The Scientific Revolution:
Science and Other Models
Magic, Science and Religion
Fall 2012
Was there a “Scientific Revolution”?
• Term coined 1939 by Alexander Koyre (French)
• First occurred in book title in 1954 (A. R. Hall)
• Was there a field of “science” to change ?
(“natural philosophy”)
• “Revolution” meant periodically recurring cycle,
until 18th century
• “Heroic” view – Voltaire, 18th century
• “Scientist” not used until late 19th/early 20th
century –proposed by Wm. Whewell, 1833/40
• Yet 17th century figures claimed major changes
Themes
• Rejection of Aristotelian thought, teleology
• Move from geocentric to heliocentric
planetary system
• Observation and induction (reasoning from
data to theory, detail to general idea)
• Mechanization/nature as machine (clock)
• Mathematization – use of math for theorizing
Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543)
Aristotelian/Ptolemaic (Ptolemy)
Universe
Copernican Model
Copernicus (1473-1543)
• De Revolutionibus (On the Revolutions of the
Celestial Spheres), published 1543
• Mathematician, astronomer, physician,
Catholic cleric, governor, classical scholar,
translator, artist, translator, diplomat, jurist
• Born in Poland, father a wealthy copper trader
• De Revolutionibus – final printing supervised
by Lutheran theologian, Andreas Osiander
• Little controversy until several years later
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Galileo and Heliocentrism
•
•
•
•
Made improvements to telescope
Supported heliocentrism, met opposition
Clerics examined before Inquisition, cleared
Roman Catholic Church condemned heliocentrism as
“false and contrary to scripture”
• Question of who was allowed to interpret scripture
• Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems,
1632 (including Simplicio, defender of geocentrism) –
led to trial, “suspect of heresy,” recanting, house arrest
Cardinal Robert Bellarmine
(St. Robert, S.J.)
Called Galileo to Rome, 1616
Pope Urban VIII
Despite early friendship, called Galileo to Rome
in 1633 to recant
Galileo and Telescope
• First instruments in The Netherlands, 1608,
developed by spectacle makers
• Galileo greatly improved design the next year
• Allowed him to see moons of Jupiter
• Observed and analyzed sunspots (opposed
Aristotelian view of heavens)
• Einstein and Stephen Hawking see Galileo as
central to birth of modern science
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Bacon
• Father was Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the
Great Seal for Queen Elizabeth
• Disinterested in Aristotle, anti-scholastic
• When father died, took up law practice
• Won a seat in Parliament in 1584 (at 23)
• 1607-1618, public offices
• 1605, Advancement of Learning
• 1620, Novum Organum (The New Organon)
• 1621, named Viscount St. Albans; accused of
accepting bribes
Bacon’s Approach to Knowledge
• Opposed to Aristotelian “norms,” including teleology
• Practical application and utility were his justifications
of knowledge (traditionally, “truth with certainty”),
knowledge as power
• Human dominion over nature via science
• Not alchemy, magic or fantastic speculation
• Rather, via empirical investigation
• Inductive reasoning – from sense perception of
particulars to generalizations
• Importance of observation, experiment, theory
Francis Bacon, Novum Organum,
(1620), Aphorism XIX
“There are and can be only two ways of searching
into and discovering the truth. The one flies from
the senses and particulars to the most general
axioms, and from these principles – to the truth
of what it takes for settled and immovable –
proceeds to judgment and to the discovery of the
middle axioms. And this way is now in fashion.
The other derives axioms from the senses and
particulars, rising by a gradual and unbroken
ascent, so that it arrives at the most general
axiom last of all.. This is the true way, but as yet
untried.”
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
• Laws of Planetary Motion, 1609-1629
• German mathematic, astronomer, astrologer
• Laws of motion contributed to Newton’s laws
of gravitation
• Work on refracting telescope helped legitimize
discoveries of Galileo
• Studied theology, used religious arguments
• Practiced astrology
Robert Boyle (1627-1691)
Boyle
• Natural philosopher, chemist, physicist
• Natural world as clock-work (nature as
machine)
• Work has roots in alchemical tradition,
believed transmutation of metals possible
• Advances in many areas of physics and
chemistry
• Seen as one of founders of modern chemistry
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
Newton’s Work
• English physicist, mathematician, astronomer,
theologian, alchemist
• Principia Mathematica (The Mathematical
Principles of Natural Philosophy), 1687
• Laws of motion, gravitation
• Built first reflecting telescope
• Independently, with Leibnitz, developed
differential and integral calculus
Contemporary Views
• Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions (1962) – “normal science,”
anomalies, paradigm change
• Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature:
Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution
(1980) – parts of scientific revolution
responsible for ecological problems
Other Models:
Grand Theory Approach
(P. Pelto)
“Traditional Reasoning”
(Deductive)
• General axioms/Grand theory – about how
everything works
• Middle Range Theory – if you find any data set,
will it behave the same?
• Low Order Propositions – explanation for data
• Modes of Observation – find ways to observe
carefully
• The Real World of Things and Events – data,
senses, particulars; real, observable world
What is left out?
• YOU and your perspective
• You have a point of view
Grand Theory
Theorists:
Karl Marx - scientific materialism, capitalism
Sigmund Freud - psycho-social human
development, sex & aggression, psychoanalysis
Start with theory, apply to everything
Movies (books?) have hidden general axioms
-- ideology in story form
“Pardes” Model
Rabbi Akiva
Interpretation Theory
PaRDeS – “paradise”
S SOD – occult, hidden (mystical)
D DRUSH – homily: behave like this, moral
imperative
R REMEZ – symbolic, allegorical
P PSHT – simple meaning, literal
Genesis 1:1
• “Bereishit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve’et
ha’aretz.”
• Bereishit: “In the [a] beginning. . .”
Middle 3 letters: rosh, “head”
• Et – particle introduces direct object
Rabbi Akiva: “et” hints at specific earthly or
spiritual entities
Mystical Interpretation
• Why does Bible start with second letter of
alphabet?
Second creation? There was previous
• “God said, Let there be . . .” God speaks and
creates
(I create as I speak): word magic
Mystical tradition: Bible filled with puns
Kabbalah: “to be receptive” of alternative
interpretation
Pardes – shifts of consciousness