The Death of Nature: the Scientific Revolution

Making the world rational

Last gasp of the medieval mind

I. Pre-scientific worldview

A. Medieval cosmology

1. natural/supernatural combinedmonotheistic/animistic

B. Aristotelianism

1. Thomas Aquinas = blend Christianity and

rationalism (1200s)

II. Early Science

A. the Universe

1. Copernican Revolution - 1543

On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres

Copernicus and his solar system

2. Kepler’s laws of planetary motion

- universe not “perfect”

- challenges Aristotelian logic

3. Isaac Newton = natural laws

- 3 Laws of Thermodynamics

* objects at rest… * redirection proportional to force * equal & opposite reaction

- Principia Mathematica, 1692

B. The human body

1. Chemical theory = Paracelsus (1500s AD)

chemicals can be measured

amount v. nature

3. Robert Boyle

The Sceptical Chymist (1661)

physiology &

natural law

4. William Harvey - body as machine

scientific methods & anatomy

C. Implications for the non-human world

1. Holistic ecology

- peasant culture

2. Arcadian ecology

- Gilbert White,

Natural History of Selborne

3. Imperial Ecology - Francis Bacon

- deductive reasoning

- form understanding of universe by collecting

vast amounts of data

- “reductionist” = make nature a

machine

D. Science Enthroned

1. Government Support

Royal Academy, Academie de Science

2. Technological advances

- James Watt’s steam engine; navigational

techniques; metallurgy; chemistry;

explosives; mining; etc.

III. The backlash

A. The Inquisition

1. Heresy

B. Witchcraft hysteria

1. Causes?

- social dislocation

- religious wars

2. The Hammer of Witches, 1486 [Sprenger & Kramer]

3. “traditional” witchcraft

expression of holistic ecology

“big” & “little” magic

4. Role of women

Anti-witch hysteria: last gasp of the medieval world

- division of Christianity

- market dislocation

- decline of the irrational