NATURAL PHILOSOPHERS
• Medieval scientists, known as “natural philosophers,” did
not make observations of the world and nature so much
as rely on ancient authorities, especially Aristotle, for
their scientific knowledge.
• Changes in the 1400s and 1500s caused European
scientists to adopt new views and methods.
RENAISSANCE HUMANISTS
• Renaissance humanists studied the newly discovered
works of Ptolemy, Archimedes, Plato, and other ancient
thinkers.
• They learned that some ancient thinkers had disagreed
with Aristotle and other accepted authorities.
• Renaissance intellectuals such as, Copernicus, Kepler,
Galileo, Newton, and others, developed new theories
that became the foundation of the Scientific Revolution.
INSTRUMENTATION
• Technical problems, like calculating how much weight a
ship could hold, spurred a movement towards observation
and measurement.
• New instruments like the telescope and microscope made
fresh observations and discoveries possible.
• Printing spread ideas more quickly.
STUDY OF MATHEMATICS
• The study of mathematics in the Renaissance contributed
to the scientific achievements of the 16th and17th
centuries.
• The greatest scientists of the day believed that the
secrets of nature were written in the language of
mathematics.
PTOLEMAIC SYSTEM
• Born in the 2nd century C.E., Ptolemy was antiquity’s
greatest astronomer.
• Medieval philosophers constructed a geocentric (earth is
at the center) model of the universe called the Ptolemaic
system.
• It is a series of concentric spheres with a motionless
Earth in the middle.
NICHOLAS COPERNICUS
• Nicholas Copernicus of Poland published his famous work,
On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, in 1543.
• He believed his heliocentric (with the sun at the center)
system was more accurate than the Ptolemaic system.
• Copernicus argued that all the planets revolved around
the sun, the Moon revolved around Earth, and Earth
rotated on its axis.
JOHANNES KEPLER
• The German mathematician, Johannes Kepler also helped
destroy the Ptolemaic system.
• His observations confirmed that the Sun was at the
center of the universe, and he traced the elliptical
orbits of the planets.
• Ptolemy had insisted that the orbits were circular.
GALILEO GALILEI
• The Italian scientist and mathematician Galileo Galilei
answered one of the two remaining questions for the new
astronomy.
• What are the planets made of ?
• He was the 1st European to make regular observations
with a telescope.
GALILEO’S MOONS
• Galileo saw mountains on the Moon and the 4 moons
orbiting Jupiter.
• Ptolemy had said the heavenly bodies were pure orbs of
light, but now it appeared they were material.
• Galileo’s work began to make Europeans aware of the new
view of the universe.
SCIENCE & THE CHURCH
• Galileo got into trouble with the Catholic Church, which
ordered him to abandon the new system because the
Copernican conception contradicted that of the Church
and the Bible.
• In the Copernican system, the heavens were not spiritual
but material, and God no longer in a a specific place.
• Most astronomers now believed the new conception.
ISAAC NEWTON
• The Englishman Isaac Newton responded to the 2nd
question for the new conception of the universe.
• What explains motion in the universe?
• He was a mathematics professor at Cambridge
University.
UNIVERSAL LAW OF GRAVITATION
• Newton published his views in Mathematical Principles of
Natural Philosophy, also known as the Principia.
• He defined the 3 laws of motion in the universe.
• Crucial to his view was the universal law of gravitation:
every object in the universe is attracted to every other
object by a force called gravity.
• This explains why planetary bodies did not go off in a
straight line, but traveled in elliptical orbits.
The Scientific Revolution
1. What did the writings of Ptolomy and Archimedes make
obvious?
2. What new invention helped to spread new scientific
ideas quickly and safely?
3. Where is earth placed in the universe according to the
Ptolemeic system?
4. What discoveries did Galileo make using a telescope?
5. Why did the Church order Galileo to abandon the
Copernican idea of the nature of the universe?
6. What did Isaac Newton define in his first book? Name
the book?
ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS IN COMPLETE SENTENCES!
ANDREAS VESALIUS
• The new anatomy of the 16th century was based on the
work of Andreas Vesalius, published in his On the Fabric
of the Human Body (1543).
• He reported his results from dissecting human bodies as
a professor of surgery at the University of Padua,
presenting an accurate view of the individual organs and
general structure of the human body.
• He erroneously believed that the body had 2 kinds of
blood.
WILLIAM HARVEY
• William Harvey’s On the Motion of the Heart and Blood
(1628) showed that the heart, not the liver as Galen had
thought was the beginning point of the blood’s
circulation.
• He also showed that the same blood runs through veins
and arteries and that the blood makes a complete circuit
through the body.
• Harvey’s work was based on close observation and
experiment.
ROBERT BOYLE
• The work of Robert Boyle in chemistry was also based on
close observation and experiment.
• He formulated Boyle’s Law about gases-the volume of a
gas varies with the pressure exerted on it.
• In the 18th century, Antoine Lavoisier, the founder of
modern chemistry, invented a system of naming the
chemical elements.
MARGARET CAVENDISH
• One of the most prominent female scientists of the 17th
century was Margaret Cavendish.
• In works such as her Observations Upon Experimental
Philosophy, she criticized the belief that humans,
through science, were the masters of the universe.
MARIA WINKELMANN
• Maria Winkelmann was the most famous woman
astronomer; she assisted her husband in their
observatory, and discovered a comet.
• She was denied a post as assistant astronomer at the
Berlin Academy because in the view of most people of
the 17th century, science and scholarship conflicted with
the domestic roles women were expected to fulfill.
René Descartes
• 17th century French philosopher, Descartes, wrote about
the doubt and uncertainty that seamed to be everywhere
at the time.
• In his most famous work, Discourse on Method, in 1637
emphasized the importance of reason in relation to
truth.
• A famous quote that came from this thought is- “I
think, therefore I am.”
Descartes 2nd Principle
• Descartes used his reason to arrive at a 2nd principle.
• He argued that because “the mind cannot be doubted but
the body and material world can; the two must be
radically different.”
• Descartes has rightly been called the father of modern
rationalism (reason is the chief source of knowledge).
The Scientific Method
• The scientific method is a systematic procedure for
collecting and analyzing evidence.
• Francis Bacon, a British philosopher, believed that
instead of relying on the ideas of ancient authorities,
scientists should use inductive reasoning (to proceed from
the particular to the general).
FRANCIS BACON
• Bacon stated that the “true and lawful goal of the
sciences is none other than this: that human life is
empowered with new discoveries and power.”
• He wanted science to benefit industry, agriculture and
trade.
Science and Medicine
1. What did William Harvey write?
2. What were Harvey’s observations and experiments
showing him?
3. What field of science in Germany provided opportunities
for women?
4. Name women of the Scientific Revolution?
5. What did René Descartes emphasize and assert were
essential for knowledge?
6. Who developed the scientific method and what is it
exactly?
PATH TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT
• The Enlightenment was an 18th century philosophical
movement of intellectuals who were greatly
impressed by the achievements of the Scientific
Revolution.
• Reason, natural law, hope and progress were common
words used by the thinkers of the Enlightenment.
JOHN LOCKE
• Englishman, John Locke, in his 18th century Essay
Concerning Human Understanding argued that everyone
was born with a tabula rasa (a blank mind).
• He suggested that people were molded by personal
experiences and influences, which caused people to look
for societal change.
• He said, “Law should come from the consent of the
people.”
ISAAC NEWTON
• Using Newton’s methods, people believed that they could
discover the natural laws that all institutions should
follow to produce the ideal society.
PHILOSOPHE
• The intellectuals of the Enlightenment were known by the
French name philosophe, meaning philosopher.
• They were writers, professors, journalists, economists
and above all else social reformers.
MONTESQUIEU
• Charles-Louise de Secondat, the Baron de Montesquieu,
came from French nobility.
• His Spirit of the Laws was published in 1748.
• He tried to find the natural laws that govern the social
and political relationships of human beings.
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Three Basic Governments
Montesquieu identified 3 basic types of governments:
Republics, suitable for small states.
Depotism, appropriate for large states.
Monarchies, ideal for moderate-sized states.
He also argued for a 3 branch government system;
Executive, Legislative and Judicial.
VOLTAIRE
• Francois Marie-Arouet, known simply as Voltaire, was a
writer of pamphlets, novels, plays, letters, essays and
histories. He was wealthy.
• Famously known for his criticism of Christianity and
promoted religious tolerance in his 1763 Treatise on
Toleration.
• He said, “I may not agree with what you believe, but I
will fight to the death, your right to believe it.”
Adam Smith
• Scottish philosopher, Adam Smith, helped found modern
social sciences and economics.
• He and a group of French Physiocrats advocated for the
concept of laissez-faire (meaning to let the people do
what they want)
ROUSSEAU
• French philosophe,in his Discourse on the Origins of the
Inequality of Mankind, he argued that people were
enslaved by the government by the property that they
owned.
• In his most famous work, The Social Contract, he argued
that in the contract an entire society agrees to be
governed by its general will.
• “This means nothing else than [they] will be forced to be
free,” said Rousseau.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT
• For centuries men argued that women were inferior to
men because it was in their nature to be dominated by
men.
• The English writer, Mary Wollstonecraft, in her
Vindication of the Rights of Women, identified 2
problems with the thinkers of the Enlightenment.
Vindication of the Rights of Women
• Mary Wollstonecraft argued that most of Enlightenment
thinkers did not want the strong control of a monarchy
system.
• She said it was the same power that men wanted over
women that was wrong. She claimed that this point
should be obvious to men.
• She also claimed that women had reason, like men, they
are all entitled to the same rights as men.
Enlightenment Thinkers
1. . Define philosophe.
2. Who suggested that government should have a
separation of powers?
3. What 3 branches of government did he say were
important? Who is he?
4. What is laissez-faire? Who believed in it?
5. What is a social contract? Did Montesquieu support it or
was it someone else?
6. Who was the woman who wanted more political freedoms
for women? What were her 2 main arguments?
ANSWER IN COMPLETE SENTENCES!!!!!!!!!!