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TASK 2: The scientific revolution of 20th century (1st paper (FACTORS THAT…
TASK 2: The scientific revolution of 20th century
Aristotelian worldview
Dominant system of beliefs from about 300 BC to about 1600 AD. Based on a set of beliefs from Aristotle (a set of beliefs shared by a large segment of the western culture).
Aristotle’s beliefs (all wrong, but not naive. also not random)
a. Earth as centre of the universe
b. Earth is stationary, neither orbits any other planet nor spins or axis.
c. Moon, planets, sun revolve around earth, in a circle about every 24 hours.
d. In sublunar (from earth to moon) are four elements (earth, water, air fire)
e. Superlunar (beyond the moon, including it) region, the element aether
f. Each of those elements has an essential nature place, and those are the reason why the elements move as they do
g. Water and Earth to the centre, air and fire in sublunar region
h. Aether in superlunar region, has a perfectly circular movement
i. Source of motion necessary (self-motion or external source)
Peripheral beliefs: can be replaced without much alternation in worldview, can easy accommodate
Core beliefs: like puzzle near centre can’t be removed and replaced without changing the other pieces
Newtonian worldview:
a. Earth revolves on its axis (every 24h), the Sun is the centre
b. Earth and planets move in elliptical orbits around sun
c. More than 100 elements in the universe
d. Objects behave largely because of the influence of external forces
e. Objects like the planets and the starts are made of the same elements as on Earth
f. The same laws that apply to objects on Earth, also applies to objects like the planets
Modern Science:
• Acknowledges no authorities
• Experimental
• Favours a mechanistic world picture, explaining natural phenomena as a much possible by analogy with a mechanism
1st paper
16th century - replacement julian calendar which was going out of phase with reality, with gregorian calendar (Copernicus)
geocentrism = Aristotle
Ptolemy = added epicycles
Copernicus = heliocentric model
he didnt publish at the begining cause 1. scared of reaction from the church, 2. didnt think he had enough evidence
Galilei (1564-1642) = built telescope and found more stars and moons. supported Copernicus for what he got into house arrest.
FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTED TO THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
Demographic changes (merchants formed a link between the hand workers and the intellectual elite)
Absence of stifling pressure from religion or authority
New inventions (paper and printing, mechanical clock, compass, telescope, microscope, …)
The existence of universities and patronage
Massive enrichment from the Greek and Arab civilisations (translation of Archimedes’ books, Democritus, Epicurus, Lucretius)
Natural philosophy became detached from the big philosophical questions
what helped science grow?
The absence of disaster in the 15th to the 19th century
A benevolent religion (protestant Reformation)
The establishment of learned societies (e.g. Accademia dei Lincei, the Académie Francaise, Royal Society of London)
The new organon
•
Francis Bacon
(1561-1626)
described the new view of science (opposed to Aristotle’s books on logic called Organum)
o Neither perception nor reasoning alone provides progress interaction is required
o Perception is limited, bias
o To correct bias, paid particular attention to deviating observations
o Limitation of the senses
o Make observations more systematic
o Experiment to see which changes corked and which not
o Go from particulars (works) to axioms which will lead to new particulars
o Much closer to inductive reasoning than deductive reasoning
Experimental history = method introduced by Bacon in whoch natural philosopher extracts the truth from nature by active manipulation and examining the consequences of intervention
• Robert Boyle (1627-1691), stressed that scientific experiments should be performed publicly and reported in such detail that everyone could replicate them
• The scientific advances escaped the attention of nearly all historians up to the first half of the 20th
Historians were part of the humanist culture and did not feel much affinity with science
To historians the accumulation of scientific knowledge seemed like a slow, steady process, spanning over three or even four millennia, without interesting twists and turns
Many historians questioned wheter there was such a thing as scientific ‘progress’
ARTICLE 2: The intelligibility of nature
• By end of 19th century natural philosophy became absorbed into science, also science became more like engineering = practical
two faces of science
Natural philosophy: emphasizes that aspect of science which is commenced with explaining and understanding the world, what is often called scientific worldview.
Instrumentality: the practical efficacy which is a component of science distinguishable from its natural philosophy
o Often stands for the whole science
INSTRUMENTALITY AND HISTORY OF SCIENCE
• Aristotle (4th century BC) formed the backbone of university education throughout the entire period
• Francis Bacon had actively opposed the established Aristotelian conception of natural philosophy
o Asserted that a true natural philosophy should be concerned with active intervention in nature for the benefit of mankind
• Newton’s universe consisted of lifeless matter bouncing around according to mechanical laws it lent itself to instrumentality
The Mechanical Universe from Galileo to Newton
17th century: start of the Scientific Revolution in western Europe world = machine
Descartes (1596-1650) influential mechanical philosophers
• Account of universe in which everything is explained in terms of inert pieces of matter interacting by collision or direct pressure (matter characterized as geometrical or spatial extension)
• The primary criterion was intelligibility so that the idea had to be clear and distinct
• Conflict with the prior existing view of Aristotle’s teleological argument everything was explained by purpose and goal
• Criticises that Aristoteles explanation of motion makes no sense
• Proposes basic principles, or “seeds,” to provide explanations that show how the things in the world could have come into being
ARTICLE 3: The rise of modern science
• Scientific revolution: 17th century (Galilei-Newton)
• Second scientific revolution: first quarter of 20th century (Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, etc.)
• Modern Science started in the late Middle Ages and was the Transition from an Organistic view to a Mechanistic View
Characteristics of modern science
experimental
favours mechanistic world-picure
no authorities
explains world through mathematical terms and measurable qualities
Historical events which might influence science
a) Emergence of theological voluntarism, in opposition to intellectualism
b) Emergence of mechanistic conceptions over against organistic ones
c) Emancipation of manual workers and acceptance of manual experiments
d) Extension of natural history based on experience rather than book-learning
Natural History
• Sailors discovered that the earth does not look the same on different places (Henry the Navigator)
• This lead to the beginning of a new, empiricist, non-rational trend in science problems are solved by reasoned experience and not by scholastic discussions
The emancipation of the burgher class
• Artisans of the late Middle Ages became aware of their social importance
• Peasants and craftsmen were often closer to reality than scholars knew nature better
• Many 16th century scholars were artisans
Mechanization
social changes of the 15th and 16th centuries went together with a philosophical change mechanical methods and models inevitably led to mechanistic explanations of phenomena
o The organismic world view was replaced by a Mechanistic World View
• Use of mechanical instruments for investigation of nature mechanical models as explanation of natural things (ex: sea salt)
• Corpuscularian theories (1600) explained a posteriori, but hardly predicted phenomena
o But supported mechanistic picture
• Corpuscularian theories (1600) explained a posteriori, but hardly predicted phenomena
o But supported mechanistic picture
Francis Bacon and the new philosophy
• Experience over preconceptions and mathematics
• The rise of the new science is a general and gradual change of the intellectual climate, a change of method, a change of world picture not restricted to one particular science (e.g. astronomy) but affecting all scientific disciplines
• Voyages lead to new science
CONCLUSIONS
• The rise of modern science had two major causes:
New natural history and the methodological epistemological changes connected with it
Transition from an organismic to a mechanistic view of the world