Scientific advancements are generally associated with Europe at a point in history when superstition, fear and absolute devout to religious beliefs got replaced with reasoning and knowledge. Up until a change in people’s view of the world started by the help of the great scientists of history, the whole of Europe and the then discovered world saw its habitation, the Earth, and everything happening in it with the eye of religion, mostly the teachings of the bible, so their values were basically world-denying. Great kings and kingdoms of that age ruled and governed majorly by biblical teachings and the church was a great reference point for anyone interested in gaining understanding of what happened around him. Hence, the values of the people were shaped to take things on earth less important to the things of heaven, the superiority of man was not fully appreciated, and the people were taught to deny themselves of the pleasures of the world, making the way to heaven their primary focus.
Build-up to Scientific Revolution
The writings of the great philosophers of Greek and Roman descents paved the way for our point of discussion, scientific revolution (Lectures on early modern European history; ch.10, HistoryGuide.org). During the medieval times, beliefs based on science, though in existence, were hardly visible. The movement of nature as momentary motions moved only by the miracles of God and the dependence of everything happening in nature as being hinged on the total and steadfast faith of man on God, as well as on the miracle of God was what subsisted at that time. Those were the world-denying values held at that age.
The works of scientists cum philosophers like Aristotle, who postulated the theory leading to alchemy and promoted the notion of the totality of the material world as a summation of four elements- water, fire, air and earth- paving the way for alchemy which made people to accept the belief of a human body being a component of four humors, namely the yellow bile, the black bile, phlegm and blood. Thereafter, Ptolemy, invented a system, known as the Ptolemaic system that put the earth at the center of a fixed sphere where the stars were believed to be. The system also discovered that there are other planetary bodies like the Sun, Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn. According to the Church all cosmos bodies were believed to be moved by God, and they were assumed to be in such a complicated movement that could be understood only by God, the first cause. This system was later upgraded with epicycles, an explanation of the retrograde motion of the planets. There was no place for Heliocentrism, a system that gave an understanding of the Earth and all planets are actually revolving around the sun. All the beliefs were well supported by the church institution which saw no threat to their firmly held religious convictions.
The Supposed Start of Scientific Revolution
It is called a revolution and it is rightly named so, because the period altered the reasoning of men significantly from being ignorant of their abilities and the possibilities of exploiting nature to their advantage. Europe was the reference point again, but the scientists did not ride on an easy road with their discoveries in a world that was not interested in knowing more about what consists in nature and how to benefit from it. Yet, the first postulators were not so bold to tell the world of their discoveries, many times because of the strength of the Church.
Scientific revolution is regarded to have taken off from the time when Copernicus published his writings on the revolution of the celestial spheres, long after hiding it from public knowledge because of the fear of how the Church, which was such an organized body, would view him. Copernicus was first to mention the heliocentric systems, a revolutionary view of the universe that put the Sun in the center instead of Earth. He eventually dedicated the book to Pope Paul III to appeal to his acceptance. After him came scientists like Galileo, and Isaac Newton among others. Another famous publication that supports the year of 1543 as the beginning of the Scientific Revolution is the book called "On the Fabric of the Human body", which was written by the famous Flemish physician Andreas Vesalius (Piwi).
There is, however, another school of thought which does not agree with the onset of scientific revolution with Copernicus. This view believes that there was not an actual revolution as scientific inventions have been present throughout the medieval times as well.
Another ascola states that the role of Copernicus, Galilei, Decartes etc. in the so-called scientific revolution is largely exaggerated. The advocates of this statement consider that the influence of other event, most of all the connections with China, India and the Arab world was far more significant. They also say that this "revolution" is an evidence of Eurocentrism, as many important inventions and discoveries were done in other parts of the world, yet they are somewhat "forgotten" by the Europeans.
Let us look into several notable scientists of the era and analyze whether they were true revolutionary.
Nicolaus Copernicus
It is more than makes sense to start the discussion with Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish astronomer and mathematician (no astronomy could be done without math). It is absolutely out of any doubt that Copernicus was a science revolutionary, as it was his heliocentric system that, by many opinions, served as a trigger to other important discoveries in astronomy and physics. The only argument against him being a true revolutionary is that he was not eager to show his work – not least because he feared for his life, as the theory contradicted with the widely accepted and Church-supported postulate of geocentrism (everything revolves around earth). Yet, it has to be said that his theory was a very brave and innovative one, especially given the fact that it did not have thorough support of the observations, which were done much later with the use of telescope (Linton).
Georg Joachim de Porris, Rheticus
Here is a name, not so widely recognized. A Copernicus student and assistant and a talented scientist, Rheticus could easily become his successor. Yet, he chose not to. This is an excellent example of non-revolutionary scientist. Although Rheticus advocated Copernicus works and facilitated the publishing of the infamous " On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres", when debates become "too loud" he chose not to participate in them, retiring to the field of trigonometry and cartography, where he produced some notable innovations. Yet, they could not be named revolutionary, nor can Rheticus himself
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe was another scientist of the 16th Century and some do regard him as a Copernicus successor. He, indeed, made some revolutionary observations and discoveries of planetary movements. If fact, many of his observations moved the science forward and they, of course, served as the basis for the scientific studies of Kepler and later Isaac Newton (Ferguson). And yes, Tycho Brahe is regarded as one of the most famous astronomers of all time – but was he a revolutionary? Probably not. Brahe, actually, did not accept the Copernican theory, at least, not at full. While planets indeed seem to be revolving around the Sun, Brahe could not accept the main Copernicus idea of Heliocentrism. In Brahe's Tychoid system the Sun revolved around Earth on an outer orbit and the Moon on an inner orbit. Earth was still the center of universe, and it did not move (Linton). So, Brahe offered a mid-path between Copernicus and the Church. But this is not a way of a revolutionary.
Johannes Kepler
Kepler succeeded his Imperial Mathematician boss, Tycho Brahe, and was able to come up with many discoveries, revolutionary at the time (Ferguson). Among his findings are the movements of the planets in elliptical orbits, having the sun as one of its foci, and not circular as it was thought earlier. Another notable discovery of Kepler is his explanation of the workings of the human eye – a theory, which is still relevant in our days. Yet, to call him revolutionary would be an exaggeration, as Kepler had too much of the "feet on the ground" (Lindberg). While his laws of planetary motion were very important discoveries, Kepler was too much influenced by Brahe and by his own religious beliefs to accept the revolutionary theory of Copernicus. Instead, Kepler devoted much of his time to astrology, which nowadays is rarely regarded as science
Galileo Galilei
The design of the telescope is associated with the inventions of Galileo, the scientist who designed an instrument which can see 30 times more than the naked eyes of man (The scientific revolution, AP_History_Online.com ). Galileo’s discoveries made him to see that the moon contains mountains as seen on the earth, and he concluded that the components of the moon and earth were the same. With the use of telescope, Galilei discovered four of the Jupiter's moon and clearly proved that Venus orbits the Sun. His mathematical propositions related mathematical ability to God’s, promoting world affirming values. He did not fail to incur the wrath of the Church which had embraced the Ptolemaic system; the system that was a more appealing theory to the church institution which was in a propagator and firmly in support of world-denying values. He was then placed under house arrest by Pope Urban III. Notably, the Church had accepted the Tychonian system (proposed by Tycho Brahe). Galileo himself, however, did not accept Kepler's theory about elliptical orbits as well as the idea that the Moon caused the tides (Linton). Yet, Galileo was a true revolutionary as he did not afraid to advocate his ideas even when pursued by the Church.
Isaac Newton
This is the man that some celebrate as the greatest of all scientists during the revolution because he was able to reconcile notable differences in the works of predecessors; Kepler, Copernicus, and Galileo. According to a renowned myth, a new turn in Newton’s findings came when his head was hit by an apple which made him devise the Theory of Gravity. This theory, based on the inverse square law, gave the world an explanation of elliptical orbits of planets in the cosmos. It also advanced the law of universal gravitation. Differential Calculus is another invention of this great scientist of all times who opened new avenues of mathematical application to science. His works and discoveries were summed up in a book titled the Principia in 1687 (Westfall).Undoubtedly, Newton was a revolutionary. He approached many problems in a unique, innovative way and did not afraid to face results that did not correspond with theory – instead he tried to find a theory that supported the results. The three Newtonian Laws are the base of physics up to this day and only Einstein's theory of relativity somewhat overshadowed his discoveries.
Summary
There are many scientists who lived and made discoveries during the scientific revolution and their roles have been able to shape the attitudes and people of the world at that time to date to from world denying to world affirming. However, not all these scientists could be considered revolutionary. Some were too afraid of the Chuch to advocate their innovative ideas, others were to bound by the current theories to accept a new way of thinking. In addition, some of the discoveries have been overridden or jettisoned by further discoveries in the fields covered years, decades or centuries after they were gone (Dahnke, 90).
One of the scientists whose findings continue to be relevant is Isaac Newton, with his formulation of the Theory of Gravity. Most scientific revolution discoveries very much helped later scientists in their inventions and creations. Without Newton there could be no Einstein. The field of differential Calculus that Newton created is now even more relevant in the study of mathematics and engineering than it was at the time of invention. Galilei and Copernicus are two more scientists that can be called revolutionaries as their theories shook the science world at the time and this is exactly the definition of revolution! This is not a coincidence then that many historians cite the year of publishing of Copernicus book about "celestial spheres" as the start of scientific revolution. While the book reception was far from ideal and many disagreed with Copernicus, his discoveries and ideas had provoked further investigation of the nature, boosting the science forward, ultimately provoking a variety of theories on different matters in physics, astronomy, chemistry and mathematics.
References:
"The history guide. Lectures on early modern European history. Lecture 10: The Scientific Revolution, 1543-1600". Historyguide.org. Web.
Piwi. "What were the causes and consequences of the scientific revolution and how did it change the world from 1500-1800?" StudyMode.com. Web. 06 2008.
Linton, Christopher M. From Eudoxus to Einstein—A History of Mathematical Astronomy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2004.
Westfall, Robert. The Copernican Question: Prognostication, Skepticism, and Celestial Order. 2011
Ferguson, Kitty. The nobleman and his housedog: Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler: the strange partnership that revolutionized science. London: Review, 2002.
Lindberg, David C. The Genesis of Kepler's Theory of Light: Light Metaphysics from Plotinus to Kepler. Osiris, N.S. 2. University of Chicago Press, 1986
"The scientific revolution: circa Late 16th Century- 18th Century." AP History Online. Web.
Westfall, Richard S. Isaac Newton. Cambridge University Press. 2007.
Dahnke, Micheal D. and Dreher, Michael. Philosophy of science for nursing practice: Concepts and Application. New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2011.
