Scientific Revolution2

Science Technology and Society
Scientific Revolution
 drastic change in scientific thought that took place during the 16th and 17th centuries.
 A new view of nature emerged during the Scientific Revolution, replacing the Greek view that had
dominated science for almost 2,000 years.
 became an autonomous discipline, distinct from both philosophy and technology, and it came to be
regarded as having utilitarian goals.
 replaced Christianity as the focal point of European civilization.
Scientific transformations
1. the substitution of a quantitative for a qualitative view of nature
2. the view of nature as a machine rather than as an organism
3. ; the development of an experimental, scientific method that sought definite answers to certain
limited questions couched in the framework of specific theories
4. the acceptance of new criteria for explanation, stressing the “how” rather than the “why” that
had characterized the Aristotelian search for final causes.
 It began in the mid-sixteenth century and continued into the eighteenth century. Even though it took a
relatively long time to unfold, it was revolutionary in the sense that it transformed human thought. The
most important changes in seventeenth century science took place in astronomy, physics, chemistry, and
biology.
Astronomy
 The most significant change in astronomy was the acceptance of the view that the sun, not the Earth,
was the center of the universe.
 a Polish cleric, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), looked for a simpler and more plausible model of the
universe. In On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. Copernicus proposed that the center of the
universe was not the Earth but the sun.
 Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) accepted the argument of Copernicus that the planets
revolved around the sun but still insisted that the sun revolved around the Earth.
 a German astronomer, Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), using data that Brahe had collected, confirmed the
central position of the sun in the universe. I
 Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) was far more successful in gaining support for the sun-centered model of
the universe.
Physics
 Galileo made his most significant contributions to the Scientific Revolution in physics. In the
seventeenth century the main branches of physics were mechanics (the study of motion and its causes)
and optics (the study of light).
 The greatest achievements of the Scientific Revolution in physics belong to English scientist Sir Isaac
Newton (1642–1727).
a. universal law of gravitation , which demonstrated that the same force holding an object to the Earth
also holds the planets in their orbits.
b. This law represented a synthesis of the work of other scientists, including Kepler on planetary motion
and Galileo on inertia.
c. Law of Motion
1. Every body continues in its state of rest or of motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to
change that state by force impressed on it;
2. The change of motion is proportional to the motive force impressed and is made in the direction of
the straight line in which that force is impressed;
3. To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or, the mutual actions of two bodies upon
each other are always equal.
 Isaac Newton's prism experiment
 The 17th-century contributions to mechanics of the French philosopher René Descartes. concerned with
problems in the foundations of science than with the solution of specific technical problems.
Chemistry
 The science today called chemistry originated in the study and practice of alchemy , the art of attempting
to turn base metals into gold or silver and to identify natural substances that could be used in the practice
of medicine.
 The Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus (1493–1541), who rejected the traditional method of
curing patients by altering the balance of fluids (such as blood and bile) in the body, occupies a
significant place in the early history of chemistry.
 During the seventeenth century chemistry gained further recognition as a legitimate field of scientific
research, largely as the result of the work of Robert Boyle (1627–1691).
chemical properties of matter, to provide experimental evidence for the mechanical philosophy, and to
demonstrate that all chemical properties can be explained in mechanical terms.
Biology
 The English physician William Harvey (1578–1657) made one of the great medical discoveries of the
seventeenth century by demonstrating in 1628 that blood circulates throughout the human body.
 Charles Robert Darwin
12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for
his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended from
a common ancestor is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental concept in science.[
Evolution by natural selection is established by observable facts about living organisms:

1. more offspring are often produced than can possibly survive;
2. traits vary among individuals with respect to their morphology, physiology, and behaviour;
3. different traits confer different rates of survival and reproduction (differential fitness); and
4. traits can be passed from generation to generation (heritability of fitness).[7] In successive generations,
members of a population are therefore more likely to be replaced by the offspring of parents with
favourable characteristics for that environment.

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Science Technology and Society

Evolution by natural selection is established by observable facts about living organisms:

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