The Scientific Revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries changed the way educated people looked at the world. It evolved from the Renaissance’s stress on the importance of individuals to understand the world around them, and was the key factor that moved Europe from a worldview that was primarily religious to one that was primarily secular. Although a more secular society was likely not their goal, Luther’s and Calvin’s attacks against the authority of the pope provided a powerful example of how to challenge traditional authority. Their questioning attitudes produced an environment that encouraged the inquiry necessary for science to flourish.
Science in the Middle Ages was designed to help a person reach a better understanding of God and not the world. A medieval scientist would have found it inconceivable to examine the universe outside the realm of religion. During the Renaissance from the 1300s up until the early 1500s, science was still considered a branch of religion, and scientific thought held that the earth was a stationary object at the center of the universe. Beginning with Copernicus, however, who taught that the earth revolved around the sun, Europeans began to reject the Aristotelian-medieval scientific thought. Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton developed a new concept of a universe based on natural laws, not a mysterious God.
The new scientific approach promoted critical thinking. Nothing was to be accepted on faith. Belief in miracles and superstition was replaced by reliance on reason and the idea that rational thinking would uncover a plan governing the universe. This critical analysis of everything in society from religion to politics and the optimism that the human mind could find the solution to everything was known as the Enlightenment. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century intellectuals, writers, and philosophers were optimistic that they could change society for the better. Writers, such as David Hume and Emil Kant, were primarily interested in teaching people how to think critically about everything, while philosophers, such as Voltaire, Montesquier, Rousseau, Smith, and Diderot, were not revolutionaries but reformers who criticized the existing social, political, and economic structure in order to improve them. They found their hope in Enlightened Despots, or monarchs, the most important of which were Frederick the Great of Prussia, Joseph II of Austria, and Catherine the Great of Russia, who would improve the life of their subjects and increase knowledge. However, the reforms of society were not accomplished by these despots, but came instead by the revolutionary forces instrumental in the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century.
To understand how the Scientific Revolution dramatically altered how society viewed the world and the role of man in society, you must realize that the medieval worldview was ruled by the ideas of the third-century B.C.E. Greek philosopher, Aristotle, the second-century B.C.E. Egyptian philosopher, Ptolemy, and theologians. Their ideas had been recovered during the Middle Ages as Western Europe began to trade with the East. Medieval theologians, such as St. Thomas Aquinas, brought these writings into harmony with Christian doctrines. The Aristotelian view of the world supported the Ptolemaic view of a motionless earth at the center of the universe, and this world was made up of four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. This view offered a common-sense approach for the Christians, who put human beings at the center of the universe. Although widely accepted during the Renaissance, the traditional view of science began to be questioned by various rulers, such as Florence’s Medici family, who supported the investigations of Galileo.
The views of Aristotle and Ptolemy were shattered by Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543). In his book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (not published until after his death in 1543 because he feared the ridicule of fellow astronomers), Copernicus suggested that the sun was the center of the universe and that the earth and planets revolved in circular orbits. This Heliocentric Theory that the sun – and not the earth – was the center of the universe contradicted contemporary scientific thought and challenged the traditional teachings of hundreds of years. Copernicus’ book had enormous scientific and religious consequences. By characterizing the earth as just another planet, he destroyed the impression that the earthly world was different from the heavenly world. Religious leaders understood the significance of Copernicus’s findings all too well; of him, Luther is reported to have said, “The fool wants to turn the world of astronomy upside down.” Calvin, like Luther, also condemned Copernicus. The Catholic Church, however, reacted slowly and did not declare Copernicus’ theory false until 1616, continuing to hold to the view that the earth was the center of the universe. The slow reaction of the Church reflected the slow acceptance of Copernicus’ theory. Other events created doubts about traditional astronomic ideas as well, such as the discovery of a new star in 1572 and the appearance of a comet in 1577. These events began to dramatically alter the acceptance of the earth as a motionless object.
Copernicus’ ideas influenced others in the field of science. A Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), set the stage for the study of modern astronomy by building an observatory and collecting data for over twenty years on the location of the stars and planets. His greatest contribution was this collection of data, yet his limited knowledge of mathematics prevented Brahe from making much sense out of the data.
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), a German astronomer and assistant to Brahe, used his data to support Brahe’s data and Copernicus’ idea that the planets move around the sun in elliptical, not circular, orbits. Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion were based on mathematical relationships and accurately predicted the movements of planets in a sun-centered universe. His work demolished the old systems of Aristotle and Ptolemy.
While Kepler was examining planetary motion, Galileo Galilei, a Florentinian (1564-1642), continued the attack on traditional views of science. Using observation rather than speculation to help him formulate ideas – such as his laws on the motion of falling bodies – Galileo established experimentation, the cornerstone of modern science. He applied experimental methods to astronomy by using the newly invented telescope. Using this instrument he discovered the four moons of Jupiter, and that the moon had a mountainous surface, much like the earth. His discovery destroyed an earlier notion that planets were crystal spheres (the earth was the center of the universe and around it moved separate transparent crystal spheres: the moon, the sun, five planets, and fixed stars), and challenged the traditional belief in the unique relationship between the earth and the moon. Galileo’s evidence reinforced and confirmed the theory of Copernicus. Following the publication of his book, Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems (1632), which openly criticized the works of Aristotle and Ptolemy, Galileo was arrested, imprisoned, and tried for heresy by the Papal Inquisition and was forced to publicly recant his views. In modern times, Galileo’s trial has come to symbolize the conflict between religious beliefs and scientific knowledge.
The greatest figure of the Scientific Revolution was Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), an Englishman. He integrated the ideas of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo into one system of mathematical laws to explain the orderly manner in which the planets revolved around the sun. The key feature of his thesis was the law of universal gravitation. According to this law, every body in the universe attracts every other body in precise mathematical relationships. Newton’s law mathematically proved that the sun, moon, earth, planets, and all other bodies moved in accordance with the same basic force of gravitation. Such proof showed that the universe operated by rules that could be explained through mathematics and that a religious interpretation was not the sole means of comprehending the forces of nature.
The Scientific Revolution also led to a better way of obtaining knowledge. Two important philosophers were Francis Bacon (1561-1626), and Rene Descartes (1596-1650). Both were responsible for key aspects in the improvement of scientific methodology. Francis Bacon was an English politician and writer, who advocated that new knowledge had to be acquired through an inductive reasoning process (using specific examples to prove or draw conclusion from a general point) called empiricism. Bacon rejected the medieval view of knowledge based on tradition, and believed instead that it was necessary to collect data, observe, and draw conclusions. This approach is the foundation of the scientific method.
René Descartes was a French mathematician and philosopher who stressed inductive reasoning. He believed that it was necessary to doubt everything that could be doubted. His famous quote – “Cogito ergo sum”; “I think therefore I am” – proved his belief in his own existence and nothing else. He believed that, as in geometry, it is necessary to use inductive reasoning and logic to determine scientific laws governing things. Descartes’ view of the world (called today Cartesian Dualism) reduced natural law into matter and the mind, or the physical and the spiritual. Bacon’s inductive experimentalism and Descartes’ inductive, mathematical, and logical thinking combined into the scientific method, which began taking hold of society in the late seventeenth century.
Some consequences of the Scientific Revolution include the following: