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Feb 9, 2020 · The stuff which has been drawn up is bound to cool, and having cooled, turns to water and comes down. It is merely concurrent that this having happened, the corn grows. Hence, the hydrological or water cycle, at least in Europe, was known by Aristotles time, and so by 350 BCE.
Aug 22, 2023 · The microscope, invented in the first quarter of the 17th century, was part of the Scientific Revolution, as it opened up whole new miniaturised worlds and avenues of scientific inquiry to challenge or confirm existing theories.
- Mark Cartwright
Nov 6, 2023 · Precision was the watchword of the Scientific Revolution, and so the thermometer was invented in the early 17th century, although we do not know who did so. The early thermometers were of the thermoscope type, that is, a narrow tube was filled with water which moved up (or down) a scale when the air below (or above) it was heated and so it ...
- Mark Cartwright
- Overview
- Astronomy
Scientific Revolution is the name given to a period of drastic change in scientific thought that took place during the 16th and 17th centuries. It replaced the Greek view of nature that had dominated science for almost 2,000 years. The Scientific Revolution was characterized by an emphasis on abstract reasoning, quantitative thought, an understanding of how nature works, the view of nature as a machine, and the development of an experimental scientific method.
How is the Scientific Revolution connected to the Enlightenment?
The Enlightenment, like the Scientific Revolution, began in Europe. Taking place during the 17th and 18th centuries, this intellectual movement synthesized ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and humanity into a worldview that celebrated reason. This emphasis on reason grew out of discoveries made by prominent thinkers—including the astronomy of Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo, the philosophy of René Descartes, and the physics and cosmology of Isaac Newton—many of whom preceded the Enlightenment.
What did the Scientific Revolution lead to?
The sudden emergence of new information during the Scientific Revolution called into question religious beliefs, moral principles, and the traditional scheme of nature. It also strained old institutions and practices, necessitating new ways of communicating and disseminating information. Prominent innovations included scientific societies (which were created to discuss and validate new discoveries) and scientific papers (which were developed as tools to communicate new information comprehensibly and test the discoveries and hypotheses made by their authors).
Scientific Revolution, drastic change in scientific thought that took place during the 16th and 17th centuries. A new view of nature emerged during the Scientific Revolution, replacing the Greek view that had dominated science for almost 2,000 years. Science became an autonomous discipline, distinct from both philosophy and technology, and it came to be regarded as having utilitarian goals. By the end of this period, it may not be too much to say that science had replaced Christianity as the focal point of European civilization. Out of the ferment of the Renaissance and Reformation there arose a new view of science, bringing about the following transformations: the reeducation of common sense in favour of abstract reasoning; the substitution of a quantitative for a qualitative view of nature; the view of nature as a machine rather than as an organism; the development of an experimental, scientific method that sought definite answers to certain limited questions couched in the framework of specific theories; and the acceptance of new criteria for explanation, stressing the “how” rather than the “why” that had characterized the Aristotelian search for final causes.
The Scientific Revolution began in astronomy. Although there had been earlier discussions of the possibility of Earth’s motion, the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was the first to propound a comprehensive heliocentric theory equal in scope and predictive capability to Ptolemy’s geocentric system. Motivated by the desire to satisfy Plato’s dictum, Copernicus was led to overthrow traditional astronomy because of its alleged violation of the principle of uniform circular motion and its lack of unity and harmony as a system of the world. Relying on virtually the same data as Ptolemy had possessed, Copernicus turned the world inside out, putting the Sun at the centre and setting Earth into motion around it. Copernicus’s theory, published in 1543, possessed a qualitative simplicity that Ptolemaic astronomy appeared to lack. To achieve comparable levels of quantitative precision, however, the new system became just as complex as the old. Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of Copernican astronomy lay in Copernicus’s attitude toward the reality of his theory. In contrast to Platonic instrumentalism, Copernicus asserted that to be satisfactory astronomy must describe the real, physical system of the world.
The reception of Copernican astronomy amounted to victory by infiltration. By the time large-scale opposition to the theory had developed in the church and elsewhere, most of the best professional astronomers had found some aspect or other of the new system indispensable. Copernicus’s book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri VI (“Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs”), published in 1543, became a standard reference for advanced problems in astronomical research, particularly for its mathematical techniques. Thus, it was widely read by mathematical astronomers, in spite of its central cosmological hypothesis, which was widely ignored. In 1551 the German astronomer Erasmus Reinhold published the Tabulae prutenicae (“Prutenic Tables”), computed by Copernican methods. The tables were more accurate and more up-to-date than their 13th-century predecessor and became indispensable to both astronomers and astrologers.
During the 16th century the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, rejecting both the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems, was responsible for major changes in observation, unwittingly providing the data that ultimately decided the argument in favour of the new astronomy. Using larger, stabler, and better calibrated instruments, he observed regularly over extended periods, thereby obtaining a continuity of observations that were accurate for planets to within about one minute of arc—several times better than any previous observation. Several of Tycho’s observations contradicted Aristotle’s system: a nova that appeared in 1572 exhibited no parallax (meaning that it lay at a very great distance) and was thus not of the sublunary sphere and therefore contrary to the Aristotelian assertion of the immutability of the heavens; similarly, a succession of comets appeared to be moving freely through a region that was supposed to be filled with solid, crystalline spheres. Tycho devised his own world system—a modification of Heracleides’—to avoid various undesirable implications of the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the German astronomer Johannes Kepler placed the Copernican hypothesis on firm astronomical footing. Converted to the new astronomy as a student and deeply motivated by a neo-Pythagorean desire for finding the mathematical principles of order and harmony according to which God had constructed the world, Kepler spent his life looking for simple mathematical relationships that described planetary motions. His painstaking search for the real order of the universe forced him finally to abandon the Platonic ideal of uniform circular motion in his search for a physical basis for the motions of the heavens.
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Aug 7, 2019 · Twelve original Fellows met on 28 November 1660 and resolved to form a permanent learned society dedicated to science. Among the founding members was Robert Boyle, who would become famous for his chemical work, his air pump experiments and the air pressure law that now bears his name.
Nov 8, 2023 · The Scientific Revolution (1500-1700), which occurred first in Europe before spreading worldwide, witnessed a new approach to knowledge gathering – the scientific method – which utilised new technologies like the telescope to observe, measure, and test things never seen before.
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In the field of biology, where much had been left to mysticism until the seventeenth century, thinkers of the Scientific Revolution made great strides, pushing understanding of the human body to unprecedented heights.
