The Scientific Revolution

Scientific Revolution – a change in the way of thinking about the physical universe

began in the mid-1500s

Causes of the Scientific Revolution

• humanism – interest human experiences and worldly events

• individualism – the belief that all actions take place for the benefit of the individual, not of society as a whole

• cultural diffusion – the exchange of ideas between different societies

• Protestant Reformation– weakened the Catholic Church– advocated people thinking for themselves

Scientific Thinkers

• Nicolaus Copernicus– wrote On the Revolutions

of the Heavenly Spheres– introduced heliocentric model – the sun is the

center of the universe and the planets revolve around it

Geocentric – everything revolves around the Earth

Heliocentric – everything revolves around the sun

Old way of thinking...

New way of thinking ...

• Galileo Galilei – developed the first astronomical telescope– documented sun spots and mountains on the

moon

• Galileo’s discoveries caused many problems– scholars refused to believe him because his

ideas contradicted ancient beliefs– the Catholic Church condemned him as a

heretic for going against church doctrine

• Galileo was put on trial in 1633 and stated that the Earth was the center of the universe in order to avoid being executed

• he was put under house arrest for the rest of his life

• Sir Isaac Newton– defined gravity – the force

that keeps the planets in orbit around the sun

– wrote Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophies

– argued that nature followed uniform laws

• Robert Boyle– distinguished between elements and chemical

compounds– explained the effect of temperature and

pressure on gasses

• Andreas Vesalius– studied anatomy– wrote On the Structure of the Human Body

• Sir Francis Bacon– stressed

experiment and observation

– used science to improve life

– wrote his ideas in a collection of books, including New Atlantis

• René Descartes– thought that human reasoning was the best

path to understanding– wrote Discourse on Method

• included his famous phrase “I think, therefore I am”

Results of the Scientific Revolution

• new inventions and technologies

• further weakening of the Catholic Church

• new belief in progress

Scientific Method scientific method - the process by which

scientists try to construct an accurate representation of the world

Scientific Method