SR_Causes


 * Causes of Scientific Revolution **
 * 1) ** Repudiating the Ancient Greeks and Romans **

Elaboration: Until the 16th century, the study of nature in Europe was inspired by the ancient Greek and the three main areas are: Physics (Aristotle), Astronomy (Ptolemy) and Medicine (Galen). However, ironically the notable advances during the scientific revolution were in these three fields. This is because Renaissance humanists who had mastered Greek as well as Latin are now able to make available Galen, Ptolemy and Archimedes works through translation of the language. They found out that these writings which were unquestioned by the authorities of the Middle Ages (the Church), Aristotle and Galen were actually questioned and contradicted by other thinkers at that time. The desire to discover which school of thought was correct stimulated new scientific work that sometimes led to a complete rejection of classical authorities.

Example: The work of Archimedes. Archimedes wrote on how dynamics helped inspire new ideas in physics. He had concrete observations and discoveries that was one of the most accurate and reliable in the entire body of Greek science. Archimedes taught that the universe operates on the basis of mechanical forces and hence this contributed to the development of modern science because it insisted on finding observable and measurable causes and effects in the world of nature.


 * 1) ** The Impact of the Renaissance **

Elaboration: The Renaissance was the period of time in which many questions about the world we live in were answered. This is because scientists in the Renaissance period started questioning about the old theories established in the world by their predecessors. There are many other such situations in which old theories were proved wrong by scientists who conducted further and more in-depth research on their area of interest. These old theories were mostly religious-based, whereby everything that remained unanswered was attributed to be the creation and hands of God. With research being carried out, many found out that there were actually numerous loopholes in the theories that have been upheld in the society for many years by both the Church and majority of the society. New theories, which are more scientifically based were then formed or built upon on the old ones during the Renaissance period that enabled new discoveries about the world the people never once knew about. Many important discoveries made known to the society during the Renaissance then acted as a basic building block that enabled many new research to be done during the Scientific Revolution.

Example: An example would be Copernicus. Copernicus created the Copernican Universe with the theory of heliocentrism (the Sun being the center of the Universe) as the main supporting idea. This contradicted the previous wrong theory of the universe being geocentric, in which everything revolved around the Earth, that was already established in the society for many decades.


 * 1) ** The Impact of Magic **

Elaboration: There was a growing interest in magic among the people, which was regarded as that time a serious intellectual enterprise. There were various avenues of magical inquiry and Alchemy was one of them. Alchemy is the belief that matter could be understood and transformed by mixing substances and using secret formulas. There were many “magical” beliefs such as Paracelsus, a famous 16th century alchemist who suggested that metals as well as plants might have medical properties in them and demonstrated this through the fact that mercury could cure syphilis, and what linked these beliefs together was the conviction that the worlds could be understood through simple, comprehensive laws of nature. This led to the mergence of “magical” beliefs with practical science and a new interest was sparked. This interest was coming up with new and simple solutions for long-standing problems that made natural philosophers capable of discarding the honored theories that was established in the society for many years. This enabled them to be able to try different methods of approaching a certain problem and to pay a greater attention to mathematics, thus creating an intellectual revolution.

Example: A person derived from a system of Jewish thought known as cabala suggested that the universe might be built around magical arrangements of numbers. Pythagoras, an ancient Greek philosopher then merged this idea of magic with maths and suggested that the numerical pattern might connect all of nature and his ideas created a new interest among man.


 * 1) ** Emergence of Empiricism : Observations, Experiments and Instruments. **

Explanation: During the Renaissance, the Europeans were fascinated with technological inventions, and alongside the growing interest in experiment among the anatomists, it created this period (16th century - 17th century) in which many new inventions were made. Important pioneers of a new reliance on measurement and observation such as architects and engineers affected how problems in physics were addressed too. Many new instruments were invented and this encouraged the development of a scientific approach that was entirely new in the 17th century. The belief that in order to make nature reveal its secrets, it had to be made to do things it did not do normally was another idea that contributed largely to the scientific revolution. It means that one should not simply observe a phenomena that occurred normally in nature, one should create conditions that were not normal so as to better understand how things word. Technical problems also served to stimulate scientific activity because they required careful observation and accurate measurements and this led to a proliferation of books in the 15th and 16th centuries dedicated to machines and technology, which espoused the belief that innovation in techniques was necessary. Therefore, new scientific discoveries were made possible because of the inventions of instruments that helped in researches and studies being carried out because they are then able to stretch the boundaries of science much further and provide the researchers with concrete evidences.

Example: Examples of inventions are the vacuum pump that enabled the scientists to better understand the properties of air, the thermometer, the barometer, the microscope and the telescope which enabled us to observe the universe more indepthly.


 * 1) ** Printing **

Explanation: After the printing press which was invented by Johann Gutenburg, printing spread rapidly. Printing methods improved gradually over a period of time and the cost of producing of books fell. As the prices became reasonable, people who could not afford hand-written books previously could not buy printed books which are much cheaper. This led to ideas being spread and circulated around quickly through the printed books, pamphlets and other short works. More people are able to have a wider range of subjects to study on such as mining, medicine, philosophy and politics and there is an increase in the number of people who studied books in science and technology. The increase in the knowledge gained affected the Scientific Revolution greatly. The printing press was also responsible for the wide-scale spreading of new ideas and theories that enabled more people to be aware of the development in the areas of science. Evidence: Evidence to support the popularity of the printing press will be that by 1500, there were already over 250 presses in Europe turning out books. 