The Scientific Revolution: The Power of the Human Mind
Science has been the very foundation of our society ever since the first civilization which can be seen through the different historical places, artifacts, heritages etc. Science, being said as the “systematize body of knowledge” is also the very foundation of any ideologies. There are some philosophical and religious ideologies, as well as the different government ideologies that were known to us today, all of these were derived from Science, making it unique with regards to other ideologies.
Skepticism is one of the philosophical ideology that has been influenced, derived, and based on the Science itself. Being said, skepticism tends to make a person to doubt of what he’s been taught and are to experience to believe, which agrees with Francis Bacon’s scientific argument about the necessity of having a rigorous experimentation.
Heliocentrism also is one of the ideologies that was derived in Science by Nicolas Copernicus which opposes religious ideology of geocentrism four century ago. That being said, the church only accepts at that time the ideology of geocentrism because it’s the most accepted scientific notions that has been made known to man. Heliocentrism would latter then be accepted by the church itself in 1822 because it had to.
Different governmental ideologies such as Communism, Capitalism, Conservatism, Liberalism, Feminism, etc. were also derived from the Science itself. The one who coined the word “Ideology”, Destutt de Tracy, hoped and see ideology as one of the sciences that is to be used in search of truth through the study of ideas. Marx transformed the meaning of the term into one quite opposite, ideology meaning false belief and distortion of reality. Since Marx, the meaning of ideology has evolved in different directions and the term has been used in many different senses.
Science eventually evolves during the “Scientific Revolution”, dated back in 1600-1700’s, caused by three internal causes. Research into motion that was conducted by natural philosophers in the 14th century is one of these causes. Natural science focuses on the study of the physical world and the phenomena that occurs in it. Well known individuals such as Ptolemy, Aristotle, Galileo, and Galen spearheaded the growth of science in the 14th century.
On the other hand, Andreas Vesalius which is the one who spearheaded the study of human anatomy, William Harvey, the one who discovered the connection of the heart in the circulation of the blood through investigating animal heart, Anton Van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch scientist that discovered single-celled organism through the microscope, Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, who spearheaded the study of plants and animals, and also published a book that paved a way to the growth to the system of classifying the species of plants and animals were the ones who were behind the scientific investigations that was conducted in the era Renaissance. This investigations is the second cause of why does the scientific revolution occurred.
The collapse of paradigm is the third cause for the scientific revolution to occur. The intellectual framework that had governed scientific research since the antiquity, such as the belief that the solar system revolves in the earth, and the belief that the blood originates from the liver that travels throughout the body, collapsed due to the researches done the natural philosophers in the 14th century and the scientific investigations in the Renaissance age.
Many discoveries and inventions occur during the scientific revolution which paved a way to the age of enlightenment, political and societal revolution, and industrial revolution. During the industrial revolution many attempts in the history were made to develop different technologies to make our daily life much easier.
During the 17th century patent system was used in Great Britain due to the different invention and technologies that emerged such as the use of steam to produce energy to make an steam engine work, cotton gin that was invented by Eli Whitney in 1793 to separate the cotton fibres from its seed much easier and faster, flying shuttle by John Kay in 1733 which makes the spinning of thread faster, spinning jenny by James Hargreaves in 1764 which makes the spinning of thread up to 8x much faster and many more.
This technologies were initially made to improve the societal way of living but some of this technologies were abused to the extent that it can also harm the resources in which this technologies were made from such as the exploitation of the trees to produce charcoals for steam engines. It also makes us or rather the society forget the fundamentals of the processes that was made easier by the technologies itself. We as an individual also tend to forget the real purposes of the technologies that we are capable of using.
We tend to abuse different technologies for our own pleasure and self-satisfaction which is not the main purpose of technology. For example, we tend to use social media sites to propagate inappropriate contents and videos such as pornographies, cyberbullying and cybersex which are not the main purpose of the technologies nowadays. Scientific innovations and technology were made because by science, through science and for science itself which is it’s in different technologies.
The first role of Science to technology it to be the inspiration of its invention. Many Scientists invent something, technologies, to support or to make something that will support the further growth of science just as the seismograph is invented because the inventor himself want to make sure that the future of earth science needed it. The second role of science in technology is that it is through science. Any advance technology, without the proper guidelines from the principle of science, would just be a big hollow metal or plastic. Then, the third role of science in technology for science. This is somehow similar to the first role of science but they differ in ways. If the first role is to be the inspiration of the technology’s invention. The third one is the fulfillment of what you are inspired for. In short, it is the result for science.
The Scientific Revolution inspired the growth of individualism’s Enlightenment ideals since it showed the human mind’s strength. Scientist’s willingness to arrive at their own conclusions rather than appeal to installed authority demonstrated the individual’s skills and values. Human beings’ ability to determine reality by reasoning inspired the development of the concept of rationalism in the Enlightenment. Such developments, along with the declining emphasis on the Church’s conventional teachings, contributed to a phase of unprecedented theological activity in modern times. All such scientific discoveries had a profound impact on man’s creation and his place in the world and contributed to a new scientific paradigm. These developments have had a profound influence on philosophy, which resulted in new definitions of wisdom and reality being developed. When it comes to impact of Scientific Revolution in the religious thought, the scientific revolution, as it were, remains a significant period in history not because of big scientific advances, but because scientists began to explore the system between science and religion. By eliminating religion from the equation, in reality science and logical reasoning became more established. This change exposed science to so many naturally occurring scientific discoveries. Scientific knowledge about the natural world knew no bounds without faith keeping it back.
