An object remains in uniform motion unless an external force acts upon it.
He made a telescope after having heard of the telescope in Holland. He discovered moons, providing new evidence for the Copernican theory.
He wrote an article in Sidernus Nuncius and after having read that, one feels a crucial corner in Western civilisation being turned. The theological/religious world-view now fell apart, and gave way to a new, critical, scientific method. This was the greatest thing during scientific revolution.
Newton’s synthesis
The last things took place in around 1640. Isaac Newton was a very religious man. In 1666 he came up with several physics typ laws, at an age of 24. He couldn’t prove them mathly though. He included the astronomy of Copernicus, as corrected by Kepler’s laws, with the physics of Galileo and his predecessors in his book “Principia” published in 1687. He explained massa motion and mechanics. It was very complex.
The key feature of this believes were the law of universal gravitation. Every body in the universe attracts every other body in the universe in a precise mathematical relationship, based on mass and distance.
Causes of Scientific Revolution
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By the thirteenth century universities had been established with professors and large student bodies in Western Europe to train the lawyers, doctors and church leaders that society required. By 1300 also Philosophy and they became independent from the theologians. Science was able to emerge as a minor but distinct branch of philosophy. In the 14th and 15th century maths, astronomy and physics were established, but low status.
- The renaissance stimulated the scientific progress. The recovery of fine Greek maths works helped the math people a lot. They helped with navigational problems, and finding latitude etc. That resulted in the first European navigation manual. There was also a development of new scientific instruments, such as telescope, barometer, thermometer microscope etc. Better instruments helped the development of better ways of obtaining knowledge about the world. Important thinkers that represented key aspects of this improvement in scientific methodology were Descartes, and Francis Bacon. Bacon was a politician and writer was the greatest propagandist for the new experimental method. He wanted new knowledge to be followed through experimental research. One shouldn’t speculate. Then general principles won’t emerge. The empirical method would produce highly practical useful knowledge, giving a new effective justification for the pursuit of science. Descartes was more systematic. He wanted to doubt everything you could doubt etc.
- Finally, the Catholic Church was initially less hostile that Protestan and Jewish religious leaders and Italian scientist therefore played a crucial role in scientific progress right up to the trial of Galileo in 1633. Some other countries then became more toleranta because they did not have strong religious leaders etc. i.e. England. After 1640 science was quite accepted in England.
Some consequences of scientific revolution
- The SR went hand in hand with the rise of a new expanding social group, the international scientific societies founded in many countries. Expansion of knowledge was the goal of them.
- The revolutionary scientific method was highly critical and it differed profoundly from the old way of getting knowledge about nature. It refused to base its conclusions on tradition and established sources on ancient authorities.
The SR had not much impact on the economy and lifestyles until the 19th century, but the navigation help helped a little. The scientific revolution of the 17th century was an intellectual revolution. It had great impact on how people thought and believed.
The Enlightenment
The SR was the most important factor in the creation of the new world-view of the 18th century Enlightenment. The most important idea of the Enlightenment was that the methods of natural science could and should be used to examine and understand all aspects of life. That was “reason”. Nothing was to be accepted by faith. It was rational, critical and scientific ways of thinking. This brought up conflicts between the church and the Enlighters. The Enlightenment didn’t have much effect on the poor and the peasants who were preoccupied with the struggle for survival and who often resented the Enlightenment attack on traditional popular beliefs
Emergence of Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was a broad intellectual and cultural movement that nådde sin topp in 1750. Bernard de Fontenelle was the most famous and influential popularizer. He made science funny and entertaining for a broad non-scientific audience and he succeeded. “Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds” was his most famous work. Fontenelle brought science into conflict with religion. His antireligious ideas, drawn from the scientific revolution, reflected a crisis in European though that had its roots in several intellectual uncertainties. Intellectual uncertainties were i.e. the nature of religious truth, highlighted by the destructive wars of religion. Both Catholics and Protestants had believed that religious truth was absolute. John Locke’s essay “Essay concerning human understanding” was another cause and manifestation of European intellectual turmoil. He set up new theories about how human beings learn and form their ideas. By doing so, he rejected Descartes’ views of thinking who had held that all people are born with certain basic ideas.
The Philosophers and the Public
When Louis XIV dies in 1715, many of the ideas that would soon unite into the new world-view had been gathered but most of Europe still was very religious.
It was in France the Enlightenment reached its highest development. The public var de som skulle ta emot faktan från Enlightarna.
The public was quite different from the majority of the population, which was known as the common people.
The philosophers couldn’t write just anything, for it was illegal in France to criticise the church or state openly. They wrote novels and plays instead.
Montesquieu was a great philosopher and wrote among other things The Persian Letters, which was an extremely influential social satire published in 1721. His works was amusing letters written by Persian tourists on visit in Europe. Voltaire was also very famous, and in his long career wrote more than seventy humorous volumes. But he was imprisoned several times.
The Later enlightenment
After 1770, the harmonious unity of the philosophers began to break down. Since it was now more accepted, some phil. started to exaggerate certain Enlightenment ideas. In System of Nature, written by Paul d’Holbach, he argued that human beings were machines completely determined by outside forces. God etc. was myths. Many philosophers did the same thing. Rousseau (1712-1778) was a brilliant but difficult thinker. He came to believe that his philosopher friends and the women of the Parisian salons were plotting against him. He broke with them, and lived thereafter alone. He committed his life to individual freedom, but attacked rationalism and civilisation as destroying rather than liberating, the individual. His ideas also had a great impact on Child psychology and modern education.
According to R. the general will is sacred and absolute, reflection the common interest of all the people who have displaced the monarch as the holder of sovereign power.
Urban Culture and Public Opinion
The writings and press campaigns of the philosophers were part of a cultural transformation. The European market for books grew dramatically in the 18th century. Many books were smuggled in france though, because of the censorship. Porno works were also smuggled of high political figures!! Reading was now more for everyone, and a so called so-called “reading revolution” had begun! Reading became individual, rapid and silent. And the reading spread.