Scientific Revolution

Herbert Butterfield, an eminent Cambridge historian, once said that the scientific revolution reduced the Renaissance and the Reformation “to the rank of mere episodes,” and that it marked “the real origin both of the modern world and of the modern mentality.” Given the overwhelming importance of science and the scientific world-view in modern Western culture it is easy to see what he meant. The historical significance of the scientific revolution has ensured that the revolution, or some aspect of it (usually a supposed mental attitude, such as a preoccupation with rationality or measurement), figures in all attempts to explain the current dominance of the West in world culture. Although the cultural imperialism of the West might now seem to owe more to the consumerism of advanced capitalism, capitalism itself results from the success of Western science and technology. This alliance between science and technology in the West can be seen to have had its origins in the 17th-century emphasis on the usefulness of scientific knowledge for the improvement of the human condition.

Many people have tried to understand why the scientific revolution occurred when and where it did. Philosophical attempts to understand the workings of nature and the techniques of mathematical analysis reached astonishingly high levels of accomplishment among the ancient Greeks. During the Middle Ages it looked as though the civilization of Islam would build upon the Greek legacy, while Europeans ignored it. The Muslims made notable achievements in natural philosophy, chemistry, medicine, and mathematics. Meanwhile, science and technology in China were also ahead of anything in Europe. During the 17th century, however, Western Europeans overtook everyone and went much further. Historians are still struggling to understand why the Western Europeans inaugurated the scientific revolution, rather than the Greeks, Muslims, or Chinese.