Renaissance, Reformation, And The Scientific Revolution
Throughout world history, mankind has intellectually evolved through never-ending interest and the strong desire to know or discover answers pertaining to everyday life. From the 14th century up until now civilization has been involved in three major social movements; the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution. This essay will discuss the events and outcomes of each major social movement and the impact each has created as well as the most influential of the three.
The time period between 1300 and 1600 in European history is known as the Renaissance. The Renaissance was a cultural revival originating in Florence, Italy. This cultural refocus in arts and literature made Italy the heart of Classical humanistic thought. During …show more content…
Between 1550 and 1700, knowledge on the subject flourished as European scientists began to separate their views of science from religion. This is known as the Scientific Revolution, which I consider to be the most influential social movement compared to the other two discussed. Thinkers of this era looked for realism to explain the universe, nature, and other natural phenomena rather than blind faith in God creating everything. The scientists asked questions, used critical thinking methods, and looked at the world objectively to develop hypotheses and conduct research to explain the universe through facts (Fiero pg 78). They sought a reasonable explanation for everything in the natural world. The basis for the Scientific Revolution can be see through the anatomical drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, although considered part of the Renaissance era; Copernicus’s theory that the earth and all planets rotate around the sun; Kepler’s theory of planetary movement around the sun in elliptical paths; and Galileo’s Law of the Falling Bodies which proclaims that the earth’s gravity attracts all objects, regardless of shape, size or density at the same rate of acceleration. These new discoveries led to new inventions (Faith, Reason, and Power in the Early Modern World pg 78). For example, in 1608 Galileo improved the design of Dutch telescopes to obtain three power magnification. The following year, 1609, scientists Hans Lippershey and Zacharias Janssen invented the compound microscope. A decade later, William Harvey accurately traced the circulation of blood and hypothesized that all animals emerge from an egg, this created a basis for Anton van Leeuwenhoek’s microscope studies of spermatozoa causing a scientific advance in the study of reproduction (Faith, Reason, and Power in the Early Modern World pg 79). It is very interesting to see how these scientists, mostly working
The time period between 1300 and 1600 in European history is known as the Renaissance. The Renaissance was a cultural revival originating in Florence, Italy. This cultural refocus in arts and literature made Italy the heart of Classical humanistic thought. During …show more content…
Between 1550 and 1700, knowledge on the subject flourished as European scientists began to separate their views of science from religion. This is known as the Scientific Revolution, which I consider to be the most influential social movement compared to the other two discussed. Thinkers of this era looked for realism to explain the universe, nature, and other natural phenomena rather than blind faith in God creating everything. The scientists asked questions, used critical thinking methods, and looked at the world objectively to develop hypotheses and conduct research to explain the universe through facts (Fiero pg 78). They sought a reasonable explanation for everything in the natural world. The basis for the Scientific Revolution can be see through the anatomical drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, although considered part of the Renaissance era; Copernicus’s theory that the earth and all planets rotate around the sun; Kepler’s theory of planetary movement around the sun in elliptical paths; and Galileo’s Law of the Falling Bodies which proclaims that the earth’s gravity attracts all objects, regardless of shape, size or density at the same rate of acceleration. These new discoveries led to new inventions (Faith, Reason, and Power in the Early Modern World pg 78). For example, in 1608 Galileo improved the design of Dutch telescopes to obtain three power magnification. The following year, 1609, scientists Hans Lippershey and Zacharias Janssen invented the compound microscope. A decade later, William Harvey accurately traced the circulation of blood and hypothesized that all animals emerge from an egg, this created a basis for Anton van Leeuwenhoek’s microscope studies of spermatozoa causing a scientific advance in the study of reproduction (Faith, Reason, and Power in the Early Modern World pg 79). It is very interesting to see how these scientists, mostly working