History 311
THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
Part III
Francis Bacon
1561 - 1626
Novum Organum, 1610
The Four Idols:
The
The
The
The
Tribe
Cave
Marketplace
Theater
Bacon and the Four Idols
Idols of the Tribe – Human Tendency to Fall in
Love with a Dogma
Idols of the Cave – Excessive Importance Given to
Personal Experience; the idol of personal bias
Idols of the Marketplace – The Fallacy of the catch
word or unexamined vocabulary
Idols of the Theater – The Fallacy of Theorists to
spin seductive theories; plausible but fictitious
systems
Title Page from Bacon’s
The Great Instauration
Published 1620
Rene´ Descartes
1596 - 1650
Discourse on Method,
1637
The Cartesian Method
• Systematic Doubt
• Clear and Distinct Ideas
Teleological View of
World
As
Great Chain of
Being
MAN
Nature
Essentially
Qualitative
GOD
CARTESIAN RATIONALISM
Systematic or Hyperbolic Doubt
 Deductive Argument from First Principles

– Cogito, ergo sum

Cartesian Dualism
– Res extensa
- Res cogitans
Math as Bridge
Physical Universe
Size, Shape
Motion, Rest
Thinking Universe
Soul
The first was never to accept anything as true if I did not have
evident knowledge of its truth; that is, carefully to avoid
precipitate conclusions and preconceptions, and to include nothing
more in my judgments than what presented itself to my mind so
clearly and distinctly that I had no occasion to doubt it.
The second, to divide each of the difficulties I examined into as
many parts as possible and as may be required in order to resolve
them better.
The third, to direct my thoughts in an orderly manner, by
beginning with the simplest and most easily known objects in
order to ascend little by little, step by step, to knowledge of the
most complex, and by supposing some order even among objects
that have no natural order of precedence.
And the last, throughout to make enumerations so complete, and
reviews so comprehensive, that I could be sure of leaving nothing
1. We have an idea of that which has infinite perfection.
2. The idea we have of ourselves entails finitude and
imperfection.
3. According to the principle of sufficient reason, there must
be as much reality (formally or eminently) in the cause of
any idea as (objectively) in the idea itself.
4. Therefore, the idea we have of infinite perfection originated
from a being with infinite formal perfection.
5. It follows that the idea could not have originated in
ourselves or our ideas of ourselves.
6. The origin of the idea could only be the real existence of
the infinite being that we call God.
CARTESIAN RATIONALISM
Systematic Doubt
 Deductive Argument from First Principles

– Cogito, ergo sum

Cartesian Dualism
– Res extensa
- Res cogitans
Math as Bridge
Physical Universe
Size, Shape
Motion, Rest
Thinking Universe
Soul
Type:
Secondary
Primary
Objects
Properties
Objects of
Sense
hardness, heat,
light, odor, color,
taste, sound
Objects of
Mathematics
quantity,
shape, time,
magnitude
Cartesian Dualism
And
Modern Worldview
Nature
As
Essentially
Quantitative
Human
Soul
God
as
First Cause
Descartes
“Man as machine”
“The Clock Metaphor”
Shapin, pp. 32-37
Robert Hooke
1635-1703
Anton Van Leeuwenhoek
1632-1723
Develops an early Microscope
Robert Boyle
1627-1691
Corpuscular Theory of Matter
Boyle’s Air Pump
Cartesian Dualism
And
Modern Worldview
Nature
As
Essentially
Quantitative
Man
as
Soul
God
as
First Cause
Theological-Political Treatise
1670
Influenced by Cartesian Rationalism
Rejects Cartesian Dualism
Theory of “Monism”; equates God
And Nature
Benedict de Spinoza
1632-1678
Sir Isaac Newton, 1642-1727
Title Page of
Principia, 1687
Newton’s Three Laws of Motion

Every body perseveres in its state of being at rest
or of moving uniformly straight forward, except
insofar as it is compelled to change its state by
force impressed

The rate of change of momentum of a body is
proportional to the resultant force acting on the
body and is in the same direction

For every action force there is an equal, but
opposite, reaction force
Sir Isaac Newton, 1642-1727
Newtonian Worldview
• One universal, mathematical law
explains all motion in universe
• World of nature open to human
investigation and knowledge
Principia, 1687
• Mechanical view of nature
• Orderly, regulated, uniform
• Machine operates by natural laws
• Natural Laws can be Known by Man
Teleological View of
World
As
Great Chain of
Being
MAN
Nature
Essentially
Qualitative
GOD
TECHNOLOGY
ARTS & CRAFTS
PRACTICAL/MATERIAL
WORLD
SCIENCE
ANCIENT
WORLD
CHRISTIAN
MEDIEVAL
KNOWLEDGE-TRUTH
WORLD OF SUBSTANCE
PHILOSOPHY/THEOLOGY
QUALITATIVE
SPIRITUAL/SOUL
QUANTITATIVE
MECHANISTIC
SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION
PHYSICAL UNIVERSE QUANTITATIVE/MATHEMATICALLY STRUCTURED & MECHANISTIC
MATHEMATICS IS BRIDGE FROM HUMAN SOUL/MIND TO KNOWLEDGE OF REALITY
Cartesian Dualism
And
Modern Worldview
Nature
As
Essentially
Quantitative
Man
as
Soul
God
as
First Cause