Where in the world is
the world?
The Scientific World of the
th
th
17 and 18 centuries.
The objectives of this slide show
are
• You will understand the impact of the
discoveries of Galileo, Copernicus, and
Newton
• You will assess in what ways the ancient
scholars limited scientific inquiry.
• You will judge for yourself the risk that
these scientists took to publish their
findings.
If we remember,
the Catholic church
had “folded” into
its doctrine various
classical scholars.
This was done quite
early to “win” over
pagan converts.
Aristotle
• Made proclamations, then proceeded
to explain why it was so.
• The result was knowledge was set in
stone.
• The conclusions were made before
extensive observation.
Ptolemy 85-165 a.d.
•The sun revolves around the earth
•Used fabricated data
•But, once again, accepted and
embraced by the early Catholic church
Here’s what Isaac Newton said about
Ptolemy:
Ptolemy developed certain astronomical theories
and discovered that they were not consistent with
observation. Instead of abandoning the theories, he
deliberately fabricated observations from the
theories so that he could claim that the
observations prove the validity of his theories. In
every scientific or scholarly setting known, this
practice is called fraud, and it is a crime against
science and scholarship.
Copernicus was born
in Krakow, Poland in
1473 and lived until
1543.
People began to question the Catholic idea
of the universe. They began to observe,
write down, and publish what they learned.
His famous book was the “Revolution of
Heavenly Orbs”
He came to the conclusion that the
earth and the planets revolved around
the sun.
There is a legend that the book was placed
in his hands at his death, because of its
controversial content.
Shakespeare and Galileo were both born in
1564!
Galileo invented
a telescope that
helped Venetian
merchants set
prices.
The telescope enabled him to see the moons
of Jupiter and the craters of our moon.
He wrote
about his
observations
in “The
Starry
Messenger” in
1610.
Up until that time, people thought the moon had
a smooth surface, despite the shadows that could
be seen with the naked eye.
The observations were stunning.
The Catholic church
was upset about this
information, and saw it
as an attack on their
traditions.
The reformation
and counterreformation was in
full swing—and so
the church began
to keep a secret
file on Galileo for
17 years.
I hold that the Sun is located at the centre of the
revolutions of the heavenly orbs and does not change
place, and that the Earth rotates on itself and moves
around it. Moreover ... I confirm this view not only by
refuting Ptolemy's and Aristotle's arguments, but also
by producing many for the other side, especially some
pertaining to physical effects whose causes perhaps
cannot be determined in any other way; these
discoveries clearly confute the Ptolemaic system.
--Galileo.
Galileo was eventually brought up before the inquisition in
1633.
The charges were for heresy.
He was kept under house arrest
Even then, it was too late. . .with the
invention of the printing press, ideas
were bouncing all over Europe.
And the year that Galileo died, 1642,, a baby
boy was born who would change the world. .
.