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Origins:
Antiquity: Arist. -- physics, Ptolemy - astron, Galen - medicine
most dramatic advances in these fields
must account 4 new observations
i.e. Arist. & arrow, Ptol & movement some planets, Galen & dissections
“Magic”
alchemy: matter trans ----> other matter
Paracelsus: metals medicinal, i.e. mercury & syphilis
astrology: predictions based on planets
**World could be understood
Supp by NeoPlatonism, other mystical ideas: i.e. Jewish cabala
+ new attention 2 Pythagoras univ = magical arrang #s
New interest in new & simple solutions
---> capabilities to discard old, seek new
---> intellectual revolution
Other Influences
1) technological invention: i.e. telescope, vacuum pump, therm., barom., microsc
encouraged scientific approach pioneered by Bacon
* in order nature reveal secrets, it had to be made to do things it did
not want to do normally --- “twist the lion’s tail”
2) interest in experiments anatomists
1542: Anatomy & Astronomy
Vesalius: Structure of the Human Body
**Trad. & theological worldview now crumbling & a new approach of critical, scientific
method had arrived!
i.e. why say univ revolved around earth when all celestial motion expl by
rotation/revolution of single planet?
Conflict w/Church
allowed to write about diff poss wld sys as long as didn’t presume to judge which
actually existed.
Dialogue on the Two Great World Systems 1632
openly lampooned trad. views Arist/Ptol
written 4 wide audience (dialogue & in Italian)
1635 tried by Inquisition 4 heresy
forced to recant “errors and heresies”
legend says Galileo muttered....”but they do move”
trial became symbol of inevitable conflict relig belief & scientific knowledge
**Legacy:
By 1630’s: no self respecting astronomer could deny validity of Copern
Man had progressed from bewilderment ---> level of certainty re: physical world
Legacy Newton:
New Epistemology
Science Instituionalized
coop, share info....Rome = 1st sci society 1603, then France, England
Royal Society: 1640’s Eng: Civil War: trad natural philos
replaced at university - Invisible College: new faculty meetings
Robert Boyle: chemist, founder RS 1662
goals: openly Baconian, gather all knowledge re: nature, esp if useful
orig goal imposs ---> clearing house 4 research
1665 Philosophical Transactions: 1st prof. science journal
imitators: 1666 Louis XIV: Fr. Acad Sciences
1700 Naples, Berlin
membership: limited, coveted
glamour 4 scientific studies, grtly admired
By 1660’s science secure in royal patronage: model 4 all thought
Like the science topic and history? Read the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson.