Chapter 16: The Scientific Revolution

• Background to the Scientific Revolution (SR)
• Brought dissolution of the medieval worldview
• Late medieval scholastic philosophers had advanced mathematical and physical thinking but subjected to strict theological framework
• Ancient Authors and Renaissance Artists
• Medieval scholars used Aristotle, Galen, and Ptolemy in Latin
• Renaissance humanists mastered Greek and making available new works of Galen, Ptolemy, Archimedes, Plata, and pre-Socratics
• Desire to discover which school of thought was correct led to rejection of the classical authorities
• Renaissance artists had impact on scientific study
• Desire to imitate nature led to accurate renderings of natural elements and anatomy
• Established new standards for study of natural phenomena
• Called on to practice mathematics
• Innovations and Mathematics
• Technical problems served to stimulate scientific activity
• Required careful observation and accurate measurements
• Belief that innovation in techniques was necessary
• Many technological experts did not believe in abstract or academic learning
• In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, emphasized practical rather that theoretical knowledge
• Printing press had crucial role in spreading innovative ideas quickly
• Mathematics was promoted in the Renaissance
• Key to navigation, military science, and geography
• Also there was belief that mathematics was key to understanding the nature of things
• New idea that nature is inherently mathematical
• Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton all great mathematicians who believed secrets of nature were written in mathematics
• Magic
• Preserve of an intellectual elite
• Hermetic magic fused with alchemical thought
• Believed the world was living embodiment of divinity
• Humans could use magic (especially mathematics) to understand and dominate nature
• Great names associated with cosmology (those mentioned above) had serious interests in Hermetic ideas
• SR resulted from the work of a handful of great intellectuals
• Revolution in Astronomy
• Greatest achievements during SR were in the fields astronomy, mechanics, and medicine
• Cosmological views built on ideas of Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Christian theology
• Resulted in geocentric conception where the earth is the center of the universe
• Earth was imperfect and constantly changing
• Spheres surrounding the earth made of crystalline, transparent substance; moved in circular orbits
• Circular movement was the most “perfect” according to Aristotle
• Ten spheres including the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the fixed stars (in the order from the earth)
• Beyond was the Empyrean Heaven (location of God)
• Fixed outer boundary in harmony with Christian thought
• God at one end, humans at the center
• Did not satisfy professional astronomers (wanted to know the precise paths)
• Observations did not always correspond to accepted scheme
• Copernicus
• Studied mathematics and astronomy
• Aware of ancient views that contradicted the geocentric conception
• Famous book, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
• Not an accomplished observational astronomer
• Relied on records of his predecessors
• Great mathematician who felt geocentric conception was too complicated
• Hoped heliocentric or sun-centered conception would be simpler and more accurate
• Argued the universe consisted of eight spheres with sun motionless at the center
• Planets revolved around the sun and moon around the earth
• Daily rotation of the earth on its axis and one revolution around the sun=one year
• Did not reject the existence of heavenly spheres moving in circular orbits
• Wound up with system almost as complicated as before
• Shift from geocentric to heliocentric was significant and raised serious questions about astronomy and physics
• Created uncertainty about human role in the universe as well as god’s location
• Protestant reformers were the first to attack new ideas
• Catholic Church remained silent until work of Galileo
• Brahe
• Copernicus did not have immediate impact but doubts about geocentric conception were growing
• Taken on by Johannes Kepler who was taught by Tycho Brahe
• Built elaborate Uraniborg Castle outfitted with a library, observatories, and instruments designed for precise astronomical observations
• Complied detailed records of his observations of positions and movements of the stars and planets for 20 years
• Data led him to reject geocentric theory but was unable to accept that the earth moved
• Took on assistance, Johannes Kepler
• Kepler
• Destined to be Lutheran minister
• While studying theology, fell under influence of Michael Mästlin (astronomer)
• Began to pursue his real interests
• Abandoned theology and became teacher of mathematics and astronomy
• Work illustrates narrow line that separated magic and science
• Interest in Hermetic mathematical magic
• Theory that universe constructed on basis of geometric figures
• Harmony of the human soul mirrored in numerical relationships between the planets
• Focused attention on discovering “music of the spheres” (math)
• After Brahe’s death, succeeded him as imperial mathematician to Rudolf II
• Gained possession of Brahe’s detailed astronomical data
• Used them to arrive at three laws of planetary motion:
• 1) orbits were elliptical
• 2) speed is greater when closer to the sun; decreases as distance increases
• 3) planets with larger orbits revolve at slower ave. velocity than those with smaller orbits
• Confirmed heliocentric theory while modifying it
• Eliminated idea of uniform circular motion + crystalline spheres
• Basic structure of geocentric conception was disproved
• Important questions remained (answered by Galileo)
• Galileo
• Taught mathematics
• First European to make systematic observations by using the telescope creating a new age in astronomy
• Series of discoveries: mountains and craters on the moon, four moons revolve around Jupiter, phases of Venus, and sunspots
• Demolished another aspect of tradition cosmology that universe composed of material substance similar to earth
• Published The Starry Messenger which stunned his contemporaries
• Europeans now more aware of new picture of the universe
• Received by scholars as conquering hero
• Grand Duke Cosimo II of Florence offered him position as his court mathematician which he accepted
• Increasingly suspect by Catholic Church created problems
• Inquisition
• Galileo was firm proponent of heliocentric system
• Roman Inquisition condemned Copernicanism, ordered Galileo to reject Copernican thesis
• Told he could continue to discuss Copernicanism if he maintained that it was not fact but mathematical supposition
• Copernican system threatened Scripture and entire conception of the universe
• Heavens no longer spiritual world but world of matter
• Humans no longer at the center and God was not in a specific place
• New system raised such uncertainties seemed prudent simply to condemn it
• Galileo never accepted his condemnation
• Most famous work, Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican, written in Italian making it more widely available
• This alarmed the church greatly
• Work was in the form of a dialogue among Simplicio (somewhat stupid supporter of Aristotle/Ptolemy), Sagredo (open-minded laymen), and Salviati (proponent of Copernicus)
• Perceived as a defense of Copernican system
• Dragged before the Inquisition
• Found guilty of teaching condemned Copernican system, forced to recant his errors
• House arrest on his estate, spent remaining 8 years in studying mechanics
• Problem of Motion
• Problems of mechanics was principle of motion
• Aristotelian conception said that an object remained at rest unless a force was applied against it; if force was constantly exerted, object moved at constant rate, if it was removed the object stopped
• Raised problems in new Copernican system
• What power or force kept earth and other planets moving?
• Two contributions by demonstrating that if uniform force was applied to an object, it would move at an accelerated speed rather than a constant speed
• Other was principle of inertia: a body in motion continues in motion forever unless deflected by an external force
• A state of uniform motion is as natural as state of rest
• Now task was to explain changes in motion
• Condemnation of Galileo seriously undermined further scientific work in Italy
• Leadership in science passed to England, France, and Dutch Netherlands
• No reasonable astronomer could overlook Galileo’s discoveries + Kepler’s mathematical laws
• Problem of explaining motion and tying together Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler solved by Newton
• Newton
• Invented calculus (mathematical means of calculating rates of change); began investigations into composition of light; inaugurated his work on law of universal gravitation
• Chair in mathematics at Cambridge
• Most famous work: Principia
• President of the Royal Society and knighted as Sir Isaac Newton
• Occult
• Extremely interested in aspects of the occult world
• Studies of alchemy were major feature of his life until he moved to London
• Considered the last of the magicians
• Considered himself representative of Hermetic tradition
• Universal Law of Gravitation
• Major work was last highly influential book in Europe written in Latin
• Spelled out mathematical proofs demonstrating his universal law of gravitation
• Culmination of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo
• Newton pieced together coherent synthesis for a new cosmology
• Defined basic concepts of mechanics
• Three laws of motion:
• 1) every object continues in a state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless deflected by a force
• 2) rate of change of motion of an object is proportional to the force acting on it
• 3) to every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction
• Applied his theories of mechanics to astronomy by demonstrating his three laws governed planetary bodies
• Explained why planetary bodies did not go off in straight lines
• In mathematical terms, explained every object was attracted to every other object with a force directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distances between them
• Implications were enormous
• Demonstrated one universal law proved mathematically could explain all motion in the universe
• Secrets of the natural world could be known by human investigations
• Created a new cosmology in largely mechanistic terms
• Universe one huge, regulated, uniform machine operated according to natural laws in absolute time, space, motion
• Believed god was “everywhere present” acting as the force that moved all bodies
• Later generations dropped spiritual assumptions
• World-machine theory dominated Western worldview until 20th century
• Soon accepted in England, b/c of national pride and political reasons
• Natural philosophers resisted Newton’s ideas
• Newton’s ideas were reinforced by developments in other fields (especially medicine)
• Medicine and Chemistry
• SR associated with changes in astronomy and mechanics
• Third field dominated by Greek thought also transformed (medicine)
• Galen’s influence on medical world pervasive in anatomy, physiology, and disease
• Relied on animal dissection
• While professor read a text of Galen, assistant dissected a cadaver for illustrative purposes
• Physiology also dominated by Galenic belief that we have two separate blood systems
• One controlled muscular activities and was bright red blood that moved up and down through arteries; other governed digestive functions and was dark red blood that flowed through veins
• Treatment of disease influenced by Galen’s doctrine of four bodily humors: blood (warm and moist), yellow bile (warm and dry), phlegm (cold and moist), black bile (cold and dry)
• Disease was result of imbalance of humors
• Purging and bleeding to remedy often harmful to patients
• Treatment with herbal medicines proved beneficial
• Paracelsus
• Three figures associated with changes in medicine: Paracelsus, Andreas Vesalius, and William Harvey
• Philippus Aureolus von Hohenheim renamed himself Paracelsus meaning “greater than Celsus”
• Traveled widely and awarded a medical degree from University of Ferrara
• Moment of glory when appointed city physician and professor of medicine at Basel
• Proved short-lived due to vanity and quick temper
• Public contempt for those who did not agree with his new ideas
• Because of his vain nature he was forced to wander
• Rejected Aristotle and Galen
• Hoped to replace tradition system with new chemical philosophy based on new understanding of nature from observation and experiment
• Closely connected to view of universe based on macrocosm-microcosm analogy (humans were small replicas (microcosms) of the larger world (macrocosm))
• Believed chemical reactions of the universe were reproduced in humans on a smaller scale
• Disease was due to chemical imbalances and could be treated by chemical remedies
• Careful attention to proper dosage of medicine
• Turned against Galenic principle that “contraries cure” in favor of ancient Germanic fold principle that “like cures like”
• Use of toxic substances had apparent effectiveness
• Viewed as “homicide physician” by his contemporaries
• Later generations view him more favorably
• Father or modern medicine
• Vesalius
• New anatomy work
• Involved in works of Galen
• Emphasized practical research for understanding human anatomy
• Professor of surgery
• Published masterpiece, On the Fabric of the Human Body
• Based on Paduan lectures
• Personally dissected a body while he was teaching
• Treatise presented careful examination of individual organs and general structure of the body
• Artistic advances and printing made possible illustrations superior to any done before
• Hands-on approach to teaching enabled him to rectify Galen’s errors
• Still clung to number of erroneous assertions of Galen though
• Not until William Harvey’s work of the blood that Galen’s misperception was corrected
• William Harvey
• Attended Cambridge and later Padua
• Received doctorate of medicine
• Reputation based on his book, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood
• Work based on meticulous observations and experiments
• Demonstrated the heart and not the liver was beginning point of circulation, same blood flows in veins and arteries, and the blood makes a complete circuit through the body
• Did not achieve recognition until capillaries were discovered (explained how blood passed from arteries to veins)
• Foundation for modern physiology
• Chemistry
• Science of chemistry
• Robert Boyle was one of the first scientists to conduct controlled experiments
• Properties of gases led to Boyle’s law: volume of a gas varies with the pressure exerted on it
• Rejected medieval belief that all matter consisted of same components
• Believed matter is composed of atoms
• Later known as elements
• Antoine Lavoisier invented system of naming elements
• Regarded as the founder of modern chemistry
• Women in Science
• Women who sought life of learning severely hampered by traditional attitude that proper role was as a daughter, wife, and mother
• New opportunities for elite women as humanism encouraged women to read and study classical and Christian texts
• Humanist education only for some privileged women
• Margaret Cavendish
• Women also attracted to SR
• Women interested in science had largely informal educations
• Noblewomen could participate in informal scientific networks of their fathers and brothers
• Cavendish came from an aristocratic background
• Participant in the crucial scientific debates
• Excluded from membership in the Royal Society although allowed to attend a meeting
• Wrote a number of works
• Attacked defects of the rationalist and empiricist approaches to scientific knowledge
• Especially critical of belief that through science, humans would be masters of nature
• Good example of women in France and England
• In Germany, women in science came from different backgrounds
• Tradition of female participation enabled some to become involved in observational science (especially entomology and astronomy)
• One of every seven German astronomers was a woman
• Maria Merian
• Established important entomologist training by working in father’s workshop where she learned art of illustration
• Observation of insects and plants demonstrated through superb illustrations
• Expedition into wilds of the Dutch in South America to collect and draw samples of plants and insect life
• Major work, Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam, include sixty illustrations
• Maria Winkelman
• Astronomy gave women opportunities in science
• Worked in family observatories
• Trained as apprentices to fathers or husbands
• Winkelman was German and educated by her father and uncle
• Married Gottfried Kirch and became his assistant
• Made some original contributions
• Corresponded with famous scientist Gottfried Leibniz
• He praised her effusively
• Applied for position as assistant astronomer when her husband died
• Denied the post
• Difficulties reflect the obstacles women faced
• Scientific work considered a male preserve
• No formal statutes excluded women but no woman was invited to join scientific societies until the 20th century
• Debates on Women
• Querelles des femmes: arguments about women
• Opinions largely a carryover from medieval times
• Women portrayed as inherently base, prone to vice, easily swayed, and “sexually insatiable” therefore men needed to control them
• Learned women viewed as having overcoming female liabilities to become like men
• Women joined this debate arguing against male images of women
• Argued women had rational minds and could grow from education
• Most women were pious, chaste, and temperate therefore no need for male authority
• Placed a huge emphasis on education
• Instead of instrument for liberation, science used to find new support for old, stereotypical views about woman’s place
• Important project was attempt to illustrate the human body and skeleton
• For Vesalius, portrayal of physical differenced were limited to external bodily form and the sexual organs
• New anatomy finally prevailed
• Drawings of female skeletons varied but had a larger pelvic area and smaller skulls
• “Proved” male social dominance
• Women lost traditional spheres of influence
• Especially in science-related art of midwifery
• Acquired their skills through apprenticeship
• SR caused traditional crafts to be upgraded and professionalized males took over
• Began to use devices and techniques derived from study of anatomy
• Used to justify the male takeover
• Eventually midwives only served the lower classes
• SR reaffirmed traditional ideas about women
• Used new science to spread view that women were inferior by nature
• Widespread distribution of books ensured continuation of these ideas
• Jean de La Bruyére remarked that educated women were like guns in a collection (only for show)
• New Earth: Descartes, Rationalism, New Humankind
• New conception of the universe had impact on Western view of humankind
• René Descartes reflected doubt and uncertainty pervasive in 17th century
• Part of the French lower nobility
• Jesuit education, studied law
• Volunteered for service in army of Maurice of Nassau
• Motives to join guided less by desire for military action than for travel and leisure time
• With a sense of divine approval, made new commitment to mind, math, and mechanical universe
• Starting point was doubt so decided to set aside all he had learned and begin again
• Asserted he would accept only things his reason said were true
• Additional principle: separation of mind and matter
• Absolute duality between mind and body, called Cartesian dualism
• Using mind or human reason was path to knowledge
• Through mathematics humans can understand the material world b/c it is a pure mechanism
• Conclusions had important implications
• Separation of mind and matter allowed scientists to view matter as dead or inert
• Could be investigated independently by reason
• Father of modern rationalism
• Books were on the papal Index of Forbidden Books condemned by many Protestant theologians
• Scientific Method and Spread of Knowledge
• Investigation began to increase dramatically
• New chairs of science, especially in medicine
• Royal and princely patronage of scientists
• Scientific Method (SM)
• Establishing the proper means to examine and understand physical realm was important
• Development of SM crucial to evolution of science
• Francis Bacon
• Englishmen, had few scientific credentials and attempted to put forth method of acquiring knowledge
• A lawyer and lord chancellor, rejected Copernicus and Kepler and misunderstood Galileo
• The Great Instauration, called his contemporaries “to commence a total reconstruction of sciences”
• Did not doubt ability to know the natural world
• Believed they had proceeded to do so incorrectly
• New foundation (correct SM) built on inductive principles
• Urged scientists to proceed from the particular to the general
• From experiments and observations to generalizations
• Concerned more for practical than pure science
• Wanted science to contribute to the “mechanical arts” by creating devices that would benefit industry, agriculture, and trade
• Control and domination of nature became central proposition of modern science and technology
• Descartes
• Proposed different approach by emphasizing deduction and mathematical logic
• Each step in an argument should be as sharp and well founded as mathematical proofs
• Believed one could start with self-evident truths and deduce more complex conclusions
• Complemented Bacon’s stress on experiment and induction
• Sir Isaac Newton synthesized them into a single SM
• United Bacon’s empiricism with Descartes’ rationalism
• Began with systematic observations and experiments used to arrive at general concepts
• Deductions could then be tested and verified by precise experiments
• Valuable in answering how something works
• Did not deal with why something happens or purpose and meaning behind nature
• Allowed religion to retain central importance
• Spread of Knowledge
• Emergence of new societies and journals enabled new scientists to communicate and disseminate their ideas
• Scientific Societies
• First appeared in Italy
• England and France ultimately had greater significance
• English Royal society evolved out of informal gatherings of scientists
• Formal charter from King Charles II
• French Royal Academy of Sciences also out of informal scientific meetings
• Louis XIV formally recognized the group
• French received abundant state support and remained under gov’t control
• Members paid salaries by the state
• English received little gov’t encouragement
• Early on, both emphasized practical value of scientific research
• Royal Society created committee to investigate technological improvements for industry
• French collected tools and machines
• Concern with practical benefits proved short-lived
• Came to focus on theoretical work in mechanics and astronomy
• Construction of observatories greatly facilitated research
• French forced by war minister to continue practical work to benefit “the kind and the state”
• German princes and city gov’ts encouraged small-scale scientific societies
• Most sponsored by gov’ts devoted to betterment of the state
• True significance was that science should proceed as a cooperative venture
• Journals furthered this concept of cooperation
• French published weekly journals printing results of experiments and general scientific knowledge
• Appealed to scientists and educated public
• Royal Society published papers of its members aimed at practicing scientists
• Crucial instrument for circulating news
• Science and Society
• Industrial Rev of 19th century provided tangible proof of effectiveness of science and ensured victory in society
• Two important social factors explain relatively rapid acceptance of new science
• Literate mercantile and propertied elites of Europe attracted to new science b/c if offered new ways to exploit resources
• Early scientists made it easier for groups to accept science by showing how they could be applied to specific industrial needs
• Science was fit for the “minds of the wise”; not for “the shallow minds of common people”
• Made science part of the high culture which was increasingly separated from lower class
• Political interests used new scientific conception to bolster social stability
• Fed by millenarian expectations, Puritan reformers felt it important to reform and renew their society
• Seized on new science as socially useful to accomplish this goal
• Role stemmed more from reaction to the radicalism spawned by revolutionary ferment
• Upheavals of Puritan Rev gave rise to Levellers, Diggers, and Ranters who advocated not only radical political ideas but new radical science based on Paracelsus and Hermetic tradition
• Propertied and educated elites responded vigorously by supporting new mechanistic science appealing to material benefits
• Founders of the Royal Society were men who wanted to pursue experimental science detached from church and state
• Willing to make change in terms of increase in food production and commerce
• Newtonian world-machine readily accepted
• Science soon applied to trade and industry
• Science and Religion
• Galileo’s struggle with inquisitorial Holy Office was beginning of conflict between science and religion
• Theology had seemed to be queen of the sciences
• Natural that churches believed religion was final measure of all things
• To emerging scientists, often seemed that theologians knew not of what they spoke
• Tried to draw lines between religion and “natural philosophy”
• To Galileo it made little sense for church to determine physical reality on basis of biblical texts which were subject to radically divergent interpretations
• Church decided otherwise and lent authority to the geocentric theory
• This decision had tremendous consequences
• For the educated it established dichotomy between scientific investigations and religious beliefs
• Scientific beliefs triumphed and religion suffered
• Growing secularization in intellectual life
• Many intellectuals were religious and scientific
• Believed this spilt would be tragic
• Some believed split was largely unnecessary
• Others felt need to combine God, humans, and mechanistic universe into philosophical synthesis
• Spinoza and Pascal illustrate wide diversity in response of intellectuals to implications of cosmological revolution
• Spinoza
• Grew up in Amsterdam
• Excommunicated from Amsterdam synagogue
• Ostracized by Jewish community and Christian churches
• Lived quiet independent life grinding optical lenses, refusing to accept academic position in philosophy
• Influenced greatly by Descartes
• Unwilling to accept implications of Descartes’ ideas, especially separation of mind and matter and separation of an infinite God from finite world of matter
• God not simply the creator; he was the universe
• Philosophy of pantheism
• Human beings are as much a part of god or nature or universal order as other natural objects
• Failure to understand God led to misconceptions (nature exists only for one’s use)
• Unable to find cause for existence of things, attributed them to a creator who must be worshipped
• Human beings made moral condemnations of others b/c they failed to understand human emotions that follow from same necessity and efficacy of nature and “nothing comes to pass in nature in contravention to her universal laws”
• Explain human emotions by analyzing them
• Everything has a rational explanation and humans are capable of finding it
• Using reason to find true happiness
• Real freedom when they understand the order and necessity of nature and achieve detachment from passing interests
• Pascal
• French scientist sought to keep science and religion united
• Brief but checkered career
• Scientist and mathematician, excelled at the practical and the abstract
• Worked on conic sections
• Had a profound mystical vision which assured him God cared for the human soul
• Devoted rest of his life to religious matters
• Set of notes (Pensées) trying to convert rationalists to Christianity by appealing to reason and emotion
• Humans were frail creatures deceived by their senses, misled by reason, and battered by their emotions whose very nature involved thinking
• Determined to show Christian religion not contrary to reason
• Christianity only religion that recognized people’s true state of being as vulnerable and great
• Human beings were fallen and God’s special creation
• Not necessary to emphasize one at expense of the other
• Answer for skeptics: God is a reasonable bet, it is worthwhile to assume that God exists; if he does not, we lose nothing
• Despite background as scientist and mathematician, refused to rely on scientist’s world of order and rationality to attract people to God
• “The finite man” was lost in the new infinite world
• World of nature could never reveal God
• A Christian could only rely on a God who through Jesus cared for human beings
• Final analysis, Pascal came to rest on faith
• Believed reason could take people only so far
• Faith was the final step: “God experienced by the heart, not by reason”
• Failed to unite Christianity and science
• Gap b/w the two grew wider as Europe continued to secularize
• Traditional religions not eliminated, nor did they loose followers but more intellectual, social, and political elites began to act on basis of secular not religious assumptions