09/17/2013
History 538
Prophets of Modern Science The accomplishments of the Scientific Revolution are characterized as the greatest inquisition into the nature of human intellect and science in Modern History. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the educational systems were subjugated by Aristotelian-Ptolemaic (doctrine of the Ancient Grecians Aristotle and Ptolemy) scholars’ intent on solely teaching an individual’s relationship between nature, society, and God. In this school of thought Scripture, the church leaders, and Aristotle were the ultimate authorities. They held that knowledge deduced from experience should solidify what is already known to be valid on the basis of these authorities. The revival of fascination in relics of Ancient texts during the Renaissance co-authored the rediscovery of Pythagorean and Platonic ideas, which emphasized mathematics as the key to human comprehension. Exploration in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, physics, biology, and chemistry led to the reformation of thought and society. There are many accredited with this great revolution such as; Nicholas Copernicus, Sir Isaac Newton,Galileo Galilei, and Johannes Kepler. Nicholas Copernicus [1473-1543] a Polish astronomer, mathematician, and church follower, who created the heliocentric theory. His study of the Ptolemaic system led him to replace the Earth with the Sun as the center of the universe. Copernicus hypothesized that the numerous epicycles and the equant violated the Platonic infringed on the mathematical proportionality of the universe. He was afraid to spark a controversy but in 1543 he finally relented and published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. Copernicus explains that; those who endeavored to solve the problem by the use of concentric spheres, were unable to account for all the planetary movements. He says that “They had to explain merely the apparent revolutions of the planets but also the fact