The Scientific Revolution and The Enlightenment Essay

This essay will explore parallels between the ideas of the scientific revolution and the enlightenment. The scientific revolution describes a time when great changes occurred in the way the universe was viewed, d through the advances of sciences during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The enlightenment refers to a movement that grew out of the new scientific ideas of the revolution that occurred in the late seventeenth to eighteenth century. Although both the scientific revolution and enlightenment encapsulate different ideas, the scientific revolution laid the underlying ideological foundations for the enlightenment movement. A number of parallels

Through the utilization of his telescope, Galileo helped prove Copernicus’ heliocentricism. Using his telescope Galileo saw four moons around Jupiter and the phases of Venus which helped support a heliocentric solar system. Copernicus predicted that all phases

Galileo began to express openly his support of the Copernican theory that the earth and planets revolved around the sun. This challenged the doctrine of Aristotle and the established order set by the Catholic Church. supported the Copernican theory, which supports a sun-centered solar system. Galileo was accused twice of heresy by the church for his beliefs, and wrote books on his ideas.

During the Enlightenment, radical thinkers challenged the tradition of myth and faith taught by the church in favor of science and rational thought. Galileo and Copernicus denied the belief that Earth was the center of the universe as interpreted from the bible. Many people believed in geocentricism because they were taught that God’s greatest design was mankind and everything designed thereafter was for them. However, Galileo discovered that the sun was the center of the universe by using scientific investigation and employing a telescope (E&A 2015).

After a thorough study he prepared a revolutionary theory that stated that the planets move in a circle formation rather than moving in an elliptical form. The system given by Galileo known as Ptolemaic system in which each planet has a system of two spheres one is called as a deferent and the other is termed as its epicycle. In this system it was argued that the Earth was in the center position of the universe while half the stars were above the horizon and other half of that stars were below the horizon. There was also an assumption that the stars are at a modest distance from the center of the universe. If somehow there is a displacement of Earth from its position, which is the center position, then this division will be into visible and invisible stars will not be equal. The Copernicus remains speculative in spite of the influence of the Maraghaschool as there was no documentary evidence to prove his system. There were many articles that argue that there is a biblical perspective which appear in some newsletters that indicates the apparent movement of the Sun and the Moon around the Earth rather than showing that the rotation of the Earth about its own

Copernicus was studying and writing during the Renaissance and arguably the Scientific Revolution. The Renaissance was a time of rebirth of old ideas and a new way of looking at things not just in the areas of science but throughout literature, arts and many other areas. It was a time when new ideas did not seem to provide solutions to all the questions that were being asked.( ) Copernicus proposed a new system of planetary motion that had the sun at the centre of the universe rather than the earth. However contrary to popular belief, this was not a new and revolutionary idea. The ancients had proposed such a solution, most notably from Aristarchus who argued that it was more plausible for the sun to be at the centre rather than the earth. However Copernicus makes no mention of Aristarchus in De Revolutionibus. Not long before Copernicus began writing, Cusa suggested this again, and it is argued that this may be where Copernicus got early inspiration from, although this is not proven. ( ) It was in the rest of his writing that Copernicus

Stokstad posits that these ideas have roots in the previous scientific revolution of the century before it, with philosophers such as Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes establishing what we now know as the scientific method based on logical reasoning, educated guesses and controlled experiments to prove them. The astronomer Galileo Galilei confirmed a previous theory by Nicolaus Copernicus that the sun did not revolve around the Earth and that it was the other way around-- the planets revolved around the sun. These theories and practices went against the Church's teachings, and Galileo in particular was forced to take back what he said on his observations. Other scientists made discoveries on smaller scales relating to the animal kingdom and plant life, and artists were used to convey the new-found information by painting or drawing those findings. (p. 756) With the different revolutions and events that took place before the eighteenth century, it could be said that the Enlightenment was just a logical progression and the next step.

Before the Scientific Revolution, popular beliefs concerning the world and its functions all led back to the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Perhaps one of the most known beliefs of the Church was its geocentric theory, where the Earth was the center of the universe instead of the Sun. However this theory was refuted by men such as Copernicus and Galileo. In 1543, Copernicus wrote On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, where he discredited the Catholic Church’s long held belief. He had argued that the Sun was in the center of our solar system instead of the Earth, giving way to the heliocentric theory. Then in 1632, Galileo had published his book Dialogue on the

The Enlightenment Period was the most overall significance in the history of science known as the “Age of Reason”. This period challenged theological authority from traditional to intellectual ways of thinking. The developments during this time fostered the change. Creative thinkers include Newton, Locke and Halley changed scientific thought. Society was transformed from describing knowledge in terms of human experience rather than biblical beliefs. In this age scholars adopted empiricism, proposing the idea that theories should be based upon human observations and experience. Significant advancements in astronomy and Physics resonated from this period. A decline of power of monarchies, and a reduction in the pre-eminence of the Church gave rise to independence of thought. These actions, discoveries, innovative ideas created a metamorphosis of scientific growth, which solidifies its significance in the history of science.

Newton’s publication of Principia Mathematica in 1677, as well as the Glorious Revolution, paved the way for the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment. Promoting critical thinking about the world and about humankind, the Enlightenment based itself primarily on scientific questioning and empirical analysis. Scientists and philosophers of the eighteenth century questioned the traditional ideas about the universe, society, and culture, and rejected the Aristotelian worldview, skeptical because of its lack of verifiable evidence. Denouncing God as the creator of the universe inspired the thinkers of the time to apply the newly founded scientific method in discovering the origin of all existence, leading to the scientific achievements of Copernicus,

The age of Enlightenment was a progression of the cultural and intellectual changes in Europe that had resulted from the scientific revolution during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The scientific revolution and the discoveries made about the natural world would ultimately challenge the way people perceived the world around them. Scientist found real answers, by questioning flawed ancient beliefs that were widely held and maintained by the church. Ultimately, these discoveries and scientific advancements would evolve and effect social, cultural, and political developments in Europe over the course of time. The scientific revolution had provided certainty about the natural world that had long been questioned. With these new

The Scientific Revolution revolutionized the middle ages. The concepts of secularization, scientific method, heliocentrism, as well as the creation of major fields of science. The Scientific Revolution paved the way for modern science. Much of the work that created during the sixteenth and seventeenth century is still considered to be the foundation of many major fields such as chemistry, physics, astronomy and biology. During the revolution, science began to be excepted by both the Protestant and the Catholic churches. Matter of fact, science was encouraged by the church. However, the church had control over the scientist and would commonly censor individuals that spoke out against the church.

However, it was a Frenchman who felt he had proven God’s existence who would provide the philosophical framework for the Enlightenment’s questioning of religion and tradition. René Descartes took Bacon’s ideas of scientific inquiry and used them not only to learn new information about the physical world and hard sciences, but also used them to try and make conclusions about the questions that had long dogged humanity, such as questions about the existence of God. However, in the end, by applying this philosophy of doubt to all fields of human endeavor, Descartes inspired later thinkers to apply even more penetrating and meaningful questions to these same fields of thought, particularly in philosophy and religion, but also in fields such as history and the other soft sciences. This led directly to the explosion of thought and rational inquiry that resulted in the Enlightenment, the “republic of letters,” and the art of the 18th century.

Before the 18th century, scholars had already begun to dive into the study of the natural world. This movement, later known as the Scientific Revolution, created the foundation for what would later be the Enlightenment. Consequently, this understanding of modern science allowed for many Enlightenment thinkers and philosophers to translate these ideas to build upon pressing notions of the time like human rights, equality, and progress. These concepts transformed both elite and popular culture through which discussions on politics, the role of women, and the respective public sphere took shape.

Undoubtedly, the beginning of the modernization of the West can be traced to the scientific revolution. A period of scientific advances in the areas of math, astronomy, and physics, the scientific revolution sought to bridge the gap between the physical and metaphysical. During this era, the Catholic Church held authority over the masses of illiterate and uneducated commoners. The Church, because of its central role in everyday life, controlled the development science and secular knowledge. However, the scientific revolution began to undermine the authority and long-held beliefs of the Church. Rene Descartes, Galileo Galilei, Frances Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, and countless others fundamentally changed the way that humans viewed the physical world . Reasoning and logic began to triumph over emotion and whim. The stars moved across the night sky according to Newton’s laws of physics, not according to the whims of gods. Deductive reasoning solved real-world issues