Scientific Revolution Part 2 Notes

Galen was a Greek physician whose theories dominated European medicine until the Scientific Revolution, similar to how Aristotle influenced astronomy.
Galen's theories on human anatomy were inaccurate because he never dissected humans, relying instead on animal dissections.
He assumed that humans functioned the same as animals, leading to flawed observations.

Galen believed in two separate blood systems:
- One with bright red blood controlling muscle function.
- The other with dark red blood regulating digestion.
He had no understanding of the heart's function.
He thought each blood system started at the liver.

Paracelsus (1493-1541) was a German physician who challenged Galen's theories.
He established a new chemical philosophy, arguing that diseases were caused by chemical imbalances in specific organs, not fluid imbalances.
He proposed that chemical drugs could cure diseases.
Paracelsus was significant because he recognized that chemicals could be used to treat specific conditions.

Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) was a French academic who studied medicine.
Initially, he believed in Galen's anatomical thought.
As a surgeon, he realized that Galen's drawings did not match what he saw in human dissections.
In 1543, Vesalius published "On the Fabric of the Human Body," which was based on his own dissections.
His work paid particular attention to organs and bones.
Vesalius still believed in some of Galen's erroneous ideas, including two separate blood systems.

William Harvey (1578-1657) was an English physician who disproved Galen's theories about the circulatory system.
In 1628, he published "On the Motion of the Heart and Blood."
Harvey proved that the heart was the starting point of blood circulation and that the same blood moved through veins and arteries.
He demonstrated that blood flows through both veins and arteries, making a complete circuit.

Robert Boyle (1627-1691) was an English chemist known for his study of gases.
Boyle's Law states that the volume of a gas depends on the pressure exerted on it.
This led to the ideal gas law: $PV = nRT$ , where:
- $P$ is pressure,
- $V$ is volume,
- $n$ is the number of gas molecules,
- $R$ is the gas constant,
- $T$ is the temperature.
Boyle also believed that all matter is made of atoms.

Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794) and his wife, Marie Anne Lavoisier (1758-1836), created a new chemical nomenclature.
They established a system for naming chemicals and chemical compounds.
Marie Anne translated works of English researchers like Boyle into French for Antoine's research.

Women often faced challenges and were excluded from formal scientific societies and universities.

Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673) was an English noblewoman and influential female scientist.
She was excluded from the Royal Society.
She learned from and debated science with her relatives.

Maria Winkelmann (1670-1720) was a famous female astronomer in Germany.
She received her education in astronomy from relatives and friends.
She married Gottfried Kirch, a well-known astronomer, and became the chief assistant at the Berlin Academy of Science observatory.
She discovered a previously unknown comet.

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a French scientist and philosopher who developed Cartesian dualism.
He argued that the mind and body are separate entities.
He believed that the mind cannot be doubted, while the body and material world can be.
Cartesian dualism influenced the concept of the world machine and emphasized the importance of mathematics in understanding the physical world.
Descartes's ideas were attacked by religious institutions.

The development of a system of guidelines for examining and understanding the physical realm led to the creation of the scientific method.

Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was an English philosopher who advocated for inductive reasoning.
He argued that scientists should attain general principles from specific observations through careful experimentation and meticulous observation.
Bacon believed in empiricism, the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense experience.

Descartes proposed a scientific method based on deductive reasoning.
He believed that deduction and mathematics should be relied upon instead of induction and observation.

Sir Isaac Newton synthesized the beliefs of Bacon and Descartes into a single scientific methodology.
Newton unified Bacon's empiricism and induction with Descartes' rationalism and deduction.
According to Newton, the scientific method begins with systematic observations, a hypothesis, and experiments.
The results are analyzed to draw a conclusion, which is used to arrive at general concepts and new deductions that can be verified through further experimentation.

New scientific societies and journals allowed scientists to communicate and spread their ideas.
The publication of journals made knowledge accessible to the literate public.

The English Royal Society was established out of informal gatherings at Oxford University.
It received a royal charter from King Charles II.
The society was mostly concerned with researching technological improvements to advance industry.

The French Royal Academy of Sciences arose from informal meetings at universities in Paris and was formally chartered and funded by King Louis XIV.
The French Academy was tightly controlled by the government and was concerned with inventing new kinds of tools and machines.
Both societies eventually focused on theoretical work like astronomy and physics.
Both societies published academic journals that helped to spread scientific knowledge.

European elites were attracted to the sciences because it offered practical benefits, such as developing new machinery for manufacturing.
Wealthy Europeans invested in science and turned a profit from applying scientific advances to manufacturing.
Wealthy individuals established patronage for scientists, providing funding for their research.

Scientists increasingly began to stay away from using biblical texts to derive their understanding of the natural world.
A dichotomy emerged between the church and scientific observers.
Scientists became more secular, separating their religious ideology from their scientific observations.
Religious ideology and scientific observations were frequently at odds with one another.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a French scientist and mathematician who attempted to keep religion and science united.
Pascal continually attempted to demonstrate that Christianity was not opposed to reason.
Despite his efforts, the sciences and the church would only grow increasingly at odds with one another during the Scientific Revolution.