The Scientific Revolution/ New Science

1. The Scientific Revolution/New Science CIV 101-03 Spring April 13, 2016 Class 33

2. New ScienceIncomplete (and approximate) time lines: 1517 Luther 1666 Newton 1627 Descartes 1514 Copernicus 1580 Bacon 1595 Kepler 1600 Galileo 1700 Vico 1436 Gutenberg’s Press 1350 Petrarch 1680 Locke 1675 Leibniz 1580 Bruno 1650 Borelli 1655 Wallis 1591 Viete 1594 Napier 1650 Harvey 1580 Brahe 1650 Boyle&Hooke

3. Contributors leading up to Descartes (from last time) • 1350 Petrarch: Humanism (elevates the works of man) • 1436 Gutenberg’s Press: (loosens the hold of the Church; increases circulation of ideas • 1514 Copernicus: heliocentric theory • 1517 Luther: Protestant Movement (loosens the hold of the Church) • 1580 Bacon: faculty psychology (reason, memory, imagination, appetite, will); perception as fallible • 1580 Bruno: universe of infinite size; planets/stars/moon moving; earth maybe not at the center • 1580 Brahe: astronomy; structure of the solar system • 1591 Viete: unknown numbers; analytical trigonometry • 1594 Napier: Logarithms • 1595 Kepler: Mathematical laws of motion (confirms Copernicus and anticipates/used by Newton)

4. 1600 Galileo: telescope (confirmation of Copernicus) also thermometer, work on tides, sound frequencies and lots of other stuff (including the basis for Newton’s laws of motion and Einstein’s theories of relativity) • 1627 Descartes: radical skepticism/universal doubt; math over syllogism; reason over learning; experiment over disputation

5. Descartes (1627) • Radical Skepticism/Universal Doubt • Why? Gets him somewhat free of the Church’s dogmatic pronouncements about truth • reason over learning—gets him somewhat free from using received wisdom in science • Math over Syllogism • Why? Gets him somewhat free of the ancient’s reasoning methods (Aristotelian logic and Scholasticism) • This causes trouble for more than religion. It also damages the 7 liberal arts approach to learning

6. Descartes (1627) • The Cartesian Split • Subject/Object • Drawn from Bacon’s faculty psychology • Helps with the illusion of maintaining faith in the Church/religion • Moves away from ancient reasoning and rhetoric • Leaves the “subjective” stuff alone, moving it to the arts, humanities, religion • Experiment over disputation • Moves away from ancient reasoning and rhetoric and from received wisdom in science • Takes the scientific stuff away from religion and speculation; moves it toward direct observation and hypothesis testing.

7. Steps in the Scientific Method • http://elearning.la.psu.edu/anth/021/lesson-2/images/StepsoftheScientificMethod_blue.jpg

8. New Science, cont. • 1650 Borelli: Human mechanics • The biomechanics of muscles and movement • 1650 Boyle & Hooke: Physics of air • Also springs and elasticity • 1650 Harvey: dissection leads to understanding blood circulation (a 2nd order effect of the Protestant reformation: some bodies “deserve” desecration!). • 1655 Wallis: ideas foundational to differential calculus

9. Newton, 1666 • Laws of motion (including gravity) • The status quo had been that explanations for motion differ depending on whether the objects of interest were on the earth or in the sky. • Newton works out the relationships among objects in both spheres, that they follow the same laws, and that attraction and repulsion relates to object size, mass, and distances. All particles emit the same forces.

10. Post-Newton • Most Newtonian physics stands: inertia, acceleration, and action and reaction • Modified by Einstein’s • Theory of Relativity • Theory of Special Relativity

11. General Relativitythe curvature of spacetime is directly related to the energy and momentum of whatever matter and radiation are present.

12. Special RelativityIf you move fast enough through space, the observations that you make about space and time differ somewhat from the observations of other people, who are moving at different speeds.

13. Post-Newton Also modified by quantum mechanics/physics in the universe of the small (sub-atomic world) that do not follow Newtonian rules in a large number of ways. We don’t know the “line” where/when the quantum rules “take over”/matter.

14. New Science, cont. • 1675 Leibniz: (perhaps with Newton) Calculus (and lots of scientific PHILOSOPHY) • 1680 Locke: popularizes Bacon and Descartes • relations among perception, thought, and language • faculties of the mind • theory of ideas as held in patterns in the mind • Reason unites ideas by association.

15. A counter-voice • 1700 Vico: answers Descartes • But only for us when Ernesto Grassi rediscovers and presents him in the late 20th century; Vico was little read in his own time. • Plus, he was a flaming, vicious, racist and anti-Semite • But his critiques of Descartes rang true • Had he been read in his time, the way we study HUMANS (Social Science) would have been radically altered, probably for the better. • The West might not have “split” subject and object quite so strongly, thereby avoiding some of the negative consequences of over-reliance on science and of separating the two as though both require the exclusion of the other (they do not).

16. Vico/Counter Descartes • Math isn’t THE human language. • In fact, it’s not a human language at all, it’s scientific notation. • And at many points, it gets interpreted and used/misused. • The human spirit (ingenium) is formed in language • We are who we are because we speak the way we speak, read, write, and think. • History and narration are the most factual ways to study HUMANS • Science is great for rocks, air, motion, animals. Not so good for understanding humans and what they mean. • The debate over these issues goes on today.

17. One additional “counter” voice I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.Bhagavad Gita, XI,32 Robert Oppenheimer