Scientific Revolution

Age of Transition (1400-1700)

PERSIA

P::From local power to centralized authority

S: Relatively static

R: From one Christian Church to many

I: From all knowledge coming from the Church to increased curiosity

E: From agrarian to one based more on trade

A: Medieval art to the Renaissance and beyond

Astronomers:

Copernicus - created a model that showed a sun centered universe

Brahe - Danish astronomer - believed in an Earth centered system

Kepler - German astronomer, Brahe's assistant - elliptical orbits

Galileo - named the moons of Jupiter after the Medicis since he worked for one of them - popularized Copernicus' map

Newton - believed that the planets and all other physical objects in the universe moved through mutual attraction, or gravity

Philosophers:

Francis Bacon: Father of Empiricism

Rene Descartes: "I think, therefore I am"

Believed that God could not be wrong

Made a scientific method that relied more on deduction (reasoning from general principal to arrive at specific facts - then empirical observation & induction)

Scientific induction - scientists drew generalizations derived from the test hypotheses against empirical observations

Political Theorists

Thomas Hobbes : Apologist for Absolutism

Humans being inclined towards perpetual and restless desire for power

John Locke: Defender of Liberties

Wanted the government to pay more attention and help the citizens

Spread of Scientific Knowledge

The English Royal Society created a committee to investigate technology improvements

French Academy collected tools and machines

Women in the Scientific Revolution

Margaret Cavendish - complained that scientists enjoyed their "toys" more than solving problems - only woman invited to Royal Society of London

Maria Merian - drew images of plants and insects of South America

Maria Cunitz - wrote book on astronomy; husband insisted she was sale author

Maria Winkelmann - established calendar for Berlin Academy of Sciences

Queen Christina of Sweeden - patron to Rene Descartes - played role in planning his research

maria Celeste Galilei - illegitimate daughter of Galileo who was sent to convent as a young teen - sent letters to father while he was under house arrest and shared important info/discoveries while he was stuck there

Chemistry and Medicine in the Scientific Revolution

Paracelsus - "father of modern medicine"

Robert Boyle - first to conduct experiments and discovered atoms

Antoine Lavoisier - founder of modern chemistry

Vesalius - did anademy

William Harvey - demonstrated that the heart was the beginning point of blood