Scientific Revolution & Emergence of a Scientific Community

1. International Scientific Community

• Third key element of the Scientific Revolution: an international scientific community devoted to new methods of investigating nature.
  • Exemplary figures (nationalities stressed to underline internationalism):
  • Nicolaus Copernicus – Polish priest / astronomer.
  • Tycho Brahe – Danish astronomer.
  • Johannes Kepler – German mathematician.
  • Galileo Galilei – Italian astronomer & professor (University of Padua).
  • Sir Isaac Newton – English mathematician & physicist who "completes" the revolution.
• Collective enterprise > private genius; cooperation and circulation of research central to progress.

2. Universities v. Extra-University Space

• 17th-c. universities remained "medieval"—curricula centered on the seven liberal arts plus professional faculties of Theology, Law, and Medicine.
  • Medicine = first traditional discipline to integrate Scientific-Revolution insights.
  • Theology & Law still dominant; most early modern students studied these.
• Many scientists held some university position (e.g., Galileo at Padua, Copernicus at Cracow) yet ground-breaking research largely occurred outside the university setting.
• Full institutional acceptance of the “new science” inside universities is slow; Newton at Cambridge (late 17th c.) marks turning point.

3. Rise of Scientific Societies

• Purpose: Provide infrastructure (discussion, collaboration, dissemination) that universities would not.
• England – Royal Society of London (1662)
  • Chartered under royal patronage (Charles II).
  • No formal teachers/students; meeting space for experiments & discussion.
  • Publishes Philosophical Transactions—first periodical devoted exclusively to experimental science (prototype of modern peer-reviewed journal).
• France – Académie Royale des Sciences (1666)
  • Sponsored by Louis XIV (“Sun King”).
  • The monarch’s self-image aligns with heliocentrism → political theater of science.
• Other monarchical patrons & courts:
  • Queen Christina of Sweden hosts René Descartes (image referenced in lecture slide).
  • 18th-c. Frederick the Great (Prussia) will follow suit.
• Motive for royal patronage: practical, applied benefits—canals, roads, palace construction, military technology.

4. Isaac Newton: Synthesis & Culmination

• Position: Chair of Mathematics, Trinity College, Cambridge (founded by Henry VIII).
• Methodological synthesis ⇒ marries mathematics (theory) with empirical observation (experiment).
  • Solves the "how" of planetary motion that eluded predecessors.
• Newtonian Laws
  • Three Laws of Motion (Physics 101):
  • F = ma (2nd Law) etc.
  • Law of Universal Gravitation:
  • F = G \frac{m1 m2}{r^2} —quantifies attractive force between any two masses.
• Concept of a mechanistic universe
  • Cosmos likened to a self-running machine/clock once "switched on".
  • No angels or continual divine pushing of planets.
• Theological resolution = Deism
  • God as prime mover / clock-maker: creates, winds up universe, withdraws from day-to-day operations.
  • All major scientists of era (Newton, Descartes, etc.) remain believers; atheism rare.

5. Observatories & Material Infrastructure

• Example images: Louis XIV visiting Académie; Royal Observatory, Greenwich (built under Elizabeth I, late 16th c.).
• Observatories = quintessential Scientific-Revolution institution—enable precision measurement, star mapping, time-keeping.

6. Legacies of the Scientific Revolution

1. Mastery of Nature
   • Demonstrates that nature contains power which, if understood, can be manipulated.
   • Underpins Faustian (seek forbidden knowledge) & Promethean (harness fire/power) myths of modernity.
2. Scientist as Modern Hero / Martyr
   • Cultural elevation of figures like Galileo (hero, near-martyr) and Giordano Bruno (executed 1600; statue in Rome’s Piazza dei Fiori) who “suffer for truth.”
   • Early scientists’ dabbling in alchemy & magic (hermeticism) acknowledged.
3. Science as Universal Problem-Solver
   • Contemporary massive funding of research traces to belief that science will solve environmental, medical, technological crises.
4. Principle of Innovation
   • Valuing novelty for its own sake accelerates technological change, eventually fuels Industrial Revolution & modernist art.
5. Disciplinary Separation
   • Science progressively differentiated from Philosophy, Theology, the Arts.
   • In Continental Europe many fields still called “sciences” (e.g., Geisteswissenschaften), but Anglo-American mindset cemented divide.
6. Paradigm Shift to Enlightenment
   • Techniques of empirical inquiry soon redirected from nature to human institutions (government, religion, economics) → triggers the Enlightenment.

7. Key Connections & Implications

• Royal absolutism (e.g., Louis XIV) intertwines with heliocentric symbolism (“Sun King”).
• Commercial / military utility of science shapes state policy; seats of power become research hubs.
• Universities from Newton onward slowly integrate experimental philosophy, setting stage for 18th-c. curricula reform.
• Deism will influence Enlightenment political theorists (e.g., Locke, Jefferson) and temper religious conflict.

8. Summary “Take-Aways” for Exam Prep

• Remember triad: (1) new methodology, (2) key discoveries (Copernicus → Newton), (3) institutionalization via community.
• Be able to discuss why monarchs sponsored science (utility, prestige, ideological symbolism).
• Contrast university conservatism vs. flexibility of academies.
• Articulate Newton’s blend of math & experiment and its cosmological / theological ripple effects.
• Enumerate legacies: power over nature, heroization of scientist, innovation ethos, disciplinary split, path to Enlightenment.