The Scientific Revolution

Peter Harman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135028572
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Filosofía
• Subtopic: Historia y teoría filosóficas

Originally published in 1983.This volume outlines some of the important innovations in astronomy, natural philosophy and medicine which took place in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and shows how the transformation in world-view during the period was affected by broader historical terms. Themes such as the spread of Puritanism, the decline of witchcraft and magic, and the incorporation of science as an integral part of the intellectual milieu of late seventeenth-century England.

The Scientific Revolution

Introduction

The Scientific Revolution is the term traditionally used to describe the spectacular intellectual triumphs of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European astronomy and physical science. By around 1700 educated men conceived the universe as a mechanical structure like a clock, the earth was regarded as a planet revolving round the sun, and the mysteries of nature were supposed to be open to investigation by means of experimentation and mathematical analysis. These new attitudes to the natural world contrast strikingly with the traditional conception of nature: that the earth was immobile and the centre of the cosmos, the cosmos itself being envisaged as a structure of crystalline spheres enveloping the central earth like the layers of an onion; nature was conceived as a living organism, a connected structure linked by a web of hidden active powers.

The major shift in outlook which led to emergence of the concept of the clockwork universe was closely associated with a broader cultural transformation, in which the acquisition of natural knowledge and the attainment of the control of nature were associated with man's religious destiny. The emergence of natural science in the early modern period as a seminal feature of European culture must be interpreted in the relation to the social and intellectual ferment of the period. Described by Herbert Butterfield as the most important event in European history since the rise of Christianity, the Scientific Revolution was as much a cultural phenomenon as a revolution in scientific method and cosmology. The intellectual transformation associated with the Scientific Revolution led to a new confidence in the value of the investigation of nature and its control, a development which is fundamental to an understanding of the importance of science in modern society.

The seventeenth century was characterized by an unprecedented optimism about the potential for human advancement through technological improvement and an understanding of the natural world. Hopes were expressed that the understanding and control of nature would improve techniques in industry and agriculture. There was however a large gap between intention and achievement in the application of scientific knowledge. While assertions of the practical usefulness of natural knowledge and its prospective implications for technological improvement were common, the cultivation of science had little effect on the relationship between man and his environment in the seventeenth century. Nevertheless the cultural values associated with the pursuit of natural knowledge were a significant characteristic of seventeenth-century society. Science expressed the values of technological progress, intellectual enlightenment and the glorification of divine wisdom in creating the world. The hostile and mysterious environment of the natural world would yield its secrets to human investigation. The belief in the capacity of human ingenuity to achieve dominion over nature was justified by the argument that the study of God's book of nature was complementary to the study of the Bible, the book of God's word.

These important shifts in cultural outlook dramatically transformed the conception of the cosmos and of man's place in nature. The acceptance of the mechanistic universe and the belief that there might be a plurality of worlds like the earth in infinite space threatened traditional assumptions about the uniqueness of man, leading to a denial of the doctrine that the cosmos had been created for the benefit of man. There was a weakening of traditional beliefs in astrology, witchcraft and magical healing. While the methods of rational science failed to provide effective technical substitutes for magic in the seventeenth century, there were some improvements in human control of the environment. More importantly, there was a growing belief in the potential of man to achieve scientific mastery of the natural world by means of technical innovation. Natural knowledge provided an essential key to human improvement.

Religion played an important role in fostering the belief that an understanding of nature was central to man's destiny. The harmony between the natural and the divine was emphasized, and a commitment to the study of God's book of nature was viewed as complementary to the study of the book of God's word. The understanding of nature and the attainment of technical control over the natural world were regarded as directed towards a religious end. The acquisition of natural knowledge was regarded as a religious duty, the study of divine wisdom as revealed in the universe. The controlled and organized pursuit of scientific knowledge was therefore sanctioned by its ultimate religious ends.

The traditional association between the revealed wisdom of Christianity and the natural knowledge of the philosophers led to considerable intellectual tensions in the seventeenth century. The traditional view of theology as the queen of the sciences expressed the authority of Christianity and its dominance over other forms of knowledge. The radical shift in man's conception of the cosmos in the seventeenth century led to a reappraisal of the authority of theology and the traditional view of its status. While the pursuit of natural knowledge was frequently justified by assertions that Christian doctrine and the study of nature were compatible, and indeed that the rational investigation of God's design of nature was an essential part of Christian piety, the declaration of the independence of natural knowledge from theological control became a commonplace in the seventeenth century. The main thrust of the scientific movement of the seventeenth century was to assert the independence and integrity of the methods and theories of science, while at the same time insisting that the study of nature by human reason would enable man more fully to comprehend God's intentions.

The mechanistic world view of the Scientific Revolution undermined many traditional ideas about man's place in nature. More fundamental than the establishment of any particular theory about the natural world is the change in philosophical perspective which was achieved, a new conception of man's capacity to understand and control the world around him. The idea of man the active operator superseded the notion of man the passive spectator. The scientific movement expressed an essentially optimistic outlook, a belief in the possibility of achieving rational understanding. For the intellectuals of the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, science provided a model for all rational knowledge. For these reasons the Scientific Revolution is an event of momentous significance in European history.

The medieval world picture

The recovery of Greek learning in western Europe from the Islamic world, which began in the twelfth century, initiated an extraordinary flowering of philosophical debate. By the thirteenth century the universities of Paris, Oxford and Bologna were centres of learning in science and philosophy. The works of Aristotle were studied, and logic, physics, cosmology and mathematics formed the basis of the curriculum. Islamic science and medicine had remained ‘Greek’ science in that while some improvements in observation, instruments and mathematics were achieved, the essential framework of ideas was determined by the writings of the ancient authors. Aristotle's work was of especial significance in the Islamic tradition, and became so in the west when Greek and Arabic texts were translated into Latin. In the new universities of western Europe the Aristotelian texts and the commentaries upon them formed the basis of study. Many of the questions discussed were those which were raised by Aristotle's physics and cosmology. Nevertheless many of Arist...