The Scientific Revolution:

New Views on Science

 

1.         Leonardo:  The Scientific Method-   which is a logical process for gathering info and testing; independently developed in Renaissance.

2.         Aristotle: Began the Geocentric Theory-   Earth is center of universe, Ptolemy restated this theory.  Supported by Christian church, taught God designed universe for humans.

3.         Copernicus: Heliocentric Theory-   Sun is at center of universe, not widely accepted.

4.         Galileo: Sensible Experiments-   cause knowledge of nature and necessary demonstrations.

            Discovered that light objects fall at the same speed as heavy objects

5.                  Galileo: Study of the Skies – disproved medieval belief of objects in the heavens, and disproved that heavenly bodies moved around the earth.

6.                  Tycho Brahe: Agreed with Copernicus that planets move around the sun, but thought the sun circled earth once a yr.

7.                  Kepler: Three Laws of Planets Motion- Planets revolve around sun, mathematically.

8.                  Newton:  Believed objects obey laws of motion, gravity helps movement of planets

9.                  Vesalius:  Study of Living Things-  Made discoveries by dissecting human corpses, father of modern anatomy.

10.              Harvey:  Study of Living Things-   Discovered that blood circulates in the body.

11.              Bacon:  Inductive method-   conclusion is reached after observation.  Believed people could live more comfortable lives if Scientific Method were followed more often.

12.              Descartes: Deductive method-  conclusion is reached by logic starting with a theory and deriving facts from the theory.

"Cogito, ergo sum." (I think, therefore I am. René Descartes 1596 - 1650

"To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction." Sir Isaac Newton 1642 - 1727

"Common sense is the best distributed commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it." René Descartes 1596 – 1650

The Scientific Revolution was during the Reformation and was a time of a lot of questions, thinking and new discoveries about our earth.  It was a time of Christian breakdown and religious wars that caused Europeans challenge authority and their beliefs.  New views of the universe were becoming big with the discoveries of the sun being the center of the earth rather than believing that everything revolved around earth and humans.  The beginning of this Revolution was in 1543 with Copernicus, who published his famous book on the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres.  He believed that the planets revolved around the sun and that the moon revolved around the earth.  This caused much commotion, but soon led to more new views of the world.  Other famous names during the Scientific Revolution were: Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Bacon and Descartes.