The Scientific Revolution Of The Modern Era

During the seventeenth century, the scientific revolution in Europe was at its peak, changing people’s lives through the new techniques of the scientific method. Citizens of western civilizations had previously used religion as the lens through which they perceived their beliefs and customs in their communities. Before the scientific revolution, science and religion were intertwined, and people were taught to accept religious laws and doctrines without questioning; the Church was the ultimate authority on how the world worked. However, during this revolution, scientists were inspired to learn and understand the laws of the universe had created, a noble and controversial move toward truth seeking. The famous scientists of the time, such as Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton, were known to be natural philosophers, intending to reveal God’s mystery and understand (through proof) the majesty of God. Throughout previous centuries, people had hypothesized how the world and natural phenomenon may work, and new Protestant ideals demanded constant interrogation and examination. Nevertheless, some of these revelations went against the Church’s teachings and authority. If people believed the Church could be wrong, then they could question everything around them, as well. As a result, the introduction of the scientific method, a process by which scientists discovered and proved new theories, was revolutionary because it distinguished what could be proved as real from what was simply

Lisa Jardine’s Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific Revolution provides a comprehensive breakdown of the discoveries that defined the Scientific Revolution and the history behind them. The story of the scientific revolution truly begins with a separation between the Catholic Church and the denizens of Europe brought on by the Protestant Reformation. This separation led directly to the questioning of the church and what they deemed to be true. The growing suspicion of the church applied not only to the politics and religious views but the scientific “facts” the church was built upon. The suspicion of these scientific facts quickly grew to an open challenging of these facts, The Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution is something we have all studied in our grade school years and the discoveries of people such as Isaac Newton and Galileo Galilei are well documented and arguably common knowledge but Jardine’s book Ingenious Pursuits encapsulates the scientific revolution in a new light. Jardine accomplishes this by telling the stories of some of the greatest achievements of the Scientific Revolution. These stories reveal the collaborations of some of histories most brilliant minds as well as the secrecy amongst them and uncover the motives that fueled many of these accomplishments.

In the beginning God created the heavens with the Earth along with man in his own image. For over 1500 years, Christian followers were heavy believers of the bible, seeing it as the primary source for knowledge. Then came the scientific revolution in the 1500s, a movement which challenged the Christian view of the universe. It was a time when people were looking for a new way of thinking about the world. Since then and to this day, there has been several instances in which scientific inquiry and religious belief have collided in their ideologies.

In the book “ The Scientific Revolution: A Very Short Introduction”, Lawrence Principe discusses the general occurring events of the scientific revolution, and overviews various in-depth details in relation to those events. People at the time highly focused on the meanings and causes of their surrounds, as their motive was to “control, improve and exploit” (Principe 2) the world. In his work, Principe has successfully supported the notion that the Scientific Revolution stood as a period in time where one's innovation would drive improvements towards change and continuity of future innovations, along with changes of tradition. His statement is strongly backed by his detailed and particular order of events throughout the book. Nevertheless, certain details that lead beyond the necessary background are found, as they do not appertain to the general line of the book, but rather for background knowledge.

Another important figure in the Scientific Revolution was Galileo Galilei. He was an Italian born professor of mathematics who had a great interest in the workings of the universe. Galileo served as a professor at the University of Padua, and it was during this time that he began to question the accuracy of the Churches representation of the world. Galileo’s approach towards knowledge was much different then the afore mentioned Copernicus. Where as Copernicus presented his finding to the mercy of the church, Galileo wrote his conclusions and left the Roman Catholic Church interpret them as they chose. The very nature of his findings pitted him as an opponent of the church.

The Scientific Revolution was when modern science was essentially established, which came along with the major scientific discoveries took place at the time. Some major scientists that contributed to this major era include Nicholas Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo Galilei, and Isaac Newton. The scientific revolution took place following the Renaissance, from the mid-1500’s until about 1700. This revolution took place throughout Europe. This occurred because, following the Renaissance and the reformation, people became very curious and wanted to understand how the Earth worked. It was almost as if, being that this occurred after the reformation, that they wanted to either confirm or refute the church’s claims. The significance of the scientific revolution was one of great proportions, it changed mankind’s understanding the importance of science, and of how the Earth and solar system function.

"The growth of commerce and industry led to the technological advances, which in turn stimulated, and were stimulated by science.” (p. 403) The European scientific revolution was fueled by the blending of “liberal” and “servile” arts, in other words, science and technology. Because of the European expansion taking place throughout the world, new commerce and industries were advancing, creating the need for new technology and science. The theories and inventions that Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton provided were the fist major advances during the scientific revolution, and perhaps were the most profound.

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a period of many changes in world of sciences. Usually the philosophes and researchers of the sciences were either supported or reprimanded by many aspects of life in these centuries. The work of scientists was affected by governments promoting, but also preventing, research of the sciences, religious bodies promoting or condemning the outcomes of experiments and theories and even merging outcomes to religious ideas, and also new relationships between scientists across Europe, but also with a neglect of women.

During the Middle Ages the Church ruled conclusively on a number of truths about the natural

The Scientific Revolution was a time of scientific questioning in which tremendous discoveries were made about the Earth. It has been referred to as “the real origin both of the modern world and the modern mentality” (Mckay, 596) and caused the foremost change in the world-view. This revolution occurred for many reasons. Universities were established in Western Europe in order to train lawyer’s doctors and church leaders and philosophy became a major study alongside medicine, law, and theology. The Renaissance stimulated scientific progress because mathematics was improved, texts were

The Scientific Revolution was a period of the development of the new and modern theories of science and universe. This development took place from 16th century to 17th century. This concept was widely accepted by the people of Europe. This period changed the beliefs which were not accurate and changed the status of women in the society. Many scientists, such as Nicolas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler and Sir Issac Newton changed the European history with the help of new discoveries and knowledge and disagreement with the Catholic Church.

The scientific revolution started in around 1543. The scientific revolution was a time period where there were developments in math,biology,chemistry,and astronomy. This led to people such as Nicholas Copernicus and Issac Newton creating things such as calculus and the idea of a heliocentric solar system. These people were key figures in the scientific revolution. Because of this time period of learning everyone from the rich to the poor were effected during and after the Scientific Revolution.

Between the mid-1700s and the mid-1800s, the scientific revolution introduced experimentation, observation, and logic. At the same time a group of people, referred to as Philosophers, started to apply reason to propose a new social order which brought the Age of the Enlightenment. These people believed in the ideals of liberty and equality, which brought revolutions throughout Europe, and the colonies of North and Latin America. Before the Enlightenment, A major problem was that almost everyone was still in the medieval mindset. This consisted of the clergy and the king controlling large masses by using their lack of information and ‘blind trust’ in god.

What was the Scientific Revolution and why was it so important to Europe? What did the scientific revolution help develop during time? These are some of the questions that many ask themselves when asked to define scientific revolution and enlightenment in the 17th/ 18th century. The terms “Scientific Revolution” and “Enlightenment” are used to describe two important phases that Europe came across during the 1500s to the 1800s. The 17th century scientific revolution left a huge impact on Europe leading it to the 18th century enlightenment. The Scientific Revolution in the 16th and 17th century was the start and new beginning to the modern science. The new discoveries that were being developed during this period led to a more clear way of understanding why things happened. The scientific revolution removed a state of ignorance and error, which eventually led to the age of enlightenment in the 18th century. There were many people who disbelieved the improvements and changes that Europe was going through. Instead of taking the new material as an advantage to the society many people were receiving it as something evil. Thankfully there were some people who approved of the changes and helped with the process. The scientific revolution and enlightenment brought new ideas into how people lived, thought, and worshipped.

The scientific revolution was one of the greatest times in the 16th century and its ideals have proved to last to this very day. The great minds of the scientific revolution brought forth new concepts and vastly complex while each one is rooted in a basic fundamental. Some of these ideas and fundamentals were of the outside world, aka space, the planet and the stars, motion, and physics. One of the best minds of this time was, of course, Galileo Galilei. This great astronomer was a marvel at his work, he introduced controversial concepts that the church did not accept but those that he believed were to be true. Written by Galileo himself, this letter to the Grand Duchess professed his great discoveries and how they changed old ideas and