European History The Scientific Revolution (1550-1700) Brief Overview Timeline People & Qs
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Brief Overview
For the long centuries of the Middle Ages (500-1350 AD) the canon of scientific knowledge had experienced little change, and the Catholic Church had preserved acceptance of a system of beliefs based on the teachings of the ancient Greeks and Romans which it had incorporated into religious doctrine. During this period there was little scientific inquiry and experimentation. Rather, students of the sciences simply read the works of the alleged authorities and accepted their word as truth. However, during the Renaissance this doctrinal passivity began to change. The quest to understand the natural world led to the revival of botany and anatomy by thinkers such as Andreas Vesalius during the later sixteenth century.
These scientific observers were surprised to find that their conclusions did not always match up with the accepted truths, and this finding inspired others to delve further into the study of the world around them. Scientific study quickly extended from the earth to the heavens, and Nicolas Copernicus, upon examining the records of the motions of heavenly bodies, soon discarded the old geocentric theory that placed the Earth at the center of the solar system and replaced it with a heliocentric theory in which the Earth was simply one of a number of planets orbiting the sun. Though this scheme seemed to comply better with the astronomical records of the time, Copernicus had little direct evidence to support his claims. Not ready to abandon traditional beliefs, the forces of tradition, in the form of the Church and the mass of Europeans, kept the heliocentric theory from achieving full acceptance. The theory awaited the advancement of mathematics and physics to support its claims.
The wait was not very long. During the early seventeenth century, mathematics experienced a great deal of progress in the form of the development of algebra, trigonometry, the advance of geometry, and the linkage of form and motion with quantifiable numeric values undertaken by Rene Descartes. Armed with these tools, the science of physics began to advance rapidly. During the late sixteenth century Galileo Galilei demonstrated that gravity accelerated all objects toward the Earth at the same rate, and further explored the laws of motion. Other physicists explored the nature of matter, with the greatest advances coming in the understanding of the properties of gases, leading to the invention of the barometer, thermometer, and air pump. Physicists even strove (largely unsuccessfully) to discover the structure of matter on the atomic scale.
One of the first applications of the knowledge gained from the advance of physics was in the realm of biology. The physiology of the human body could now be understood in terms of its mechanical properties, and during the seventeenth century many of the mysteries of the human body disappeared. However, the most notable application of the laws of physics was in the field of astronomy. Johannes Kepler proved the orbits of the planets were elliptical, but was unable to come up with an effective model of the solar system. That was left to Galileo, who in 1630 published his Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World, in which he supported the Copernican, or heliocentric theory of the universe, and denounced the Aristotelian system, which maintained the geocentric theory. Galileo supported his claims with elaborate evidence derived from the study of physics.
Sir Isaac Newton's work was the capstone of this evolving chain of science. He integrated Kepler's laws of planetary motion and Galileo's forays into the laws of gravity into a comprehensive understanding of the organization of the universe according to the law of universal gravitation. Newton's Principia, in which he lays out this comprehensive system of organization and develops the mathematical field of calculus, is seen as the key which unlocked the mysteries of the universe, the climax of the strivings of all of the Scientists of the Scientific Revolution.
Timeline
1543: Andreas Vesalius Publishes On the Fabric of the Human Body This is considered to be the first great modern work of science and the foundation of modern biology. In it, Vesalius makes unprecedented observations about the structure of the human body.
1543: Nicolas Copernicus Publishes De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of Celestial Bodies) Copernicus' masterwork; he sets out the heliocentric theory.
1584: Giordano Bruno Publishes The Ash-Wednesday Supper,On Cause, Principle, and Unity, and On the Infinite Universe and Its Worlds The renegade Italian monk unfolds his philosophy, the centerpiece of which is the contention that the universe is infinitely large and that the Earth is by no means at the center of it. For the expression of his thoughts, Bruno is burned at the stake as a heretic.
1591: Francois Viete Invents Analytical Trigonometry Viete's invention is essential to the study of physics and astronomy.
1591: Galileo Galilei Demonstrates the Properties of Gravity Galileo demonstrates, from the top of the leaning tower of Pisa, that a one- pound weight and a one hundred-pound weight, dropped at the same moment, hit the ground at the same moment, refuting the contention of the Aristotelian system that the rate of fall of an object is dependent upon its weight. He expounds fully on this demonstration years later in his 1638 Discourse on Two New Sciences.
1610: Galileo Publishes Messenger of the Heavens Galileo's 24-page booklet describes his telescopic observations of the moon's surface, and of Jupiter's moons, making the Church uneasy. The Inquisition soon warns Galileo to desist from spreading his theories.
1614: John Napier Publishes Description of the Marvelous Canon of Logarithms Napier's invention and cataloguing of logarithms is an essential step in easing the task of numerical calculation.
1618: Johannes Kepler Reveals His Third and Final Law of Planetary Motion Kepler's laws of planetary motion describe the form and operation of planetary orbits, and are the final step leading to the academic rejection of the Aristotelian system.
1620: Francis Bacon Publishes Novum Organum Bacon attempts to create organization and cooperation within the scientific community by demonstrating how the diverse fields of science relate to one another.
1630: Galileo Publishes Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World Galileo's magnum opus uses the laws of physics to refute the Aristotelian contention that the Earth is the center of the solar system and supports the heliocentric Copernican view. Galileo presents the doctrine of uniformity, which claims that the laws of terrestrial physics are no different than the laws of celestial physics.
1633: Galileo is Forced to Recant his Theories The Inquisition forces Galileo to sign a recantation and condemns him to house arrest for the remaining nine years of his life. His Dialogue is ordered burned as heretical, and his sentence to be read at every university.
1637: Rene Descartes Publishes His Discourse on Method Descartes' work sets forth the principles of deductive reasoning as used in the modern scientific method.
1637: Rene Descartes Publishes Geometry In this landmark work, Descartes discusses how motion may be represented as a curve along a graph, defined by its relation to planes of reference.
1643: Evangelista Torricelli Invents the Barometer Torricelli's invention measures air pressure, demonstrating that air does indeed have weight, and that the pressure caused by that weight differs in different situations.
1656: Otto von Guericke Invents the Air Pump Van Guerick demonstrates the properties of a vacuum by using his air pump to take the air from within his famous "Magdeberg hemispheres," which, though easily separated in normal conditions, could not be parted by two teams of sixteen horses once he had removed the air.
1662: The Royal Society of London is Officially Organized by King Charles II The Royal Society brings together the greatest minds of the region in efforts to advance science through cooperation. Similar societies subsequently spring up throughout Europe, creating an intellectual network, which produces many of the scientific advances of the later seventeenth century.
1666: Robert Boyle Publishes Origin of Form and Qualities Boyle's work, though highly flawed, sets the stage for the study of matter on the atomic level.
1680: Giovanni Alfonso Borelli Publishes On the Motion of Animals Borelli's work is the greatest early triumph of the application of mechanical laws to the human organism.
1687: Isaac Newton Publishes Philosophia Naturalis Principia Mathematica Perhaps the most important event in the history of science, the Principia lays out Newton's comprehensive model of the universe as organized according to the law of universal gravitation. The Principia represents the integration of the works of all of the great astronomers who preceded Newton, and remains the basis of modern physics and astronomy.
1692: The Salem Witch Trials Take Place in Massachusetts Indicative of the maintenance of traditional superstitions even late in the seventeenth century, 200 people are tried for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. Over 7,000 women were executed for witchcraft in Europe between 1550 and 1700, largely in association with the various theological battles of the Reformation.
Key People
Francis Bacon
Bacon (1561-1626) was one of the great philosophers of the Scientific Revolution. His thoughts on logic and ethics in science and his ideas on the cooperation and interaction of the various fields of science, presented in his work Novum Organum, have remained influential in the scientific world to this day.
Giovanni Alfonso Borelli
Borelli (1608-1679) was the foremost thinker of the era on human mechanics. His 1680 work, On the Motion of Animals, is widely recognized as the greatest early triumph of the application of mechanics to the human organism.
Robert Boyle
Boyle (1627-1691), a successful physicist at Oxford college, worked with his colleague Robert Hooke to discern the properties of the air, experimenting with air pressure and the composition of the atmosphere. Boyle proved that only a part of the air is used in respiration and combustion, and is thus credited with the discovery of oxygen. Boyle's further work touched on the beginnings of the study of matter on the atomic scale.
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was a great astronomical observer, and made accurate and long-term records of his observations, from which he derived his view of the structure of the solar system, in which the moon and sun orbited the Earth and the remaining planets orbited the sun. While incorrect, his scheme was as viable by the knowledge of the time as was that of Nicolas Copernicus.
Otto Brunfels
A German, in 1530 Brunfels (1488-1534) was the first to produce a major work on plants. However, he fell victim to a blunder made by many botanists of the time. In reverence for the ancients, whose botanical studies were widely revered, in his study he attempted to compare his findings to those of the Greeks and Romans. The differences in plant life produced by the variation in geography meant that comparison was futile, and confusion resulted in the field of botany, clouding the work of many of Brunfels' immediate followers.
Giordano Bruno
A renegade Italian monk, Bruno (1548-1600) published three works--The Ash-Wednesday Supper,On Cause, Principle, and Unity, and On the Infinite Universe and its Worlds--in which he laid out his philosophy that the universe was of infinite size, and that the Earth, sun, and planets were all moving constantly within it, and were by no means located at its center.
Nicolas Copernicus
Copernicus (1473-1543) was an avid student of astronomy, and in 1543 published De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. In this treatise, he presented the heliocentric theory, which rested on the revolutionary notion that the Earth orbited the sun.
Rene Descartes
Descartes (1596-1650) was one of the greatest minds of the Scientific Revolution. The inventor of deductive reasoning, Descartes was a failure as a practical scientist, but a success as a mathematician, uniting number and form in his work Geometry, which described how the motion of a point could be mapped graphically by comparing its position to planes of reference.
Leonard Fuchs
A Botanist of the sixteenth century, Fuchs (1501-1566) produced a guide to collecting medical plants that is considered a landmark in the history of natural observation. His woodcut prints are the most beautiful and accurate of the period.
Galen
An ancient Greek physician, Galen's (129-199) work was the centerpiece of traditional biology and anatomy that had lasted through the Middle Ages.
Galileo Galilei
Galileo (1564-1642) was the most successful scientist of the Scientific Revolution, save only Isaac Newton. He studied physics, specifically the laws of gravity and motion, and invented the telescope and microscope. Galileo eventually combined his laws of physics with the observations he made with his telescope to defend the heliocentric Copernican view of the universe and refute the Aristotelian system in his 1630 masterwork, Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World. Upon its publication, he was censored by the Catholic Church and sentenced to house arrest in 1633, where he remained until his death in 1642.
Samuel Hartlib
Hartlib (1600-1662), a London scientist and socialite, first conceived of the creation of the Royal Society of London, and was instrumental in its eventual founding in 1662.
William Harvey
Through dissection, Harvey (1578-1657) was the first to demonstrate that the circulation of blood through the human body is continuous, rather than consisting of different types circulating through the veins and arteries, as had been previously assumed by the ancient Greek physician, Galen.
Johannes Kepler
Kepler (1571-1630) studied the orbits of the planets and sought to discern some grand scheme that defined the structure of the universe according to simple geometry. Though he was unable to do accomplish his goal, he did come up with the laws of planetary motion, which explained the orbital properties of planets, and factored extensively into Isaac Newton's later work.
Edme Mariotte
A botanist of the seventeenth century, Edme Mariotte (1620-1684) sought to explain sap pressure in plants by describing a mechanism by which plants permit the entrance but not the exit of liquid.
Marcello Malpighi
A well known microscopist, Malpighi (1628-1694) studied insects in depth and developed a theory of plant circulation which, though flawed, inspired interest in the field. Malpighi's studies were immortalized when his name was given to the main excretory organ of arthropods, the malpighian tubules.
John Napier
In 1594, John Napier(1550-1617) invented the mathematical tool of logarithms. He spent the next 20 years of his life developing his theory and computing an extensive table of logarithms to aid in calculation. In 1614, he published Description of the Marvelous Canon of Logarithms, which contained the fruits of these labors.
Isaac Newton
Perhaps the most influential scientist of all time, Newton (1642-1727) took the current theories on astronomy a step further and formulated an accurate comprehensive model of the workings of the universe based on the law of universal gravitation. Newton explained his theories in the 1687 revolutionary work Philosophia Naturalis Principia Mathematica, often called simply the Principia. This work also went along way toward developing calculus.
Ptolemy
An ancient Greek astronomer and mathematician, Ptolemy's geocentric views on the structure of the universe dominated astronomy until the Scientific Revolution.
Santorio Santorio
Santorio (1561-1636) was one of the first to apply the evolving physical philosophy of the Scientific Revolution to animal biology. His experiments laid the groundwork for the study of metabolism and the physical and chemical processes of the human body.
Simon Stevin
Stevin (1548-1620) worked with geometry during the late sixteenth century, applying it to the physics of incline planes and the hydrostatic surface tension of water. Additionally, he introduced the decimal system of representing fractions, an advance which greatly eased the task of calculation.
Franciscus Sylvius
One of the earliest chemical biologists, Sylvius (1614-1672) introduced the idea of chemical affinity to explain the human body's use of salts. He and his followers contributed greatly to the study of digestion and body fluids.
Evangelista Torricelli
Torricelli (1608-1647) invented the barometer, to measure air pressure, in 1643. This was a large step in the understanding of the properties of air, and the basic structure of the barometer remains the same today. A unit of pressure, called a Torr, is named after him.
Jan Baptist van Helmont
Van Helmont (1580-1644) was an alchemist who largely abided by the accepted truths of the Middle Ages, but in many ways broke from the past and moved forward. He experimented on the role of water in the growth of plants, claiming that plants drew all of their substance from water. He also demonstrated that gases, though they commonly appeared quite similar, could be quite different in character. In fact, van Helmont invented the word "gas."
Andreas Vesalius
As a student and professor in Belgium and Paris, Vesalius (1514-1564) was educated in the anatomical works and theories of the ancient Greek physician Galen, whose views on anatomy had long been the standard in Europe. Vesalius questioned Galen's authority, and published On the Fabric of the Human Body in 1543. It is considered the first great modern work of science, and the foundation of modern biology.
Francois Viete
Viete (1540-1603) was one of the first to use letters to represent unknown numbers. In 1591, he invented analytical trigonometry using this algebraic method.
Otto von Guericke
In 1656, Otto von Guericke (1602-1686) invented the air pump, and did the first experiments with vacuums. In the process he demonstrated many of the properties of gases, such as the (until then) disputed claim that they did, in fact, have weight.
John Wallis
Wallis' work, Arithmetica Infinitum, published in 1655, set the stage for the invention and development of differential calculus: this work went on to be one of Isaac Newton's major influences. Wallis (1616-1703) was the first mathematician to apply mathematics to the operation of the tides, and also invented the symbol used to denote infinity.
Key Terms
Aristotelian System
The Aristotelian system was the broad term used to refer to the traditional view of the world expressed during the age of Aristotle by the ancients, and maintained and modified by the Church to fit with religious doctrine throughout the Middle Ages. The Aristotelian system included accepted truths about biology, physics, and most notably, astronomy. Many of these "truths" were proven wrong during the Scientific Revolution.
Doctrine of Uniformity
The doctrine of uniformity was an enormous step in the quest to integrate physics and astronomy. Developed by Galileo in his Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World, the doctrine of uniformity states that corresponding causes produce corresponding affects throughout the universe. Thus, terrestrial physics may be used to explain the motion of heavenly bodies.
Geocentric
The term geocentric describes the theory on the organization of the universe presented by Ptolemy of ancient Greece, and incorporated into the Aristotelian system, which claims that the earth is the center of the solar system and that the sun and other planets orbit around it.
Heliocentric
The term heliocentric describes the correct theory, first posed by Nicolas Copernicus, that the Earth is simply one of several planets which orbit the sun.
Inquisition
The Inquisition was the section of the Catholic Church devoted to the maintenance of Church doctrine by the discovery and punishment of heretics. It was the Inquisition which warned Galileo to abandon his theories after the publication of Messenger of the Heavens, and the Inquisition which committed him to house arrest after his publication of Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World.
Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion
Though Johannes Kepler was unable to conceive a working model of the universe, he did contribute the three laws of planetary motion, all of which were at least somewhat accurate, and all of which were used extensively by Isaac Newton in his work. They are: 1. The planets move around the sun not in circles, but ellipses. 2. Planets do not move uniformly, but in such a manner that a line drawn from a planet to the sun sweeps out an equal area of the ellipse of its orbit in equal time, even if the ellipse is not perfectly centered on the sun. 3. The squares of the periods of the planets' orbits are proportional to the cubes of their distances from the sun.
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London brought together the greatest minds of the region in efforts to advance science through cooperation. The Royal Society of London, and other scientific societies that grew up in Europe during the later seventeenth century, contributed greatly to the scientific progress made during that period.
Universal Gravitation
The cornerstone of Newton's explanation of the organization of the universe, the law of universal gravitation states that every particle of matter attracts every other particle with a force proportional to the product of the two masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
Study Questions
How might Isaac Newton's Principia be seen as the final link in the chain of astronomical development? How did Newton build upon the achievements of his predecessors?
Newton is quoted as saying, "if I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants," by way of thanking his predecessors for the contributions to science which made his Principia possible. Indeed, Newton's work represents the finale in a long chain of theory and discovery that evolved throughout the Scientific Revolution. The beginnings of progress had come in the sixteenth century. Nicolas Copernicus suggested that perhaps the ancient concept of the Earth's position in the universe was flawed. Giordano Bruno went one step further to claim that the universe itself was far different than the ancients and the Church perceived, and that it stretched out infinitely. Next, Johannes Kepler reduced the motions of the planets to intelligible mathematical rules. Galileo developed the system of earthly mechanics that he hinted might be applied to the heavens. Newton's work was the culmination of this chain of science, inspired by the ideas of these men and the methods and tools developed by them and others of his predecessors. The Principia linked the last two remaining pieces of the puzzle--Galileo's physics and Kepler's astronomy--and emerged with the "grand design" so many before him had sought. The design seemed not to have been established by any planning or simple geography, but rather by the interaction of the forces of nature, principally gravitation, on an enormous scale.
The progress of logic and knowledge of the physical world during the Scientific Revolution was constantly at odds with the oppositional force of religion and mysticism. How were average Europeans, and the scientists themselves, affected by the dilemma created by these forces?
In the lives of the impoverished masses, stability was of the utmost importance. Maintenance of one's job, one's family life, and one's quality of living were the utmost goals of the commoner, and these goals informed the common reaction to the suggestion that the principles upon which everyday life was thought to be based were no longer valid. In the face of the instability and change threatened by advancement of science, common Europeans often turned to the Church for guidance. The Church had been the most stable feature of the previous millennium, defining the phenomena of the often hard to understand natural world, and in essence telling the common churchgoer what to believe. The combination of the influence of the Church and the traditions which had been passed down for hundreds of years produced an attitude of mysticism that seemed to answer all of the difficult questions of everyday life. Events in the natural world occurred not because of the interaction of mechanical forces but because of the influence of the positioning of the planets. This was a convenient and well-ingrained belief system.
In fact, this belief system was so ingrained that even scientists themselves often fell prey to it. The most illustrative case is that of Johannes Kepler, who was convinced that the universe had to be arranged according to some grand scheme, and that the teachings of astrology were largely correct. In keeping with these ancient beliefs, Kepler searched for a simple geometric model of the universe, largely ignoring the evidence to the contrary. Kepler's was a common dilemma faced by the thinkers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The ancient traditions exercised a strong pull on many scientists, who often allowed the supposed authorities of the past, or even simply the spirit of the past, to cloud their judgment and limit the progress made by their work.
How did the scientific view regarding authority change during the Scientific Revolution?
During the Middle Ages, science was undertaken more often in the library than in the laboratory. Even Nicolas Copernicus was content to synthesize the ideas and records of others rather than to directly collect and test his own data. Similarly, other fields of science were dominated by study of the classics. However, during the later sixteenth century, attitudes toward additional authority were changing. Men were no longer content to rely on ancient authority for the truth. Instead, they sought to do their own experimentation and observation. Nowhere was this more true than in the Royal Society. The society instituted the method of scientific inquiry most unfavorable to the persistence of dogmatism: laboratory experimentation. To quote past authority was useless, and frowned upon. The crest of the Royal Society bears the motto Nullius in verba ('On the word of no man'). This motto expresses the demand for tangible evidence, for repeatable experimentation, which created the spirit of science, as we know it today.
