Title: From Magic to Science or The Ancients
1From Magic to ScienceorThe Ancients The
Moderns
- The Scientific Revolution
- 16th and 17th Centuries
2How do we explain change?
- Your car wont start what do you do?
- You get sick what do you do?
3Medieval Cosmology
- Earth is fixed, unchanging, center of universe
- Heavens surround earth Moon and stars move in
fixed patterns set by God - Genesis describes creation
- Task for people explain change, I.E., Any
deviation from normal
4Sources of Medieval World View
- Bible
- Scholastic Theology (Aquinas)
- The Ancients
- Aristotle
- Church Fathers
5The Medieval Order or The Great Chain of Being
- God
- Pope and Kings
- Priests and Nobles
- Men
- Women
- Children
- Animals
- Plants
- Rocks
6Explaining Change Medieval Style
- Gods intervention deus ex machina
- Storms ruin crops you get sick God is angry
- Harvest is plentiful you have lots of children
God is pleased
7Explaining ChangeMedieval Style
- Magic some occult force
- You dont have children you are bewitched
- Your house burns down someone put a curse on you
- You get sick your enemy is a witch
8Scientific Revolution bringsa new way of
thinking about the world around usand our
relationship to the world.
9Structure of Scientific Revolution
- People start asking questions and make
discoveries which raise problems for the existing
world view. - As more and more discoveries challenge the
accepted cosmology, more people ask more
questions. - Finally, someone synthesizes all the pieces into
a new world view. - See Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions.
1016th 17th Century Questioners
- Methodology
- Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
- Observe Experiment
- Develop Hypothesis
- Test More Observation Experiments
- William Harvey (1578-1657)
- Anatomical Studies demonstrate circulation of
blood
11Challenges to the Old Cosmology
- Reliance on Observation Causes Trouble
- Galileo (Italian, 1564-1642)
- Observations confirmed heliocentric universe
- Arrested and ordered to recant
- Whats the problem?
-
12A New Philosophy
- Descartes (French, 1596-1650)
- Radical Doubt
- Cogito, ergo sumI think, therefore I am.
- Impact of this insight?
13New Understanding of Human Mind
- John Locke, English, 1632-1704
- Essay Concerning Human Understanding
- Human Mind is a tabula rasa at birth
- We learn by experience
- Impact of this concept?
14By 1690
- New Method Scientific Method
- Trust in Sense Knowledge
- Heliocentric Cosmology
- New Philosophy
- New Understanding of Human Body
- New Understanding of Human Mind
15Synthesis Isaac Newton
- English, 1642-1727
- Mathematician and Alchemist
- Principia
- Solved the problem of motion
- World is not static but constantly in motion!
- Describes gravity
- Impact?
16Newtons World
- A giant machine whose parts work together
- God the maker of the machine