STS MIDTERMS

Intellectual Revolutions

Intellectual Revolutions

What makes something revolutionary? Most probably “change” is one of the words that came to your mind. Throughout the course of human history, intellectual revolutions occurred that changed the way we see things. These are points in our history when long-standing beliefs were questioned and challenged.

Intellectual Revolutions

Since the ancient times, humans have always been curious about the world around them. But due to limitations in available tools, explanations to natural phenomena were limited to what their naked eyes could see. Often, what their senses could not explain they tried to explain through religion and magic. Some of these beliefs and explanations were taken as true and absolute for some time. That is until a curious mind comes along and questions such belief. Not only question but also look for proof or evidence of their correctness.

Copernican Revolution

We have always been curious about the world around us. The ancient Greeks for example, were known for their curiosity about natural phenomena. They looked up to the skies and sought to come up with explanations with what they see.

Germ Theory of Disease

Before the germ theory of disease, various explanations were given to why people get sick.

Information Revolution

Can you imagine life without our cellphones, the Internet or television? How about life without print media? Well, we know that there was a point in the history of the world when these things did not exist. Communication is one of our needs as citizens of this world. Since the dawn of time, humans used various ways to communicate with one another.

3 examples intellectual revolutions in human history

1. Copernican Revolution

2. Germ Theory of Disease

3. Intellectual Revolution

4th century BCE- Plato and Aristotle

said that the Earth was a sphere and the stationary center of the universe.

Anaximander

stated the same thing (plato and aristotle) in the 6th Century BCE. The stars and planets, Plato and Aristotle further postulated, were carried around the Earth on spheres or circles arranged in order of distance from the center.

Eudoxus of Cnidus

proposed that uniform circular motion for all heavenly bodies around the Earth which was at the center.

Aether

The spheres were made of incorruptible substance called “_____” and moved at different speeds to create the rotation of the bodies around our planet.

Prime Mover

He and his contemporaries also believed in the _______ that initiates all motions in the universe.

Geocentric theory

theory of an Earth-centered universe

Aristarchus of Samos (310-230 BC)

heliocentric theory

heliocentric theory

theory based on the large size of the Sun. Earth not being at the center.

Hipparchus of Nicea (165-127 BC)

was considered as the greatest astronomer of the classical period. He was known for producing star maps and catalogues of 850 stars

Hipparchus of Nicea (165-127 BC)

He introduced the idea of the Precession of the equinoxes

Hipparchus of Nicea (165-127 BC)

He determined the lengths of the seasons and accurately measured the year

Hipparchus of Nicea (165-127 BC)

He is known also for his systematic use of trigonometry in astronomy

Ptolemy (150 AD)

was an astronomer and geographer of the later classical age at Alexandria. He furthered the work of Hipparchus.

Ptolemy (150 AD)

According to him, planets move in epicycles or small circular paths. The centers of the epicycles are along the deferent of big circles. This was his explanation for the behavior of some planets like Mars where it occasionally appeared to move backward with respect to the stars before moving forward again.

Aristotle and Ptolemy

Because European scholars relied on Greek sources for their education, for centuries most people followed the teachings of &

15th and 16th century

astronomers were facing problems. The astronomical calendars of the past were becoming inaccurate. Plotting religious holidays became problematic.

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS

In 1514, another brilliant mind came along and proposed an explanation in favor of the heliocentric view of the universe.

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS

He also suggested that it was the Earth’s movement that explains the rising and setting of the Sun, the cycle of the seasons and the movement of the stars.

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS

His book was “De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelesteum” (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) published: 1543 and Banned: 1616

Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler

they provided the much-needed scientific support for nicolaus copernicus’ theory

Galileo Galilei

trial and imprisonment for heresy

Isaac Newton

universal laws of gravitation provided the rest of the missing pieces of Copernicus’ model of a heliocentric universe. This led to it eventually becoming accepted in Europe and eventually to the rest of the world.

black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood

The ancient Greeks for example believed in the 4 humors if balanced, a person stays healthy.

Miasma theory

But even before the discovery of cells and microorganisms, there were already those who suspected their existence. Up until the germ theory was finally accepted was the ______.

Miasma theory

This theory purported that disease was because of "bad air" or "noxious air" from the decomposition of organic matter. It is believed that inhaling this air will cause disease.

Girolamo Fracastoro

proposed that diseases that start an epidemic are caused by minute entities called spores.

formites

He also used the term “_____” for objects like clothes and linen that may harbor these spores and therefore, help spread the disease.

spores

diseases that start an epidemic are caused by minute entities called _____

Louis Pasteur

introduced pasteurization to prevent spoilage of mil caused by microorganisms.

yeasts

responsible for fermenting sugar to alcohol in the absence of air

Louis Pasteur

A few years later, his help was once again sought, this time to help fight the silkworm disease that were ravaging the silk industry in Europe.

Agostino Bassi

He moved that another silkworm disease was caused by a fungus

Louis Pasteur

He discovered that the causative agent for the outbreak during his time of investigation was caused by a different microorganism, a protozoan.

protozoan

a different microorganism that was the causative agent for the outbreak during Pasteur’s time of investigation

Joseph Lister

He started to disinfect his surgical instruments with carbolic acid. It resulted in significantly less infections and death after surgery that soon, more and more physicians adopted the practice.

Ignaz Semmelweis

a physician who observed that physicians who do not routinely wash their hands in between patients or procedures are more likely to spread infections like puerperal or childbirth fever.

Robert Koch

Germ Theory was proven by his experiment in

1876.

Germ Theory

what theory was proven by Robert Koch experiment in 1876

Bacillus Antracis

rod-shaped bacterium in the blood of cattle that died of a disease called anthrax. this bacterium is called____.

Koch’s Postulate

He cultivated the bacterium and then injected them in healthy animals. The animals became sick and died. He collected blood samples from them and saw the rod-shaped bacterium before. The steps involved in this experiment is now known as ______

Robert Koch

His experiment helped establish that some diseases, such as those that result in outbreaks and epidemics, are caused by microorganisms.

Robert Koch

This paved the way for other significant leaps in health and medicine, such as the development of preventive procedure such as vaccination.

Communication

is one of our needs as citizens of this world. Since the dawn of time, humans used various ways to communicate with one another.

smoke

The early man used ____ in making signals and beating drums.

drawings

They also attempted to record their observations of their

surroundings through _____

Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave, Ardeche, France

The oldest cave painting in the world are found in ________. These cave paintings are estimated to have been done between 33,000 to 30,000 BCE and presented animals like bisons.

petroglyphs

known as Cultural Trasure

Agono, Rizal

petroglyphs were discovered in the walls of caves in Agono, Rizal. These were discovered by the National Artist: Carlos “Botong” Francisco in 1965

Carlos “Botong Francisco

National Artist who discovered petroglyphs in 1965?

petroglyphs

They are composed of characters etched on the rocky walls of caves and are estimated to be around 2,000 years old.

Sumerians

who loves along the Mesopotamia sometime between 3100 and 3000; developed the world’s oldest alphabet which is the cuneiform

cuneiform

world’s oldest alphabet

cuneiform

Each symbol stands for a syllable, several syllables put together from the words. The Sumerians etched their writings on clay tablets.

baybayin

In the Philippines, they already exists a system of writing called ________, long before the Spaniards came.

kulitan

In Pampanga specifically, our ancestors used and alphabet called _____

clay tablets

Even the medium on which the alphabets or drawings were written changed through time. The cave walls eventually were replaced by _____

paper and ink

Later on, with the development of _____ and ____, we now started to see the alphabets forming written words.

Information Revolution

Alphabets and the medium on which they are written on made it easy to record information. This information may include chronicles of important events, natural and cyclic events such as the coming of the season and and flooding of bodies of water. Later on, these established records that became useful for weather prediction that guided agriculture.

Johannes Guternberg

invented the Printing Press in 1454, causing print media to take a huge leap forward. From books that were copied by hand, limiting their supply and increasing the chances of errors being inserted, manuscript can be edited before mass printing.

Industrial Revolution

produced the Telegraph and Typewriters

Telegraph

made it possible to send messages long distances

Alan Turing

In 1936, mathematician, described a computing machine that could carry out any possible computation on its own

Turing machine

This computing machine is called the ______, later on became one of the foundations for the development of the computer. His machine caused us to attribute thinking and decision making to machines; capabilities we only attribute to living organisms like humans before.

computers

Today, ______ have completely revolutionized almost every aspect of human life. We are now living at a time when machines can be programmed to perform tasks.

Industrial Revolution

We have come a long way from the time our ancestors were using smoke signals or attributing disease to the position of the stars and planets. We have established this long standing relationship with science and technology.

Reality

everything that appears to out five senses; everything we can see, smell, touch, feel and taste

Philip Dick

according to him, “reality is that which if you stop believing in it, does not go away”

theory

theoritical wold where theories, ideas, concepts etc. exist

knowledge

reality is all of the things I perceireve that determine my knowledge of the world

reality

the real world as I observed and experience

Knowledge

facts, feelings or experiences that are part of a person’s reality

knowledge

state of knowing (from experience or learning)

knowledge

organized information in a person’s head

personal knowledge statement to community/discipline knowledge statement

• publication

• verification

• acceptance

Ontology

study of nature of reality

Ontology

study of a set of beliefs about what the world actually is

Ontology

Scientific Approach: objective and independent of our perception or experience of it

Interpretive Approach: constructed by us as we experience it

Epistomology

Scientific Approach: can generate, unbiased, generalizable knowledge

Interpretive Approach: knowledge is specific to a particular time and space

Epistomology

study of what we can know about the reality

Common Sense

is a knowledge if it rests on a body of evidence (induction) or a reliable theory (deduction)

Miletus/Milesians

- 600 BC

- “What is reality made of?”

- supernatural explanations is unreliable *Thales of Miletus (624 - 546 BC)

Pythagoras

- 571 - 491BC

- equation of a right triangle: c 2 =. a 2 + b 2 -

“Truth should not be accepted but be proved”

means that legend says that he believed that eating beens is sinful and he drowned a student for revealing the existence of irrational numbers to the world

Aristotle

• 384 - 322 BC

• induction and deduction

• promoted systematic observation and thought in biology, physics, law, literature and ethics

Ptolemy

• Claudius Ptolemaeus

• AD 127 - 145, Alexandria

• the earth is the center of the universe

Francis Bacon

• 1561 - 1626

• physical causes and law of nature

• essence of a thing is deducted through process of reduction and the use of inductive reasoning

Rene Descartes

• 1596 - 1650

• “cognito, ergo sum”

• founder of “rationalism”

• observed data is inferior to pure reason

Karl Popper

• 1902 - 1994

• “a true scientist should look to falsify theory with observation that contradict them” - foundation behind the scientific method

US Judge William Overton

for a statement to be specific:

• it must be guided by natural law

• it has to be explanatory by reference to natural law

• it is testable against the empirical world

• its conclusions are tentative

• it is falsifiable

Scientific Method

is a process to construct a reliable, consistent, and non-arbitrary representation of the world

Social Science as Science

the “social world” is part of the “natural world”

Scientific Naturalism

a philosophical approach using tools that are akin to those of the natural sciences

Theory

a well substantiated statement that explains a natural phenomenon

Law

a well substantiated statement that describes a natural phenomenon