6.4 The Scientific Revolution - T -

• History
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 2

6. The Time of Regents and Monarchs

6.4  Scientific Revolution

THEORY

What is this lesson about?

The seventeenth century was the age of new scientific discoveries. An increasing number of universities were established. This led to a new generation of scientists who discovered scientific laws, some of which are still valid today. 

What caused this thirst for knowledge? 

Which methods were used? 

And who were some of those famous scientists?

Word Duty

WORD DUTY

Science: knowledge about the natural world based on facts learned through observation and experiments.

Revolution: a dramatic change in the way people live.

Scientific Revolution: a period of big changes in different fields of science; new scientific ideas 

gradually replaced classical-religious ideas 

Empirical thinking: research based on observing and experimenting 

Rationalism: research based on reasoning and logic.

Heliocentrism: current worldview in which the earth revolves around the sun (helios = sun).

Geocentrism: Biblical world view in which men believe the Earth is the centre of the universe (geo = earth)

Important dates in this lesson:

1662 forming of the Royal Society in England

people in this lesson

Isaac Newton

Christiaan Huygens

Galileo Galilei

Main Questions

1. What is the Scientific Method?
2. What caused the Scientific Revolution?
3. How did the Scientific Revolution change the worldview of people?
4. Who were some of the most famous scientists from that age and what did they accomplish?

The rise of universities 

Up to the sixteenth century, there were only a few universities in Europe. If you lived in the Low Countries and wanted to study at a university, you had to move to Paris, Cologne or Leuven. In the sixteenth century, many universities emerged in big cities. 

After the Dutch Revolt, it was nearly impossible for students in the northern provinces to study in Leuven because the Spanish controlled this city. For this reason, William of Orange founded the University of Leiden in 1575. It enabled students from the northern provinces to study different subjects, like maths and physics. William of Orange also argued that a university would supply well-educated men for the government of the country.

 

library of the Leiden University in 1610.

source A

The anatomical theatre of Leiden was an institution used in teaching anatomy. It was built in 1596. Engraving by Willem Swanenburg (1610).

Museum Boerhaave, Leiden - Anatomical Theatre during radio recording

Change in science 

Scholars in the Middle Ages had ignored the scientific knowledge of Greek and Roman philosophers for nearly a thousand years. Most medieval scholars believed everything was the work of God. 

From the fourteenth century, during the Renaissance, humanists gradually started to question this. They started to search for plausible explanations for natural phenomena. Their research was based on reasoning and logic, without experiments. This way of doing research is called rationalism. 

 

painting: The School of Athens (1509-1511) by the Renaissance artist Raphael, depicting famous classical Greek scientists and philosophers in an idealized setting inspired by ancient Greek architecture

The Scientific Method

In the seventeenth century, another way of doing research developed: scientists started doing research by observing and experimenting. Any scientist should be able to do the same experiment and get the same result; so they could trust the new knowledge backed by the experiment. 

They used their results to establish new scientific laws. This method of scientific research is called empirical thinking. 

These new ways of doing research led to the scientific revolution. New ideas about maths, physics, astronomy, and microbiology gradually replaced the classical-religious ideas about these subjects, creating an atmosphere of enormous optimism. 

Watch the video about the scientific method. Make notes in your notebook. Don't forget to 

start with the title of this lesson.

 

Otto von Guericke's experiments on electrostatics, 1672

Empirical thinking was already conducted in the Arab world before the Renaissance. Copernicus, for instance, relied partly on observations made by Muhammed al-Battani (858-929), who had figured out the year is 365 days (and a bit more) long. Chemist Robert Boyle cribbed heavily from work done by 13th-century Muslim chemist Al-Iraqi. Royal Society physicians learned about inoculation from doctors in Constantinople and Aleppo.

source B

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp is a 1632, oil painting on canvas by Rembrandt housed in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands. 

The painting is regarded as one of Rembrandt's early masterpieces.

In the work, Dr. Nicolaes Tulp is pictured explaining the musculature of the arm to medical professionals. Some of the spectators are various doctors who paid commissions to be included in the painting. The painting is signed in the top-left hand corner Rembrandt. f[ecit] 1632. This may be the first instance of Rembrandt signing a painting with his forename (in its original form) as opposed to the monogramme RHL (Rembrandt Harmenszoon of Leiden), and is thus a sign of his growing artistic confidence.

The Royal Society

Scientists were an international community. They didn’t keep secrets, but published their findings in books and pamphlets. In England, in 1662, a group of scientists formed the Royal Society. They met, talked through their latest ideas, and performed experiments. Communication was important. They invited important scientists from all over Europe to their meetings, and published accounts of the meetings that were read all over Europe and its colonies.

 

Source C

Colbert presents scientists to king Louis XIV.

The French Academy of Sciences (French: Académie des sciences) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by king Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the forefront of scientific developments in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, and is one of the earliest Academies of Sciences.

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Lesson 6.4 overview

Copy this overview in your notebook and fill in the following terms: empirical thinking,  sharing results, reasoning and logic, rationalism, humanists, Scientific Method, everything is work of God, observing and experimenting, scientific laws

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