New Directions In Thought and Culture

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Chapter 14

• New Directions In Thought and Culture

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The Scientific Revolution

• science called natural philosophy new
  science
• Not necessarily new.
• Not rapid, rather a complex movement with many
  false starts and brilliant people suggesting
  wrong as well as useful ideas.
• scientist term not coined until 1830s
• challenged Scholasticism, Aristotelian
  philosophy. (late middle ages)
• Impact of new science viewed in the context of
  two other factors that simultaneously challenged
  traditional roles of European thought and
  culture
• The Reformation which brought division of
  religious unity, war, and theological dispute.
• Impact of the New World and its discoveries.
  Acquisition of new knowledge.

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The Ptolemaic System

• Almagest (150 C.E)
• Ptolemys math physical cosmology of Aristotle
  standard explanation of earth and heavens.
• Geocentricism

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Nicolaus Copernicus (14731543)

• Polish priest astronomer
• On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543)
• heliocentric versus geocentric view of the solar
  system
• challenged Ptolemaic/Aristotelian models in use
  since antiquity
• Copernican system no more accurate than
  Ptolemaicimportant as a new paradigmslow to
  gain ground.
• Major impact provide another way of confronting
  some of the difficulties inherent in Ptolemaic
  astronomy.
• Did not replace the old astronomy, but allowed
  people to rethink.
• Copernican Theory was a minority school of
  thought for at least a century after its
  introduction.

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Nicolaus Copernicus (14731543)
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Tyco Brahe (15461601)

• Danish astronomer
• rejected Copernican view.
• Mercury, Venus revolve around sun but sun, moon
  and other planets revolved around the earth.
• recorded vast body of astronomical data drawn on
  by his assistant Kepler

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Johannes Kepler (15711630)

• German astronomer who advocated Copernican view
• figured out planets move in elliptical, not
  circular, orbits.
• The New Astronomy, 1609.
• Combination of Copernican theory and Brahes
  empirical data to solve the problem of planetary
  motion.

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Galileo Galilei (15641642)
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Galileo Galilei (15641642)

• Italian mathematician natural philosopher
• broke ground using telescope in 1609found
  heavens much more complex than previously
  understood.
• Saw stars where none had been known to exist,
  mountains on the moon, spots moving across the
  sun, moons orbiting Jupiter.
• became high-profile Copernican advocate
• articulated concept of a universe governed by
  mathematical laws

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Galileo Galilei (15641642)

• Starry Messenger (1610) and Letters on Sunspots
  (1613) he argued that newly found observable
  physical evidence , required a Copernican
  interpretation of the heavens.
• Not only popularized Copernican theory, but
  articulated the concept of a universal subject
  to mathematical laws.
• Nature displayed mathematical regularity in its
  most minute details.
• Universe was rational, but not of medieval
  scholastic logic, rather math.

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The Case of Galileo

• Council of Trent (1545-1563) states only the
  church has the authority to interpret the Bible.
• Galileos championing of Copernican theory
  creates problem for the church.
• The church could not surrender Bible
  interpretation to a layman and also had the
  difficulty moving beyond the literal reading of
  the Bible, lest the Protestants accuse it of
  abandoning the scriptures.
• 1615 Galileo offers his interpretation on how
  scripture should be interpreted to accommodate
  the new science.

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The Case of Galileo

• 1615 and 1616 goes to Rome to discuss views
  openly and aggressively.
• 1616, Copernicuss On the Revolutions of the
  Heavenly Spheres officially condemned by the
  Catholic church for the disagreement of the
  literal word of the Bible. (No empirical evidence
  yet)
• 1623 Pope Urban VIII (friend of Galileo) gives
  permission for Galileo to continue the discussing
  the Copernican system. (Dialogue on the Two Chief
  World Systems, 1632).
• Book makes mockery of Pope Urban VIII, which
  leaves pope feeling humiliated and betrayed.

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The Case of Galileo

• Pope orders investigation of Galileos book.
• Actual issue in Galileos trial in 1633 was
  whether he disobeyed the mandate of 1616.
• Condemned, required to renounce view, and placed
  under house arrest for the last 9 years of his
  life.
• Controversy continued until 1992, when Pope John
  Paul II formally orders the reassessment of the
  case.
• The Roman Catholic Church admits errors had
  occurred.

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Isaac Newton (16421727)
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Isaac Newton (16421727)

• discovered laws of gravityall physical objects
  in the universe move through mutual attraction
  (gravity) explained planetary orbits
• explained gravity mathematically. Made no
  attempt to explain the nature of gravity itself.
• Principia Mathematica (1687)

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Impact on Philosophy

• Scientific revolution ? major reexamination of
  Western philosophy
• Nature as mechanismclock metaphor God as
  clockmaker
• Purpose of studying nature changes
• search for symbolic/sacramental meaning ? search
  for usefulness/utility
• path to salvation ? path to human physical
  improvement

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Francis Bacon (15611626)
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Francis Bacon (15611626)

• English lawyer, government official, historian,
  essayist
• Considered father of empiricism, scientific
  experimentation
• Real accomplishment was setting an intellectual
  tone conducive to scientific inquiry
• Attacked scholastic adherence to intellectual
  authorities of the past
• One of the first European writers to champion
  innovation and change as goals contributing to
  human improvement

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René Descartes (15961650)
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René Descartes (15961650)

• Gifted mathematician, inventor of analytic
  geometry
• Most important contribution scientific method
  relying more on deduction (deriving specific
  facts from general principles) than empiricism
• Discourse on Method (1637)rejection of
  scholastic philosophy and education in favor of
  mathematical models rejection of all
  intellectual authority except his own reason.
• Cogito Ergo Sum
• Concluded (God-given) human reason was sufficient
  to comprehend the world
• Divided world into two categories mind
  (thinking) body (extension)

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Thomas Hobbes (15881679)
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Thomas Hobbes (15881679)

• Most original political philosopher of 17th c.
• Enthusiastic supporter of New Science
• Turmoil of English Civil War motivated his
  Leviathan (1651)
• Leviathan rigorous philosophical justification
  for absolutist government
• Humans not basically social, but basically
  self-centered
• State of nature is a state of war life in this
  state is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and
  short.

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John Locke (16321704)
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John Locke (16321704)

• Most influential philosophical and political
  thinker of the 17th c.
• Contrast with Hobbes
• First Treatise of Government argued against
  patriarchal models of government
• Second Treatise of Government government as
  necessarily responsible for and responsive to the
  governed
• Humans basically creatures of reason and goodwill
• Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) argument for
  religious toleration
• Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)
  described human mind as birth as a blank slate
  with content to be determined by sensory
  experiencereformist view, rejects Christian
  concept of original sin

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The Rise of Academic Societies

• The New Science threatened vested academic
  interests and was slow to gain ground in
  universities
• Establishment of institutions of sharing
• Royal Society of London (1660)
• Academy of Experiments (Florence, 1657)
• French Academy of Science (1666)
• Berlin Academy of Science (1700)

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Women in the Scientific Revolution

• Generally excluded from the institutions of
  European intellectual life.
• Monasteries and universities had been
  institutions associated with celibate male
  clerical culture.
• Except in a few instances, women were excluded
  until the late 19th century.
• Queen Christina of Sweden (r. 16231654) brought
  Descartes to Stockholm to design regulations for
  a new science academy
• Margaret Cavendish (16231673)
• Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy (1666)
• Grounds of Natural Philosophy (1668)
• Maria Winkelmannaccomplished German astronomer,
  excluded from Berlin Academy, when her husband
  died, on the basis of gender.
• Discovered a comet in 1702, but was not given
  credit until 1930

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New Science and Religion

• Three major issues
• Certain scientific theories and discoveries
  conflicted with Scripture.
• Who resolves such disputes religious authorities
  or natural philosophers?
• New sciences apparent replacement of spiritually
  significant universe with purely material one.

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Attempts to Reconcile Reason and Faith

• Blaise Pascal (16231662), French mathematician
• opposed both dogmatism and skepticism
• erroneous belief in God is a safer bet than
  erroneous unbelief
• Francis Bacon
• two books of divine revelation the Bible and
  nature
• since both books share the same author, they must
  be compatible
• Economics technological and economic innovation
  seen as part of a divine planman is to
  understand world and then put it into productive
  rational use

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Continuing Superstition

• Belief in magic and the occult persisted through
  the end of the 17th c.
• Many Europeans remained preoccupied with sin,
  death, and the devil
• Between 1400-1700, an estimated 70,000-100,000
  were sentenced to death.
• Charges
• harmful magic (maleficium) and diabolical
  witchcraft.
• Also believed that witches attended sabbats, to
  which they believed to fly.
• Of indulging in sexual orgies with the devil, who
  appeared as a he-goat.
• Cannibalism (especially the devouring of
  Christian children)
• Varieties of ritual acts and practices, often
  sexual in nature, that denied or perverted
  Christian beliefs.
• Why did this occur?

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Continuing Superstition

• Roots found in both popular and elite culture.
• Village society
• Magic from cunning folk helped people cope with
  natural disasters and disabilities
• Christian clergy
• Practiced high magic (Eucharist, Penance,
  Confession, Exorcism)

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Witch Hunts
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Who Were the Witches?

• 80 of victims were women, most single, and over
  40 years of age.
• Misogyny?
• Males against females? Conspiracy?
• 3 Types of Women
• Widows living alone after their husband died,
  often dependant on help from others, unhappy.
• Midwives Unpopular when mothers and newborns
  died during childbirth.
• Women Healers and Herbalists Their work gave
  them moral and spiritual authority over people
  church wished to reserve for priests.
• Hunts target specific women

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End of the Witch-Hunts

• Emergence of a more scientific view.
• Mind and Matter came to viewed as two separate
  realities.
• Witchs Curse was mere words.
• Advance in medicine.
• Began to get out of hand.

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Baroque Art

• 17th c. painting, sculpture, architecture
• 1600-1750
• From Portuguese word barocca, meaning a pearl
  of irregular shape.
• Implies strangeness, irregularity, and
  extravagance.
• The more dramatic, the better.
• subjects depicted in naturalistic rather than
  idealized manner
• Michelangelo Caravaggio (15731610)

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Baroque Art

• Dramatic, emotional.
• Colors were brighter than bright darks
  were darker than dark.
• Counter-Reformation art.
• Paintings sculptures in church contexts
  should speak to the illiterate rather than to
  the well-informed.
• Ecclesiastical art --gt appeal to emotions.
• Holland --gt Real people portrayed as the
  primary subjects.

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St. Francis In Ecstasy.Carivaggio, 1595
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The Flagellation of ChristCaravaggio
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David and GoliathCaravaggio
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Salome With The Head of the BaptistCaravaggio
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The CardsharpsCaravaggio, 1595
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Christ on the CrossDiego Velasquez, 1656
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• The Elevation of the Cross
• Peter Paul Ruebens
• 1610-1611

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Baroque Art Bernini
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The Ecstasy of St. Theresa - Bernini
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The Rape of Proserpina - Bernini
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Chair of St. Peter - Bernini
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Samson and Delilah - Rubens