Scientific Revolution And The Enlightenment

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION & THE ENLIGHTENMENT

ANGELICA JULIET RIOS

LUIS NIETZSCHE CRUZ

The eighteenth century is often referred to as the Enlightenment. The ideas of many individuals combined to create a movement that would not only sweep across Europe, but reach as far as the America's. The idea of a world without caste, class or institutionalized crudity was what many were striving to achieve. Coinciding with the Enlightenment was the Scientific Revolution. Advancements in astronomy, technology, medicine and mathematics were but a few of the areas of remarkable discovery. The conclusions and observations brought forward by the Scientific Revolution in the eighteenth century have survived and thrived through to modern times.

The Scientific Revolution began in 1543 when Nicolaus Copernicus published his book De reloutionibus erbium colestium also known as On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. In this book he wrote about his new theory which broke the old Ptolemaic theory. Copernicus argued that the sun does not revolve around the Earth like the Ptolemaic theory said. He said that the Earth revolves around the Sun and the Sun is the center of the universe. Even though this theory went better with things people at the time observed; they still did not welcome it. It went against the popular scientific theories at the time and it also went against religious beliefs that said the earth and humanity were unique creations of god.

After sometime the Copernican model influenced more astronomers to look at astronomy in a new way. They began to use precise observational data and mathematical reasoning to come up with these theories and ideas about space. This way of thinking also spread to more things then astronomy. People applied the analytical methods learned from the Copernican theory to mechanics - which is the study of moving bodies. By the mid seventeenth century this way of thinking changed the study of our world, and brought the scientific revolution.

There are two mathematicians that played a major role in bringing the Copernican theory into mainstream thinking. The first being Johannes Kepler of Germany who showed that planetary orbits are elliptical and not circular like the Ptolemaic theory said. Then the second being Galileo Galilei who invented the telescope. With the telescope he was able to observe that space was not a perfect place that Ptolemaic astronomers thought it was. He saw that there were spots on the sun and mountains on the moon. He also saw stars that weren’t visible to the naked eye, which proved that the universe was much bigger than was previously suspected.

During the Enlightenment and Revolution (1550-1789) people believed that Whatever Aristotle said about the material world was true unless the Bible said so otherwise. People would not dare question the bible for that would be a sin and sinners would end up being tortured, imprisoned or killed. Fortunately there were men who took the risk, they observed, questioned Aristotle, analyzed, experimented, discovered and left behind some of the most important laws and theories that have changed the world, and continue to change the world. So even though those men might have been considered "sinners" back then, They are now some of the most honorable and famous scientists in the world They gave the world and mankind knowledge that changed the world forever. The scientific Revolution was the most giving revolution of all time.

"Nature and natures law lay hid in the night. God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light." This quote epitomizes the birth of one of the most crucial periods in history, a time of questioning, under minding, and radical transformation, the Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution had many major impacts on 17th century Europe. One was that it made people question the existence of God, another significant impact was that it disproved Ptolemy and gave people a concept of universal knowledge that the Earth orbited around the Sun. The Scientific Revolution also gave people the concept of gravity and the three laws of motion provided by the scientist Newton. One way in which the Scientific Revolution impacted European society was that it questioned the Church's "all knowing" authority.

During the Scientific Revolution scientists such as Galileo, Copernicus, Descartes and Bacon wrestled with questions about God, human aptitude, and the possibilities of understanding the world. Eventually, the implications of the new scientific findings began to affect the way people thought and behaved throughout Europe. Society began to question the authority of traditional knowledge about the universe. This in turn, allowed them to question traditional views of the state and social order. No longer was the world constructed as the somewhat simple Ptolemaic Model suggested. The Earth for the first time became explicable and was no longer the center of the universe. Many beliefs that had been held for hundreds of years now proved to be false. In addition to this, the Roman Catholic Church, which had always clarified the movements of the universe with the divine power of God, was now questioned by many. The Roman Catholic Church was naturally set as an opponent of the Scientific Revolution, not so much because of opposition to new ideas but instead because the new information contradicted the model of the world the church had created. Fortunately the revolution did not happen overnight but moderately over a 150-year period.

Nicolaus Copernicus was one of the first astronomers to question the single worldview that the Christian faith supported. Though it was in the later years of his life that the he published On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres, the question was now raised as to the correctness of the mechanics of the world. In his writings, Copernicus was not able to accurately describe the revolutions of the Earth, Sun and Stars, but he was the first man to use mathematics and observation in order to create a more accurate picture of the universe.

The Scientific revolution and The Enlightenment period overlapped by a hundred years and were co-occurring between 1650-1750. The Scientific Revolution happening first and beginning around 1600, was a period of time when new ideas and tools were created and used to experiment with the physical world, occurring between 1600-1750. New methods increased learning capacities across the board and toward what was thought of as “human perfectibility”, old ideas were put through a new test of empirical reasoning. Galileo Galilee made advances in astronomy by advancing the design of already existing telescopes by add a 30 power magnification, as a result he received major opposition from the Roman Catholic

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