Section 1 The Scientific Revolution

 Scientists of Middle Ages relied on ancient works, especially Aristotle, and the Catholic Church for knowledge  Renaissance Humanists revived Greek & Latin, opened up a whole new world of literature  Ptolemy, Archimedes, and Plato  Works posed arguments for and against commonly accepted truth

 Technical problems required careful observation & accurate measurements  Weight that ships could hold in cargo without sinking for example  New instruments, such as the telescope & microscope quickened discoveries  Printing Press allowed for fast dissemination of literature  Revival of mathematics during Renaissance  Nicholas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, and Isaac Newton

The Ptolemaic System Based on ideas of Ptolemy, Aristotle, and Catholic Church Geocentric Model – Earth was center of universe, planets & Sun revolve around Earth God at end of universe and humans in the center

The Copernican System On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543) Heliocentric Model of the universe, Sun was the center of the universe, not the Earth, and the Earth rotated on its axis

Johannes Kepler Came up with Laws of Planetary Motion Confirmed Sun was center of universe Kepler’s First Law – orbit around Sun is elliptical, not circular, and Sun was near edge not the center

Galileo Galilei Mathematician, first European to make regular observation of heavens with telescope The Starry Messenger (1610) – awoke Europeans to new ideas about universe, shocked many, and contradicted the church Brought before Inquisition, forced to recant or be put to death

Isaac Newton Cambridge University mathematician Wrote Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (Principia) Discovered 3 laws of motion governing planetary bodies Main point crucial to argument was his Universal Law of Gravitation

 Galen – 2 nd century B.C.E. Greek physician, most Middle Age medicine followed his teachings  Used animals instead of humans to dissect and learn from  Andreas Vesalius – 16 th century B.C.E. physician, wrote On the Fabric of the Human Body (1543)  Used humans to dissect and learn from  Robert Boyle – one of first scientists to conduct controlled experiments  Boyle’s Law – volume of gas varies with pressure exerted on it  Antoine Lavoisier – invented system of naming chemical elements, still in use today

 Margaret Cavendish – wrote Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy  Many women in Germany became astronomers  Maria Winkelmann – most famous German female astronomer, discovered comet  She was denied a position with a university because she was a woman

 Rene Descartes – 17 th century B.C.E. French philosopher  Wrote Discourse on Method (1637)  Starting point was “doubt”  Emphasize on own mind, accepts only things that his reason said were true  “I think, therefore I am.”  Separation of Mind & Matter (mind & body)  Father of modern rationalism

Rene Descartes Rationalism – system of thought based on belief that reason is chief source of knowledge

 Scientific Method – systematic procedure for collecting and analyzing evidence  Francis Bacon – said to rely on Inductive Reasoning, not ancient works