New Directions in Thought And Culture in the 16th & 17th Cs

Overview• Sweeping change in scientific thought in the 16th & 17th Cs• New ways of looking at astronomy, physics, anatomy• These new ideas challenged the traditionally theological and

superstitious approach to explaining phenomena of the universe.

• The Scientific Revolution is rooted in the questioning spirit of the Renaissance and the rediscovery of classical thought.

• It is a movement that occurs happens at the same time that European question the Church in the Reformation and encounter previously unknown civilizations in the Age of Exploration.

• The anxiety that grew out of rapid change in thought and challenges to traditional life gave rise to a new wave of superstition – the witch hunts

The Scientific Revolution

• Causes – • 1) Philosophy grew out of theology as an

independent discipline in the Medieval university. The study of science then grew out of philosophy.

• 2) Patronage of the sciences in the Renaissance by the elites. Rediscovery of the classical thinkers in the Renaissance.

The Scientific Revolution

• Causes – • 3) The need to solve navigational problems

during the Age of Exploration. The telescope, barometer, thermometer, pendulum clock, and microscope all came out of attempts to solve problems faced by sailors/explorers.

• 4) The rise of the scientific method of Bacon and Descartes.

Nicolaus Copernicus

• Polish astronomer. • Rejected geocentrism (earth-centered world

view).• In the year of his death he published On the

Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543) - a revolution-making text that provided an intellectual springboard for a complete criticism of the dominant view of the position of the earth in the universe.

Nicolaus Copernicus• Challenged Ptolemaic view but transferred many of

Ptolemy’s ideas to a heliocentric model of the universe

• Dedicated his book to Pope Paul III. • Waited until near death to publish book because he

feared a backlash. • Luther and Calvin condemn the heliocentric theory.

By 1616 the RCC also condemns the theory.• Impact of his work – Allowed others to also challenge

his ideas.

Nicolaus Copernicus

Tyco Brahe

• Danish astronomer• Believed in earth-centered system,

constructed scientific instruments with which he made more extensive observations of planets than anyone

• Provided vast body of astronomical data from which his successors could work

Johannes Kepler• German astronomer, convinced Copernican, • More rigorous advocate of heliocentric model than

Copernicus.• Used Brahe’s records for research.• Discovered that planets motions were elliptical, the

speed of their orbits is not uniform, and the time of the orbits is based on a planet’s distance from sun.

• Published findings in The New Astronomy, used Copernicus’s model and Brahe’s empirical data to solve the problem

• Still no explanation of why orbits were elliptical.

• Johannes Kepler

Galileo Galilei• Italian mathematician and natural philosopher• Used newly invented telescope to discover new stars

and moons– Named the moons of Jupiter after the Medicis

• Popularized the Copernican system• Articulated the concept of a universe subject to

mathematical laws• All falling objects descend with equal velocity

regardless of their weight. Gravity was a universal force that produced uniform acceleration

• Galileo’s telescope

• Galileo Galilei

Isaac Newton• Question of planetary motion and how heavenly bodies

moved in an orderly fashion• Established a basis for physics in Principia Mathematica

(1687)• Reasoned that the planets and all other physical objects in

the universe moved through mutual attraction, or gravity• Upheld importance of empirical data-as Newton’s own

theory• Newtonian physics would be the basis of the physical

sciences until Einstein challenges some of his teachings in the 20th C.

• Sir Isaac Newton