O’Neill Media Center Stacks
PR5608.A3 B3 2001
November 4, 1979
“The Scientific Revolution”:
From Narrative to Numeracy
April 24, 1980: “Operation Eagle Claw”
Week 10 – Lecture 01
6 November 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M05P9gO5Hkg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M05P9gO5Hkg
1
• 1543: Copernicus dies
• 1545-1563: Council of Trent
loves his book “On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly
Spheres”
– sets accurate date of Easter
I.
Opening Question: The Problem of Copernicus
• 1616 --- Inquisition condemns
Copernicus [posthumously!]
• Question: what happens
between 1543-1616?
• 1543: Copernicus dies
• 1545-1563: Council of Trent
loves his book “On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly
Spheres”
– sets accurate date of Easter
II. Traditional Cosmology
[Aristotle]
• 1616 --- Inquisition condemns
Copernicus
• Question: what happens
between 1543-1616?
The “hidden agenda of modernity”
1. Great Chain of Being
is
the repression of fluid ambiguities
<16th c: low boundaries: religion-science>
and
the invention of absolute certainties
<17th c: thick boundaries: science vs. religion>
• Everything in
universe touches
something else:
gradations,
interconnections,
mediations
2
• GREAT CHAIN OF BEING
• A hierarchical ladder of Being
• “Lower” beings “participate” in Being to a lesser degree than “higher” beings
– God is independent; human is dependent
• NO EVOLUTION --- no “linear motion” -- DEVOLUTION
– perfect motion is circular;
– if you start with perfection, and you move, you move to the imperfect
2. Motion
– All things have their proper “end” and “seek” their proper place
[essence]
• They are not pushed [efficient causality]
• They are “pulled” by desire for implanted aim [final causality]
• All things aim to realize their given “potential”
– More spiritual things go up; Material things go down.
• Note for reading about Newton: they didn’t like his new
“invisible force” of gravity!!! Back to Aristotle!
Hierarchy: in terms of matter/spirit; estates [class]; gender
“Biology is destiny” [political fascism embraces organic order]
3) Geocentric / Anthropocentric:
Earth [not a planet]
vs.
the “Heavens” [planets]
• EARTH: UNMOVING CENTER OF UNIVERSE
– Earthly motion: imperfect; corruptible;
becoming; objects travel in straight lines
– At core: Hell
– Genesis: “In the beginning God made the
heavens and the earth.”
• Contrast with Darwin’s “evolution”:
– Darwin: things get better over time
– Medieval: things get worse the farther away from
their source [“devolution”]
– Medieval: “being” better than “becoming”
– Modern: “change” is a good thing
Heavenly = Being = circular
Earthly = becoming = linear
– Motion of heavenly bodies [planets] = circular
• They revolve around the earth
– “Eternal” [circular] motion, non-corruptible, perfect motion
• perfect/unchanging [cf. “nimbus”; wedding ring]
• made of perfect materials: air and fire [go up]
– Contrast with early motion: linear motion
• change/ corruption
3
16th century:
Catholic Church: the main
patron of science --- Italian
Renaissance Humanism.
GEOCENTRIC
VIEW
(Aristotle-Ptolemy)
Wants to establish exact
dates for Easter.
Peter Apian,
Cosmographia
(1524)
Cf. Humanism: get the
most “accurate text”
available
• 1543
• Publishes: On the Revolutions of the
Heavenly Spheres
• Copernicus dies
III. The “revolution” of Nicholas Copernicus
• 1545-1563: Council of Trent
– “Counter-Reformation council”
• Loves his book because it sets
accurate date of Easter
Nicolaus Copernicus, Poland (1473-1543)
--First studies in Krakow
-- A medical doctor
-- Administrator of Catholic diocese
1543:
On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
– Sun is at center: it does not move
– Earth becomes a “heavenly body” [planet]
which moves in perfect circles around the sun
[Probably ordained a priest]
4
THE TURN TO A
HELIOCENTRIC VIEW
Copernicus,
On the Revolutions of
the Heavenly Spheres
(1543)
Copernicus: On the Revolutions
of the Heavenly Spheres (1543)
Geocentric: 1524
Heliocentric: 1543
Pope Paul III [Alexander Farnese]
Portrait by Titian
1543
1524
1545
Luther: Birth of the Roman Curia
5
Not “religion” v. “science”
but rather a shift in language / worldviews:
from narrative to numeracy
• NARRATIVE: “biblical”
[story; subject to irreconcilable
interpretations]
• MATHEMATICAL
[numerical; objective certainty]
NARRATIVE
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NUMERACY
“What makes an Equation Beautiful?”: NYT 24 October 2004
Numbers abstract from all contingent particulars –
2 apples / 2 bananas / 2 CDs / 2 DVDs / 2 SUVs –
they are pure form, eternal, always certain,
16th -c. Narrative Æ 17th-c. Numeracy
• Anecdotal / “stories”
• Model / “data” [cf NOMINALISM]
• Stories uncertain: can
be interpreted
variously [Bible]
• Mathematics certain: can
only be interpreted one
way
• “Subjective” --->
leads to skepticism /
wars of religion
• “Objective” ---> any
rational subject arrives at
same conclusion; against
skepticism
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Galileo Galilei [1564-1642]
Florence [Tuscany] / Venice
Far from Poland! Extends Italian Renaissance
From
narrative
•
•
•
•
•
1543: Copernicus dies
1564: Galileo born
1555: Peace of Augsburg
1559: Elizabeth I
1572: St. Barth’s
Massacre
• 1598: Edict of Nantes
to
numeracy
• 1592: Galileo professor
of mathematics at Padua
Galileo’s first telescopes
Museum of Science, Florence, Italy
• 1609: First telescope arrives in
Italy from Holland
III. Galileo: The 17th century
– Sees the surface of moon filled with
craters!
– Problem: Aristotle said celestial
bodies are “perfect”
– “A passion for observation”
Copernicus Crater seen by Apollo 17
What does he see? Craters!
He concludes from observation: Celestial body is “imperfect”
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KEY CULTURAL SHIFT:
Arguments from [personal]
“experience” from now on will
trump arguments from “authority”
[e.g., subjective individualism vs.
Bible; monarchy; philosophy]
Does Catholicism call your 'experiences' to 'conversion'?
Celso Perez wrote a careful letter that was printed in The Heights on Sept. 13 ("A 'c'est la
vie' attitude on Catholic tradition is 'dangerous.'") In it he discussed Catholic teaching "On
the Pastoral Care of Homosexuals" and raised some considerations regarding development
in Catholic moral teaching. Among the factors that enter into moral discernment, he
mentions
the teaching of the Church's magisterium, Scripture, [ARGUMENTS FROM AUTHORITY]
and what he calls "the normative human experience“ [ARGUMENTS FROM
EXPERIENCE / EMPIRICAL OBSERVATION].
....
All Christians, straight or gay, married or single, stand under the cross of Christ to learn
from him what constitutes "normative human experience."
Father Robert Imbelli
Department of Theology
– Led by: Robert Bellarmine [Jesuit and Cardinal]
TELESCOPE:
From deduction [authority]
to induction [experience / observation]
• “Reason” [Descartes]
– clearer sense of God;
follows logically from
non-dependence of God
• Syllogistic:
– A is B; B is C;
therefore A is C
• Irony:
• 1616: Seven years later: Copernicus condemned!!!
– He’s been dead since 1543 !!!
• Jesuits start to attack Galileo who defends Copernicus
conclusions are
absolutely certain -- yet we are
skeptical [wars of religion]
• “Empirical observation”
[sense-data]:
• A behaves thus; so do B,
C, D, E, F ----> therefore
all dogs behave thus
• Irony: conclusions are highly
1623
[1618 – 1648]
Galileo:
The Assayer [Il Saggiatore]
KEY: Italian, not Latin
Defends Copernicus
against the Jesuits
probable subject to
falsification: yet we trust in
probability as certainty
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Patronage: Papal coat of arms
“natural Philosophy” [narrative]
Galileo [1632]:
“Nature is written in the
language of mathematics”
Patronage: herald of
Grand Duke of Tuscany [Florence]
Filosofica Naturale
[“Natural Philosophy”]
<------------ Narrative
Significance of The Assayer:
Mathematics (idealized/
unrealizable models) can
approximate natural world
and be used to explain it.
Matematica
A problem of Patronage
[“Mathematics”]
Reality
Numeracy------------->
Model
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What is revolutionary about
mathematical explanations?
1687: Sir Isaac Newton:
Invisible causes in the world.
Principia Mathematica
World is a clock… goes on its own.
DO WE NEED A GOD TO
EXPLAIN ANYTHING?
• Controversy: are models and
reality the same?
– Tides: caused by physical
movement / splashing?
• 1633: G. condemned as heretic
by Inquisition
– Neither of his patrons --- the
Medicis of Florence nor the
Pope --- can save G.
– He recants
• 1642: Legend: G. says just
before he dies: “Yet, it
moves.” [i.e., the earth]
• 1648: Thirty Years’ War ends
Math. models = “reality”
IV. NEWTON
Geography of ideas:
Copernicus: Poland; Galileo: Tuscany/Venice
Newton: England/Scotland
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1625: James I dies
[“No bishop. No king.”]
Son takes throne: Charles I
1632: John Locke is born
1640: Hobbes escapes to Paris
to escape civil strife
1655-1658: Milton,
Paradise Lost
“holy commonwealth”
Meets Galileo; fascinated
by “motion”
1642-1651: “Great Rebellion”
Civil war
1646: Prince of Wales
[future Charles II]
must escape to Paris
1660-1685: “Restoration”
Charles II
Catholic leanings; absolutist
w/ Hobbes
Admirer of absolutism
1647: Charles I kidnapped
1648: End of 30 Years’ War
1649: Trial and execution of
Charles I
Regicide shocks Europe
“Great Persecution” of Puritans:
will attempt to establish “holy
commonwealth” in Massachusetts
and Virginia
1661: New Parliament passes
legislation forbidding Puritans in
Massachusetts Bay colony to hang
Quakers
1685-88: James II [Catholic]
1649-1650: Commonwealth established
1687: Declaration of Indulgence: suspends laws
against Catholics / dissidents
Cromwell crushes Irish opponents
Abolishes both monarchy and
House of Lords
[NB: blood inheritance]
Year of Newton’s publication of
Philosophiae Naturalis /
Principia Mathematica
1688: Glorious Revolution:
1651: Hobbes, The Leviathan, or,
Invite Wm. & Mary of Orange
Commonwealth
1689: Bill of Rights: only Protestant can wear the crown
“Natural right” to self-preservation”
1653-1658: Oliver Cromwell,
“Lord Protector”
Puritan laws: no drink, gambling, theater
Toleration act: tolerates Protestant worship; excludes
Catholics, Jews, Unitarians
1690: Locke: Two Treatises: “right to revolt”
1701: Act of Settlement: Protestant succession
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NOTE WHAT THEY DIDN’T LIKE: INVISIBILITY
“Left”
Newtonians:
“Right”
Newtonians:
Mechanists/
Liberal
Protestantism
Materialists
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