The Scientific Revolution

Characteristics of the Scientific Revolution  It was a slow movement.  Full of good/ bad ideas.  Only involved a few hundred scientists.  The new science was not isolated to a few brilliant minds.  Assessed the validity of knowledge.

Nicholas Copernicus  Wrote “On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres” where he laid the foundation for the heliocentric theory.  Polish priest and astronomer

Tycho Brahe  Danish astronomer  Compiled a lot of astronomical data which would be foundations for later theories.

Johannes Kepler  Pupil of Brahe  German Astronomer  Ellipses

Galileo  Italian Mathematician  Famous works “Starry Messenger” and “Letters on Sunspots”  A universe subject to mathematical laws

Isaac Newton  English Scientist  “Principia Mathematica”  All objects have a force of attraction between each other (gravity).

Margaret Cavendish  Believed in equality of women  Wrote such works as “The Fascination of Instruments”

Trial of Galileo  Scripture should be read to accommodate the new sciences.  His actions and writings angered the Roman Catholic Church.  Mocked the popes  Placed under house arrest

Overturned in 1992

Blaine Pascal  French mathematician and scientist  Associated with the Jansenists  There was a happy medium between reason and faith/ religion.

Witches

Superstition  Europeans were always preoccupied with death, sin, and the devil.  : k “witches” killed.  Belief in magic  80% were women (widows, midwives, healers & herbalists).