3. The Scientific
Revolution
Prelude
many ideas and
technologies were
imported from India and
China via the Arabic
Empire
Europe did not stand still...
Arabic Empire
Q: Who was holding them
off in Spain?
A: Charlemagne and the
Franks
Q: who was holding them
off in Turkey?
A: the Byzantine Empire
632
661
661-750
750 -1258
Arabic Empire
Taken up by the
scholastics, esp Thomas
Aquinas.
Abu al-Walid Muḥammad bin Ahmad bin Rushd,
commonly known as Ibn Rushd or by his
Latinized name Averroës (1126 –1198)
Averroes had a great impact on Western
European circles and he has been described
as the "founding father of secular thought in
Western Europe". The detailed
commentaries on Aristotle earned Averroes
the title "The Commentator" in Europe. Latin
translations of Averroes' work led the way to
the popularization of Aristotle and were
responsible for the development of
scholasticism in medieval Europe.
understood rainbows
destroyed the
extromission model of
vision
Averroes was a Western
European (born in
Cordoba, died in
Marrakesh)
Arabic Empire
The House of Wisdom
833 -1258
Founded in Baghdad by
Caliph al- Rashid.
Destroyed by Hulagu
Khan.
Arabic Empire
star names
Aldebaran, Algebar, Algol, Altair, Deneb, Rigel, and Vega
trade items
alfalfa, apricot, artichoke, candy, caraway, coffee, jar, jasmine, julep,
lacquer, lemon, lime, mattress, orange, saffron, sequin, sofa, spinach,
sugar, talc, tamarind, and tuna,
scientific words
alchemy, alcohol, algebra, alkali, benzene, borax, caliper,
camphor, chemistry, cipher, elixir, gauze, zenith, and zero
Arabic Empire
Brahmi numerals, India, 1st CE.
Alsephadi
Johannes de Sacrobosco (1195 -1256)
Roger Bacon (1214-1294)
modern Indian
Scholastics
St. Albertus Magnus
(1193/1206 – 1280)
Roger Bacon
William of Ockham
( c. 1214 – 1294)
( c. 1287 – 1347)
John Duns [Duns Scotus]
St. Thomas Aquinas
(c. 1266 – 1308)
(1225 -- 1274)
Causes of the Scientific
Revolution
(i) Discovery of the New World
Why aren’t the Americas
mentioned in the Bible?
NB: determining latitude is easy,
determining longitude requires an
accurate time piece to see how long
has transpired bet ween noon at home
and noon where you are. Thus they
missed how close the Red Sea is to the
Mediterranean and the missing swath
of Earth bet ween the coasts of Brazil
and China
Tordesillas line: agreed
Cantino planisphere 1502, earliest surviving chart showing the explorations of Columbus to Central
America,
Corte-Real
to
separation
of the
New
World bet ween Spain
Newfoundland, de Gama to India, and Cabral to Brazil. The Tordesillas line is depicted
and Portugal.
(ii) Technological Innovation
compass
telescope
microscope
barometer
thermometer
(iii) The Reformation
The 95 theses (1517).
If the pope and
Catholicism can be
questioned, surely
everything can!
Martin Luther (1483 – 1546)
Scholasticism under
Siege
heliocentrism (ii)
Nicolaus Copernicus
(1473 -- 1543)
Polish-German astronomer
(1543)
In part motivated by the belief
that deferents and equants
were less ‘perfect’ than spheres.
Bacon
- member of British parliament
- attorney general
- Lord Chancellor in court of James I
- played important role in founding of
Virginia and Newfoundland colonies
- the way out of the philosophical morass
was clear, empty philosophizing must be
replaced by ruthless empiricism
Sir Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St. Alban,
(1561 – 1626), was an English
philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist,
orator, essayist, and author.
“For to what purpose are these braincreations and idle displays of power .. All
these invented systems of the universe,
each according to his own fancy [are] like
so many arguments of plays ... every one
philosophises out of the cells of his own
imagination, as out of Plato’s cave.”
Bacon
“New Instrument”
Sir Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St. Alban,
(1561 – 1626), was an English
philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist,
orator, essayist, and author.
- Novum Organum (1620)
- “Cut nature to the quick”
- “Knowledge is power”
- men should not seek final cause
- science should be put to the use of the
state
- promoted the ‘corpuscular’ theory
(atomism)
- “The investigation of nature is best
conducted when mathematics is applied
to physics”
Descartes
René Descartes (1596 – 1650).
French philosopher & mathematician
“From my childhood I lived in a world of books, and since I was
taught that by their help I could gain a clear and assured
knowledge of everything useful in life, I was eager to learn form
them. But as soon as I had finished the course of studies which
usually admits one to the ranks of the learned, I changed my
opinion completely, for I found myself saddled with so many
doubts and errors that I seemed to have gained nothing in trying
to educate myself unless it was to discover more and more fully
how ignorant I was.”
Descartes
in math:
- used the notation x,y,z for unknowns
- introduced the concept of coordinate systems
- invented the superscript notation for powers (8 = 23)
René Descartes (1596 – 1650).
French philosopher & mathematician
- Discourse on Method (1637)
- rejected the corpuscular theory
- rejected hylomorphism
- argued that the benevolence of God
permits a rational understanding of
nature
- rejected all previous knowledge and
sought to derive all the laws of nature
from scratch
- “scratch” = “I think, therefore I am”
Descartes
Cartesian vortex theory of the
structure of the solar system
René Descartes (1596 – 1650).
French philosopher & mathematician
Principles of Philosophy (1644)