Scientific Revolution

I

Introduction

Scientific Revolution, the period roughly between 1500 and 1700 during which the foundations of modern science were laid down in Western Europe. Before this period, nothing like science in the modern sense existed.

II

Understanding of the Physical World in the Middle Ages

Throughout the Middle Ages, formal attempts to understand the physical world were developed, chiefly in the arts and medical faculties of the medieval universities. This natural philosophy, as it was known, derived almost entirely from the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. Most of the brilliant legacy of ancient Greek thought had been lost to Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century. When this legacy began to be recovered from Byzantine and Islamic sources where it had to some extent been preserved, it was the works of Aristotle that had the most immediate impact and began to dominate Western philosophical thought (see Western Philosophy). The learning in the two most powerful faculties of the medieval university system, the faculties of divinity and of law, was based on ancient writings: the Bible and Roman Law, as codified by Byzantine emperor Justinian I in the Corpus Juris Civilis (534; Body of Civil Law). The arts and medical faculties tended to follow suit, with the result that study focused not on the natural world itself, nor on the techniques of practical healing, but instead on the writings of Aristotle and Galen, who was the equivalent medical authority in ancient times. Concentration on the study of texts meant that there was little or no practical study or experimentation within the university curricula.

This tendency to avoid practical subjects was reinforced by Aristotle's own teachings on how natural philosophy should be conducted and on the correct way of determining the truth of things. He rejected the use of mathematics in natural philosophy, for example, because he insisted that natural philosophy should explain phenomena in terms of physical causes. Mathematics, being entirely abstract, could not contribute to this kind of physical explanation. Even those branches of the mathematical sciences that seemed to come close to explaining the physical world, such as astronomy and optics, were disparaged as “mixed sciences” that tried to combine the principles of one science, geometry, with those of another, physics, in order to explain the behavior of heavenly bodies or rays of light. But the results, according to Aristotle, could not properly explain anything.

Although geometry and arithmetic were taught in the university system they were always regarded as inferior to natural philosophy and could not be used, therefore, to promote more practical approaches to the understanding of nature. Within the universities, even the study of plants and animals tended to be text-based. Students learned their knowledge of flora, for example, from the compilations of herbal and medicinal plants by the Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides, leaving more localized and practical knowledge to lay experts in herbal lore outside the university system. Similarly, alchemy and other empirical (based on experimentation and observation) aspects of the natural magic tradition were pursued almost entirely outside the university system.

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This fragmentation of studies concerned with the workings of nature was reinforced throughout the Middle Ages by the Roman Catholic Church. After some initial problems with non-Christian aspects of Aristotelian teaching, the Church embraced such teaching as a handmaiden to the so-called “queen of the sciences,” theology. The Church considered Aristotelian natural philosophy to provide support to religious doctrines, but other naturalist pursuits were considered to be subversive. The Church tended to be suspicious of natural magic, for example, even though natural magic was simply concerned with the demonstrable properties of material bodies (such as the ability of magnets to attract iron or the ability of certain plants or their extracts to cure diseases). One way or another, therefore, the powerful combination of Aristotelian teachings with Church doctrines tended to exclude direct study and analysis of nature.

III

Key Developments During the Renaissance

The situation began to change during the Renaissance, a period of tremendous cultural achievement in Europe that began in the early 14th century and ended about 1600. The scientific revolution can be seen as a major aspect of the sweeping and far-reaching changes of the Renaissance. In broad terms the scientific revolution had four major aspects: the development of the experimental method, the realization that nature obeys mathematical rules, the use of scientific knowledge to achieve practical aims, and the development of scientific institutions.

A

Development of Experimental Method

The Renaissance was the period when the experimental method, still characteristic of science today, began to be developed and came increasingly to be used for understanding all aspects of the physical world. Previously, the natural world had been thought to be comprehensible based on thoughtful consideration alone. The experimental method holds that understanding comes through hands-on trial and error under controlled conditions. The experimental method was not in itself new—it had been a common aspect of the natural magic tradition from ancient times. For example, all the experimental techniques used by the English physicist William Gilbert, author of what is generally acknowledged to be the earliest example of an experimental study of a natural phenomenon, De Magnete (1600; Of Magnets, Magnetic Bodies, and the Great Magnet of the Earth, 1890), were first developed by Petrus Peregrinus, a renowned medieval magus (magician).

Experimentation was a major aspect of the natural magic tradition and was ready for appropriation by Renaissance natural philosophers who recognized its potential. The experimental methodology used in magic became more acceptable to Renaissance scholars thanks to the rediscovery of ancient magical writings. Religious opposition to magic had less force after the discovery of various writings allegedly written by Hermes Trismegistus, Zoroaster, Orpheus, and other mythical or legendary characters. We now know these texts were written in the early centuries of the Christian Era and deliberately attributed to such legendary authors, but Renaissance scholars believed they were genuinely ancient documents. This gave the texts great authority and led to increased respect for magical approaches.

Increased emphasis on experience and observation complemented the adoption of manipulative experimental techniques. Andreas Vesalius, innovative professor of surgery at the University of Padua, claimed to have noticed over 200 errors in Galen's anatomical writings when he performed his own dissections. Scholars had previously relied on Galen’s works rather than performing their own dissections.

Vesalius's emphasis upon a return to anatomical dissection led to major discoveries. William Harvey, who was taught by one of Vesalius's successors at Padua, discovered that blood circulates through the body. Similarly, the discovery of numerous new species of animals and plants in the New World led to a more empirical approach to natural history. Previously, bestiaries (books containing collected descriptions of animals) and herbals (books containing collected descriptions of plants) had included religious symbolism, legends, superstitions, and other nonnatural lore. Since there was no equivalent information about newly discovered species, however, herbals and bestiaries compiled after the Renaissance were more likely to record properties based on actual observation.

The advent of printing also played an important part in the transmission of accurate information. When the circulation of texts depended upon handwritten copies, illustrations were often crudely executed by the various scribes who copied the book. Subsequent copies of the copy could be unrecognizable. In the preparation of a printed edition, however, a skilled illustrator could be called in to prepare a single illustration that would then be mass-produced. The standard of illustrations improved immeasurably. Almost inevitably the illustrations became more realistic and stimulated a concern for proper observation of natural phenomena.

Another important aspect of the new focus on experimentation and observation (empiricism) was the invention of new observational instruments. The Italian astronomer Galileo, for example, used the telescope—first developed for commercial purposes—to make astonishing astronomical observations. His exciting success stimulated the development of a whole range of instruments for studying nature, such as the microscope, thermometer, and barometer.

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