The Scientific Revolution

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

In the beginning God created the heavens with the Earth along with man in his own image. For over 1500 years, Christian followers were heavy believers of the bible, seeing it as the primary source for knowledge. Then came the scientific revolution in the 1500s, a movement which challenged the Christian view of the universe. It was a time when people were looking for a new way of thinking about the world. Since then and to this day, there has been several instances in which scientific inquiry and religious belief have collided in their ideologies.

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 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.

The Scientific Revolution was a period of the development of the new and modern theories of science and universe. This development took place from 16th century to 17th century. This concept was widely accepted by the people of Europe. This period changed the beliefs which were not accurate and changed the status of women in the society. Many scientists, such as Nicolas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler and Sir Issac Newton changed the European history with the help of new discoveries and knowledge and disagreement with the Catholic Church.

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.

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.

The most famous female astronomer in Germany was Maria Winkelmann. She received training in astronomy from a self-taught astronomer. When she married Gottfried Kirch, Prussia's foremost astronomer, she became his assistant and began to pratice astronomy. Winkelmann made some orginal contributions to astronomy, inclunding the discovery of a assistans astronomer at the Berlin Academy. Marie Winkelmann was highly qualified, but as a women with no university degree she was denied the post. Members on the Berlin Academy feared that they would set bad example by hiring a

What occurred during the scientific revolution? The scientific revolution was a period of time when people started doubting the church. The scientific revolution modernizes the ways of thinking dramatically. Nicolaus Copernicus made numerous discoveries about the universe; one of his discoveries was the heliocentric theory which contradicts the church. Galileo confirming the heliocentric theory brought him into conflict with the church. The scientific revolution modernizes the ways of thinking dramatically.

As we have discussed in class, read from our textbooks and read from primary sources we have learned that Europe has transformed a lot throughout history. Europe has gone through the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution and many other turning points. The most important turning point in European history is the Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution is important because the way people understood the universe, medicine, anatomy and chemistry changed. It also led to the Enlightenment, which brought about human reason as well as changes in government and social life.

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” This quote is from one of the most prominent scientists during the Scientific Revolution, Galileo Galilei. This quote means that anyone can discover the facts about the universe, all they have to do is discover them. This is an important theme during this period of time. Scientists and philosophers were making discoveries about the world around them that revealed truths about the universe that were the foundations for the modern day world. Because of this, the philosophers and scientists had the greatest impact on society.The scientists and philosophers were those that most helped to push the Scientific Revolution forward.

Is it possible for a revolution to occur overnight? No. A Revolution is the wish to overthrow a government or social belief to achieve a new political or belief system in the course of several years. These revolts or breakthroughs tend to occur when the essential needs of the common people are not being met. Between 1500-1800 in Europe, literature also reflected historical events including famous romantic novels such as Frankenstein and A Tale of Two Cities. For my Winter Trimester Final in Revolutions in Thought, I chose to represent revolutions by creating a tree where each revolution was benefited from pervious discoveries in the prior revolution. For example, how the Scientific Revolution’s discoveries would benefit the Enlightenment Period.

Frederick Douglas once said, “The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes the rebellion.” A statement that truly embodies the right to rebelling. In order for it to be right and ethical for one to rebel, the thing which one is rebelling against must be truly awful. As christians, it is easy and common to believe that rebellion is a sin or immoral. But the reality is that rebellion can be just and merited for christians when the thing they are rebelling against is corrupt or immoral. It is accurate to say that for christians there may be times when it is not only right, but required for us to rebel.

1. The various factors that contributed to the growth and development of the scientific revolution were the knowledge left in Europe by the Muslims, the presences of cultural centers in Cairo, Fez, and Constantinople, the acceptance of philosophy, rediscovery of ancient mathematics, the advancements in naval technology, and the scientific method. All of these factors contributed to the growth and development of the scientific revolution because the Muslims left behind lots of knowledge that was in Arabic and the use of the scientific method, with the acceptance of philosophy and math, further helped explore concepts that were a major part of the scientific revolution, like the Newton’s laws.

In my essay I plan to argue that Thomas Kuhn was incorrect when he presented his theory that no paradigm is better than any other paradigm and how he believed that people who occupy different paradigms are in different universes, in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. I believe that there is no valid deductive or inductive support for incommensurability, there are examples against it throughout the history of science that do not exhibit the discontinuity and replacement of paradigms, as Kuhn’s incommensurability thesis predicts, but rather continuity and supplementation. If this is correct, then there are no compelling epistemic reasons to believe that Kuhn’s incommensurability thesis is true or probable. The argument that the point of the same kind terms changes or ceases from one theoretical context to another, it does not fundamentally mean that these two abstract frameworks are taxonomically or methodologically incommensurable. Kuhn’s theory takes a relativist stance and uses it to make all theories and paradigms equal with none being better than the other. This poses a major problem because the hope of scientific research is best said as “For a realist conception of scientific progress also wishes to assert that, by and large, later science improves on earlier science, in particular by approaching closer to the truth.” This means that all realist scientist hope that by advancing our scientific knowledge we will eventually come closer to the truth about