E2 - Scientific Revolution

What political and social context contributed to the Scientific Revolution in 17th-century England?

-Questioning of traditional authority

-English Reformation with Henry VIII

-The role of Parliament vs. Monarch (constitutionalism)

-Civil War in the 1640s

-The Glorious Revolution (1688-1689)

What was the English Reformation?

A break from the Catholic Church that gave Parliament more power.

What significant event occurred during the English Civil War in the 1640s?

The execution of Charles I.

Who led the Commonwealth after the Civil War?

Oliver Cromwell, the leader of Parliament.

What was the outcome of the Glorious Revolution?

William and Mary deposed James II at the request of Parliament.

Pre-Englightenment - Rational Approach

-Hobbes believed in absolute sovereign to end the chaotic state of nature.

-John Locke believed people have natural rights and the government has limited power to protect these rights.

Natural Philosophy/Science in Different Countries

-France: catholic and absolute monarchy under Louis XIV

-Italy: catholic and was politically fragmented

-Netherlands: protestant and republic

-German lands/Scandinavia: conflict between catholic & protestant princes

-Middle East & North Africa: height of ottoman empire

-China: transition from ming to qing dynasties

-India: rules by mughal empire

How did the Reformation challenge traditional authority?

By emphasizing the Bible as the ultimate authority and criticizing the Catholic Church's practices. Martin Luther questioned the practices of Church.

What were the four M's of the new methods of natural philosophy?

-Method: new scientific method

-Mathematics: pure and applied

-Models of the universe

-Mechanics: physical models for various phenomena

Who developed the concept of analytic geometry?

Descartes and Pierre de Fermat.

What did Isaac Newton and Wilhelm Leibniz contribute to mathematics?

The development of calculus for analyzing dynamic situations like velocity and acceleration.

Who contributed to applied math: the theory of Earth's magnetism?

William Gilbert

What was Francis Bacon's contribution to the Scientific Revolution?

-Empiricism and inductive reasoning

-Warned against the 4 'idols' of unreflective common sense: unreflective common sense, individual idiosyncrasies, tradition authority, imprecise language

-Developed theories from observations, rejecting common sense and traditional authority

-Notable works: Novum Organum, The New Atlantis, Multi pertransibunt and augebitur scientia

What was Descartes' contribution to the Scientific Revolution?

-Rationalism and deductive reasoning

-Discourse on Method: doubt knowledge based on senses, experience, and authority

-Cogito ergo sum: 'I think, therefore I am

Inductive Reasoning

-Bottom-up

-Reasoning from specific to general, not guaranteed true

-Observing every swan you saw is white, so concludes all swans are white

Deductive Reasoning

-Top-down

-Reasoning from general to specific, true if premises are true

-All mammals have lungs, a dog is a mammal, therefore it has

What was Descartes' model of the universe?

-All space filled with matter & motion (no empty space)

-Vortex theory (celestial orbits due to large vortices)

-3 elements of matter (luminous: smallest that makes up stars/sun, transparent: spherical like the celestial bodies, opaque: largest/densest that makes up earth/planets)

-Gravity was not an attractive force but pressure and centrifugal force, opposing Newton

What did Descartes argue about God?

That God is perfect and existence is more perfect than non-existence, therefore God exists.

What is Pascal's wager?

The belief that it is better to believe in God if it exists.

What was the mechanistic view of the universe proposed by Newton?

-A clockwork cosmos governed by absolute laws of motion and gravity

-Uniform unchanging time, infinitely large universe

-Fixed stars cancel out their pulls via opposite attractions

What are Newton's Principia?

-Provided rationale for the heliocentric model with elliptical orbits

-Laws of motion & universal gravitation in 3D (inertia, force, every action has an equal and opposite reaction)

-Conservation of momentum

-Planetary motion = inertia + gravity

What is mechanical philosophy?

Clockwork universe: by taking things apart, you can figure out how things work.

How did Harvey's circulation of blood contribute to experimental philosophy?

-Built on work of Galen, Vesalius, Fabrici

-Used dissected cow hearts with tubes to show water pumped into a chamber and moves through aorta

-Experiments on chicken eggs from fertilization through embryological development

How did Boyle's air pump contribute to experimental philosophy?

-Irish nobility, a founder of the Royal Society

-Bridged alchemy and modern chemistry

-Physico Mechanical: Touching the spring of the air (showed vacuum was possible, linked combustion/candle and respiration/birds)

Who was Hooke?

-Son of Anglican priest who left inheritance for him to move to London and attend Oxford

-Worked as Boyle's assistant

-Curator of instruments at the Royal Society

-First professional (paid) natural philosopher

-Wrote Micrographia on microscopic observations

What was Newton's discovery on optics?

-White light is a composite of all colors of the spectrum

-Prism experiment: passing a beam of sunlight through glass prism

What role did scientific societies play during the Scientific Revolution?

They were seen as threatening to political and ecclesiastical authorities.

How did women participate in the Scientific Revolution?

-They began publishing more, engaging in debates on natural philosophy, and demanding better access to education.

-They were not allowed in public society

-Shift from nurturing view vs objectifying and controlling nature

What was the significance of the Royal Society?

It was a key institution for the promotion of scientific knowledge and experimentation.

What was the role of experimental philosophy?

It emphasized the importance of instruments and experimentation in scientific inquiry.