The Scientists Involved In The Scientific Revolution

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.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the world of science became exposed to new scientific discoveries that were not welcomed by the church. For decades, people believed and did everything the Roman Catholic Church told them because there were no documents or no other proof of scientific knowledge to go on. Friendship should be spread through the whole world of learning…(Document 9)” You will learn better if you are friends because you can exchange information and find out more than if you were enemies. The Roman Catholic Church was threatening by the Scientific Revolution because Copernicious’s, Galilei’s, and Newton’s new science discoveries open people minds to change.

Throughout history there have been many different movements that have shape society into what it is today. In the Pre-modern Era (1450-1750) idea to challenge the traditional institution such catholic or absolute theory, was becoming a bigger factor day by day. This idea gave people more individual right and freedom. In the 1540-1690 the scientific revolution was one of those movements that change the mind of many people. This revolution gave a voice to society to speak about their opinions on space, communities and many more things.

The scientific revolution established the new view of the universe. During this period people were finally beginning to define the scientific method and apply it to search for the truth. The scientific ideas of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries overturned many of the most fundamental ideas of the medieval worldview. New knowledge of the physical world provided occasions for challenging the authority of the church and of scripture. The new ideas then began to displace and reshape religious models of thought. Even though the scientific revolution exposed humankind to the truths of the world, the new science posed a potential challenge to religion.

In the Middle Ages, medieval people believed that God was the center of truth and experience; because of this, they greatly doubted human perception. Human perception was very inconsistent and deceitful, but this was because the material world itself was known to be misleading and illusive. Instead of it being a path that leads to truth and veracity, the material world was a distraction to people and directed them away from the actual truth. On the contrary, humanism was a mode of thought devoted to humans and their values and dignities instead of God; this system was focused around the importance of humans and reason instead of supernatural matters and religion. Humanism broke away from supernaturalism and believed that human perception and creativity were a truthful and reliable source for knowledge.

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The Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment, which spanned from the late 1500’s to 1700’s, shaped today’s modern world through disregarding past information and seeking answers on their own through the scientific method and other techniques created during the Enlightenment. Newton’s ‘Philsophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica’ and Diderot’s Encyclopedia were both composed of characteristics that developed this time period through the desire to understand all life, humans are capable of understanding the Earth, and a sense of independence from not having to rely on the nobles or church for knowledge.

The Scientific Revolution began in the 1500's. New observations and theories about the natural world created a different mindset about the study of our Earth. This eventually caused people to dismiss the traditional religious teachings about our planet. Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, and Isaac Newton were pioneering scientists that came up with ground breaking discoveries and theories. Nicolaus Copernicus came up with the heliocentric theory. This was the idea that Earth, and all of the other planets in the solar system, revolve around the sun, which was in the middle. In the early 1600's, Galileo Galilei created the telescope. He used this tool to gaze up at the sky. The observations that he made using the telescope supported Copernicus's

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

Prior to the 18th century, the European mindset was based on religion and superstition, with the church at the forefront. In the realm of science, people had accepted without question what they deemed to be irrefutable theories of “natural philosophy”, such as Aristotle’s “common sense physics” and Ptolemy’s geocentric view of the universe. But due to the rediscovery of classical learning, new technology such as the printing press, international competition, and many other factors, in the 18th century humanity began to make significant steps in progress during the Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution then inspired a period of time known as the Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason, in which men discovered ideas and principles that would eventually alter the global mindset and served as a major turning point in European society. Despite these enormous changes, however, the Enlightenment did not serve all areas of European society; concepts such as peasantry, serfdom, sexism, and social inequality found little improvement in this era.

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 at its height during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with many supporters and critics of the works of scientists. It was the transition from the medieval, philosophical and religious perspective to a secular and rational perspective. One of the biggest debates that defined the Scientific Revolution was the debate over whether the universe was geocentric (with the earth at the center of the universe), or heliocentric (with the earth revolving around the sun). The works of these scientists was influenced by political leaders for their desire in power, the clash of ideas between religious leaders and institutions, and differentiation towards female scientists and unorganization in research. In all, each of these three parts of society contributed to the Scientific Revolution in very important ways.

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.

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.

Some of the new scientific discoveries consisted of theories which went against the churches beliefs. One theory which was proven true about