doctrine of the papal throne, sometimes at the risk of losing their own lives. While the Vatican was able to control the universities and even most of the professors, it could not control the mind of one man known to the modern world as Galileo Galilei. Despite a wide array of enemies, Galileo embarked on a quest, it seems almost from the beginning of his academic career, to defend the Copernican idea of a helio-centric universe by challenging the authority of the church in matters of science. Galileo‘s willingness to stand up for what he held to be right in the face of opposition from Bible-driven science advocates set him apart as one of the key players in the movement to separate Church authority from scientific discovery, and consequently paved the way for future scientific achievement.
Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist, often referred to as “the father of modern physics”. He was one of the inventors of the telescope and a strong proponent of Copernicanism. Galileo used his invention to make astronomical observations which supported Copernicus’ heliocentric model of the universe. These discoveries led to a fierce dispute, because they contradicted the theory which was prevalent at the time – that the universe followed a geocentric model, a theory, which had been accepted by the Catholic Church. To address this dispute, Galileo wrote a letter to Tuscany’s Grand Duchess Christina, in which he presented his position on the relation between science and religion, stating that the Bible does not contradict science.
Dyson, Marianne J. Space and Astronomy: Decade by Decade. New York: Facts on File, 2007. 14+. Print.
Tycho Brahe is remembered for many things: his golden nose, his ignominious death, and his famous last words. All of these things have gone down in history. However, Tycho Brahe was well-known in his time as a respected and well-paid astronomer. His observations were second to none. He was unsatisfiable and meticulous in his profession, building two of the finest observatories of his time, the second because the first was not up to his own high standards. He is still regarded as one of the best naked-eye observationalists of all time (Burke-Gaffney, 153).
Research News Planetary Scientists are Seeing the Unseeable Richard A. Kerr Science, New Series, Vol. 235, No. 2 -. 4784. The. Jan. 2, 1987, pp. 113-117. 29-31. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. Stable URL:
Ball, Rouse. “Sir Isaac Newton.” A Short Account of the History of Mathematics. 4th ed. Print.
15 Cassirer, 15. 16 Cassirer, 171. 17 Cassirer, 136. 18 Cassirer, 164. 19. Cragg, Gerald R. The Church and the Age of Reason, 1648-1789.
ABSTRACT: Bernard Bolzano (1781-1848), the famous logician and mathematician, worked from 1805-1819 as a religious professor at the Prague University. His studies focused on three main themes: (1) ethical education, including a rather liberal sexual education as well as the problems of the coexistence of Czechs and Germans in one country (with foresight into some of these matters before the rise of extreme nationalism); (2) social problems, where he formulated for the first time his social-utopian vision of human society based on the fundamental equality of people, ideas later gathered in his book, Von dem besten Staate; and (3) philosophy and religion, of which his lectures concentrate on the social function(s) of the Church and the social mission of the priesthood. Because of his opinions, he was disqualified from his professorship, resulting in a Church investigation against him. He was unable to return to the university, denied the right to publish in Austria, and relegated to live out his life as a private research worker. Bolzano's fate is similar to that of another pedagogue from Bohemia-Jan Patocka.
Leonhard Euler was born in Basel, Switzerland on 15 April 1707. His father, Paul Euler, studied theology at the University of Basel. Paul Euler became a Protestant minister and married Margaret Brucker. Leonhard Euler was born in Basel, but the family moved to Riehen when he was a one year old. It was in Riehen, not far from Basel, that Leonhard was raised. Paul Euler had a college education and, in turn, had some mathematical training. He was able to teach his son elementary mathematics along with other subjects (Leonhard Euler).
Few mathematicians had the good chance to change the course of mathematics more than once; Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer is one of the remarkable people who managed to do so. He came as a young student where before he could finish school he had already published his first original research papers on rotations in 4-dimensional space. Brouwer was a Dutch mathematician who founded mathematical intuitionism, which is a doctrine that views the nature of mathematics as mental constructions governed by self-evident laws, and whose work completely transformed topology which is the study of the most basic properties of geometric surfaces and configurations.
St Ignatius of Loyola is an inspiring person and has touched the lives of many people even now centuries after his death. Loyola has affected the lives of an uncountable number of people, either directly or indirectly. He started as an extremely brave and tough soldier and turned into the founder of a powerful religious order. He was born in 1491 in Spain and founded the Jesuits in 1540 at the age of 49.The Jesuits today are still a devoted religious order. Everything they do is in God’s name, hence their motto AD MAIOREM DEI GLORIAM this literally means “for the greater glory of God”. (Linten, Seven Things) Many Jesuits (and even non Jesuits like Pope John Paul II) sign their documents with amdg at the end to show that they do their work for God and not solely for themselves. (Linten, Seven Things) The Jesuits have survived multiple persecutions and yet have still remained a major influence in the church and in universities around the world. If it were not for an unfortunate cannonball shattering a soldier’s leg then none of this may have happened.
Findon, Joanne. Science and Technology in the Middle Ages. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company, 2004.