Chapter 16 Vocab and People

Ptolemaic System

Geocentric universe founded by Ptolemy in Ancient Greece

Copernicus

• Believed in theory of Heliocentrism

• Challenged Church Authority

• Wrote “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres”

• Did not reject the idea of heavenly spheres moving in circular orbits

Galileo

• 1st to turn the telescope towards the Heavens

• Suggested Copernicus was correct

• Wrote “The Starry Messenger” and “Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican”

• Arrested by the Inquisition for heresy

• Studied mechanics and motion while on house arrest

Johanes Kepler

• German astronomer

• Assistant for Tycho Brahe

• Discovers elliptical orbits using math

• Wrote three laws of planetary motion

• Proves Galileo and Copernicus right

Tycho Brahe

• Danish nobleman

• Conducted observations of the stars and space over 20 years

• Led him to reject the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic system but also couldn’t accept Copernicus’s suggestion that the earth actually moves

Isaac Newton

• Discovers gravity and natural laws

• Synthesized it into law of dynamics and universal gravitation

• Invented calculus

• Wrote “Principia Mathematica”

• “Every object in the universe affect every other object through gravity”

Galen

• Ancient Greek physician

• Wrote “On Anatomical Procedures”

• Relied on animal dissection to study human anatomy, which was very inaccurate

• Had hypotheses that there were two blood systems

• Said diseases could be found out by the urine color

Paracelsus

• Italian city physician who rejected Aristotle and Galen’s beliefs

• Said disease was chemical imbalances in specific organs and could be treated by chemicals

• Historians view him as the father of modern medicine

Andreas Vesalius

• Studied the medicine of Galen

• Wrote “On the Fabric of the Human Body”

• Emphasized that dissection was the way of studying the human body

William Harvey

• Wrote “On the Motion of the Heart and Blood”

• Created theory explaining blood circulation that it flows throughout the entire body as a complete circuit

• Laid foundation for modern physiology

empiricism

the practice of relying on observation and experiment

Albert Lavoiser

• Invented system for naming chemicals

• Demonstrated fundamental rules of chemical combination

• Regarded as founder of modern chemistry

Robert Boyle

• One of the first scientists to conduct controlled experiments

• Led to discovery of Boyle’s Law

• Believed matter was composed of atoms

Margaret Cavendish

• Participant in many scientifitic debates on important topics

• Rejected by science societies for being a woman

• Wrote “Observations upon Experimental Philosophy” and “Grounds of Natural Philosophy”

• Was about rational and empirical approaches to science

Maria Merian

• Entomologist

• Had excellent drawings of her exact observations in insects and plants

• Wrote “Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam”

• Showed the reproductive and developmental cycles of insect life

Maria Winkelman

• Trained in astronomy by her father and uncle

• Assistant to Germany’s foremost astronomer at Berlin’s Academy of Science

• Discovered comets

• Rejected by Berlin Academy

querelles des femmes

• arguments about women

• Portrayed women as inherently base, prone to vice, easily swayed, and ‘‘sexually insatiable.’’

• Said that men needed to control them

Jean de La Bruyere

• French moralist

• Said educated woman was like a gun that was a collector’s item

• ‘‘which one shows to the curious, but which has no use at all, any more than a carousel horse”

Rene Descartes

• Father of Rationalism (Cartesian Dualism)

• Used deductive reasoning: from a general set of ideas, you can get a specific fact

• States “Doubt everything except that which can be reasoned”

• Invented analytical geometry

• Wrote “Discourse on Method”

• His books were forbidden by the Church

Cartesian Dualism

• Belief that God is not a deceiver, God exists, he guarantees the correctness of clear and distinct ideas. God can’t lie. Therefore, God given reason can’t be false. Human reason can be used to understand the world around us

• Mind = Thoughts

• Body = Natural world

Cogito Ergo Sum

I think therefore I am

Francis Bacon

• English lawyer

• Sets atmosphere for learning

• Believes science has a pratical practice in the world

• Wrote “The Great Instauration”

• Advocates people to stop studying the old and create new ideas and theories

• Used inductive reasoning from specific ideas to general idea or theory (Scientific Method)

Cesare Beccaria

• State that capital punishment was inhumane

• Punishment should aim to prevent future crime

• Wrote “On Crime and Punishments”

Benedict de Spinoza

• Controversial writer and philosopher

• Excommunicated from Amsterdam Synagogue for rejecting Judaist tenets

• Denied implications of Descartes

• Said nothing can be apart of God; he was the universe

• Pushed for pantheism and said that human beings are a part of God or nature or universial nature

• Wrote “Ethics Demonstrated in the Geometrical Manner”

Blaise Pascal

• French scientist who sought to keep science and religion united

• Invented a calculating machine and theory of chance

• Wrote “Pensees”

• Said that humans were misled by reason

• Brings the idea of “finite man”

Pascal’s wager

• An argument by Blaise Pascal for believing, or for at least taking steps to believe, in God

• Said it’s safer to believe in God, because the chance for infinite gain is higher than finite loss