- in the middle ages, “natural philosophers” relied on ancient sources for all their scientific views
- renaissance humanists learned greek and latin, which helped them discover more ancient perspectives
- more scientific breakthroughs came after the invention of the telescope, microscope, and printing press
- lots of math! (ancient sources and contemporaries). people believed math contained all the secrets of the universe
- ptolemaic system- using ptolemy’s ideas (100 bce ish), middle ages folks constructed a geocentric model of the universe
- concentric spheres with earth in the middle
- planes/the sun/the moon are embedded in their respective spheres
- tenth sphere (prime mover) is heaven
- copernicus- polish mathematician who published his heliocentric model in may 1543.
- moon revolved around earth
- planets revolved around sun
- kepler- german mathematician who used data to prove copernicus, but also proved the planets’ orbits were elliptical (kepler’s first law)
- galileo- italian, not liked by the church (put under house arrest), discovered:
- mountains on the moon
- 4 of jupiter’s moons
- sunspots
- that planets aren’t made of light
- popularized heliocentric model
- newton- professor of math at cambridge, wrote the principia (three laws of motion)
- most important law was the universal law of gravitation, which stated that every object in the universe was attracted to every other object by gravity
- galen- greek doctor in 100 bce, dominated medicine until the middle ages even though he used animal anatomy to learn about human anatomy
- vesalius- dissected human bodies and gave accurate human anatomy
- harvey- proved the heart (not liver) was beginning point of blood circulation, and that some blood goes through veins
- pascal- experimented with liquids and pressure, tools like syringe and hydraulic press
- boyle’s law: volume of gas varies with pressure
- lavoisier- invented chemical naming system (father of modern chemistry)
- women were scientists, but they were very rare and looked down upon
- rené descartes- french philosopher
- his philosophy was built on doubt
- only thing he was sure existed was himself (“i think therefore i am”)
- separated mind and matter, which rationalized scientists
- father of rationalism (reason is the chief source of knowledge)
- francis bacon- english philosopher (not scientist) who invented the scientific method
- believed that we shouldn’t rely on ancient authorities, instead we should use inductive reasoning
- science should be based in observation/experimentation, not opinions