preview

Essay on The Scientific Revolution

Good Essays

In the centuries preceding the Scientific Revolution people attempted to understand natural phenomena through the lenses of doctrine and philosophical speculation. Scientists were content with to rely on a synthesis of Aristotelian framework and dogma in attempt to describe the world. During the Scientific Revolution scientists began to embrace empiricism as a way to better understand the intricacies of nature. Unlike today scientists during the Scientific Revolution didn’t see a dichotomy between science and religion. Scientists’ chief motivation in investigating nature was to add empirical support for the concept of divine design; the belief that held that God established order in the universe according to discernible principles. …show more content…

This allowed scientists to combine observations made during experiments with formulas to form theories that could model realistic conditions found in nature. Beyond its empirical utility, the fusion of mathematics with observational science gained traction for its religious ramifications as well. Scientists reasoned that God made the universe according to a divine order governed by mathematics. In noting the inextricability of mathematics with nature Galileo remarked “ The great book of nature – God wrote- can be read only by those who know the language in which it is written. And this language is mathematics” (Gullen 23). One man who strongly believed in this concept and fully realized its applications was Sir Isaac Newton. A deeply pious man Newton set out to lend mathematical credence to the principle of divine design. Through the developments made by Kepler astronomers were able to predict the movement of the planets in their rotation around the Sun. However, Newton sought to answer a much more fundamental question. Newton wanted to discover the cause behind the planet’s motion. For Newton the answer lied in Kepler’s Third Law of planetary motion. As a necessary consequence of the law, Newton noticed the planets moved faster closer to the Sun and slowed down the further away from it. This lead Newton to believe that the cause of the orbits must be the Sun itself. While examining Kepler’s mathematics Newton was able

Get Access