7.32: Prophets of a Scientific Civilization: Bacon and Descartes

1. 7.32: Prophets of a Scientific Civilization: Bacon and Descartes Chapter 7: The Scientific View of the World

2. Scientific Revolution Descartes’ Discourse on Method Montaigne’s Essays Johann Kepler’s Rudolphine Tables Tycho Brahe’s Observations 1543 1572 1580 1620 1627 1632 1637 1687 Galileo’s Discourse Concerning the Two Chief Systems Copernicus’ On the Revolutions of Heavenly Orbs (1543) Bacon’s Norganum Organum Newton’s Principia

3. Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation man past knowledge as the most reliable source of wisdom Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas Geocentric (Ptolemaic) world 8-10 crystal (hierarchical spheres 4 elements/ 4 humours Great Chain of Being Hierarchical link from God down to insects abstract wisdom would help man turn away from the corruptibility of the earth Enlightenment man rejected ancient authority relied on their own observable intellects Modern Science A fusion of experimental observation & mathematics Heliocentric world Sun-centered World Machine Universe was demystified & worked like a mechanical clock (predictable & understandable, orderly and harmonious saw knowledge as useless unless it could be put to use “the relief of man’s estate” Changes in Intellectual Environment

4. Science before the Seventeenth Century • Can we mark the advent of sceince with Leonardo? • Anatomy, astronomy, engineer • dissected over 30 bodies • conceived of circulation of the blood • movement of the earth around the sun • designed submarines, airplanes • BUT didn’t publish anything • Isolated genius and did not transmit his ideas to others • SCIENCE depends on the transmission of ideas

5. The Skeptics • Skepticism is the doctrine that knowledge is not possible, either about some particular topic, e.g. religion or the natural world or mathematics -- or in general • Doubting frame of mind, held that no certain knowledge is possible for human beings, all beliefs are only customs • Montaigne (1533-92) • French Renaissance thinker • Essays (1580) • Studies himself (thoughts, habits, beliefs) to better understand mankind • Que sais-je? What do I know? Answer: Nothing • Positive about skepticism: challenge and question everything and be tolerant, broadminded • Negative: fatalism, Oh well Michel de Montaigne

6. Bacon and Descartes 1620 to 1640 • Fathers of Scientific Revolution • Go beyond skeptics • Truth • is not postulated from the start and then worked within a paradigm • It is something found at the end of long process or investigation, experiment, observation How is truth attained? • inductive reasoning • proceeding from the particular to the general, from concrete to abstract • This ice is cold. • All ice is cold. • deductive- • start with general information and infer specific • All apples are fruit. • All fruits grow on trees. • Therefore all apples grow on trees. • True and reliable knowledge exists and can be employed to the benefit of humans In the Center is a bust of the Society's Founder - Charles II Left is William Brouncker- The first President On the Right is Francis Bacon the Inspiration of the Royal Society

7. Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) • Novum Organum (New Instrument) (1620) • The New Atlantis (1627) • championed empiricism- • knowledge based on observation and experience • wanted people to rid themselves of preconceptions, traditional ideas and look with fresh eyes, use their senses • portrayed a scientific utopia: society based on the results of science • Inhabitants enjoyed a perfect society through knowledge and control of nature • Usefulness of knowledge became main element of Baconian tradition • It can be used for practical purposes • ex. Weapon are more accurate (science of ballistics) • Called on scientist to share their knowledge by recording their experiments and to rid themselves of superstition and religion in science (he called philosophy) • Fails to recognize importance of mathematics • It proceeds deductively from axioms to theorems • Science is both inductive and deductive

8. Rene Descartes (1596-1650) • All knowledge of past should be discarded • Considered the inventor of coordinate geometry • Any algebraic formula could be plotted as a curve in space and any curve in space could be converted into an algebraic term • Knowledge is worthy if it is useful to mankind

9. Rene Descartes (1596-1650) • Discourse on Method (1637) • Proposed the principle of systematic doubt • 1st rule was “never to receive anything as a truth which he did not clearly know to be such” • after doubting everything he realized his mere process of thought confirmed his own existence (I think, therefore I am) (Cogito ergo sum) • used this as his starting point and began to reconstruct the universe, the existence of God • could not be empirically verified but he believed that nature is so small that it eludes our senses anyway

10. Descartes Influence • Although his system of thought did not reveal any new discoveries it did help disprove errors of ancients • Stress on math to pursue science proved invaluable • Cartesian Dualism-God created two kinds of reality: • Thinking Substance- • Mind, spirit, consciousness • subjective experience • Extended Substance- • matter, & everything outside the mind • Objective experience

11. Descartes Influence • Mind belonged to man alone • Everything else was matter and operated according to physical laws • everything else was a machine • therefore the entire universe could be understood without the help of religion • apparent attribute to matter (sound, light, taste) were subjective impressions of the mind and not subject to science • The natural world can be controlled!