Intellectual

Revolutions that
Define Society

Prepared by: MR. KENT E. GARCIA, LPT

Subject Teacher
Intellectual Revolutions that Define Society
• In science and technology,
intellectual revolutions refers to the
series of events that led to the
emergence of modern science and the
progress of scientific thinking across
critical periods in history.

• Although there are many intellectual

revolutions, this section focuses on
three of the most important ones that
altered the way humans view science
and its impact on society: the
Copernican, Darwinian and
Freudan revolutions.
Intellectual Revolutions that Define Society

• Jean Sylvain Bailley (1976 in Cohen, 1976), these

scientific revolutions involved a two staged- process of
sweeping away the old and establishing the new.

• In understanding intellectual revolutions, it is worth

noting that these revolutions are, in themselves,
paradigm shifts.

• These shifts resulted from a renewed and enlightened of

how the universe behaves and functions.

• They challenged long-held views about the nature of the Jean Sylvain Bailley
universe. Thus, these revolutions were often met the
huge resistance and controversy.
Intellectual Revolutions that Define Society

Copernican Revolution

• It refers to the 16th century paradigm shift after the

Polish mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus
Copernicus.

• Formulated the heliocentric theory model of the

universe, Earth and planets revolve around the Sun at the
center of the Universe.

• At the time, the belief was that the Earth was the center
of the Solar System based on the geocentric model of Nicolaus Copernicus
Ptolemy.
Intellectual Revolutions that Define Society
Copernican Revolution

• Copernicus introduced the heliocentric model in a

40 page outline entitled Commentariolus.

• He formalized his model in the publication of his

treatise, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium
(The Revolution of Celestial Spheres) in 1543.

• In his model, Copernicus repositioned the Earth

from the center of the Solar system and introduced
the idea that the Earth rotates on its own axis. The
model illustrated the Earth along with other
heavenly bodies, to be rotating around the sun.
Intellectual Revolutions that Define Society
Copernican Revolution

• The idea that the Sun is at the center of the universe

instead of the earth proved to be unsettling to many
when Copernicus first introduced his model.

• In fact, the heliocentric model was met with huge

resistance, primarily from the Church, accusing
Copernicus of heresy.

• At the time, the idea that it was not the Earth, and, by
extension, not man, that was at the center of all creation
was unthinkable. Copernicus faced persecution from the
church because of this.
Intellectual Revolutions that Define Society

Copernican Revolution

• Moreover, although far more sensible than the

Ptolemaic model, which as early as the 13th century
had been criticized for its shortcomings, the
Copernican model also had multiple inadequacies that
were later filled in by the astronomers who
participated in the revolution.

• Nonetheless, despite problems with the model and the

persecution of the Church, the heliocentric model was
soon accepted by other scientist of the time, most
profoundly by Galileo Galilei.
Ptolemy model
Intellectual Revolutions that Define Society
Copernican Revolution

• The contribution of the Copernican Revolution

is far-reaching. It served as a catalyst to sway
scientific thinking away from age long views
about the position of the Earth relative to an
enlightened understanding of the universe.

• This marked beginning of the modern

astronomy. Although very slowly, the
heliocentric model eventually caught among
other astronomers who further refined the
model and contributed to the recognition of
heliocentrism.
Intellectual Revolutions that Define Society

Copernican Revolution
• This was capped off by Isaac Newton’s work
a century later.

• Thus, the Copernicus Revolution marked a

turning point in the study of cosmology and
astronomy making it a truly important
intellectual revolution.
Intellectual Revolutions that Define Society

Darwinian Revolution

• Charles Darwin- English naturalist, geologist, and biologist is

credited for stirring another important intellectual revolution on
the mi-19th century.

• His treatise on the science of evolution, On the Origin of

Species, was published in 1859 and began a revolution that
brought humanity to a new era of intellectual discovery.
Charles Darwin
Intellectual Revolutions that Define Society
Darwinian Revolution

• Benefitted from earlier revolution especially

those in the 16th and 17th centuries, such that
it was guided by confidence in human
reason’s ability to explain phenomena in the
universe.

• For his part, Darwin gathered evidence

pointing to what is now known as natural
selection, an evolutionary process by which
organisms, including humans, inherit,
develop and adapt traits that favored
survival and reproduction.
Intellectual Revolutions that Define Society

Darwinian Revolution

• The place of the Darwinian Revolution in modern

science cannot be underestimated. Through
Darwinian Revolution, the development of
organism and the origin of the unique forms of life
and humanity could be rationalized by a lawful
system or an orderly process of change underpinned
by laws of nature.
Intellectual Revolutions that Define Society
Freudan Revolution

• Sigmund Freud – Austrian neurologist, is

credited for stirring 20th century intellectual
revolution named after him, the Freudan
Revolution.

• Psychoanalysis as a school of thought in

psychology is at the center of this revolution.

• He developed psychoanalysis – a scientific

method of understanding inner and unconscious
conflicts embedded within one’s personality,
springing from free associations, dreams, and
fantasies of the individual.
Intellectual Revolutions that Define Society
Freudan Revolution

• Psychoanalytic concepts of
psychosexual development, libido,
and ego were met with both support
and resistance from many scholars.

• Freud suggested that humans are

inherently pleasure-seeking
individuals.

• These notions were particularly

caught in the crossfire of whether
Freud’s psychoanalysis fit in the Psychosexual Development
scientific study of the brain and mind.
Intellectual Revolutions that Define Society
Freudan Revolution

• Scientists working on a biological approach in studying

human behavior criticized psychoanalysis for lack of
vitality and bordering on being unscientific as a theory.

• Particularly, the notion that all human are destined to

exhibit Oedipus and Electra complexes (i.e., sexual
desire towards the parent of the opposite sex and
exclusion of the parent of the same sex) did not seem to
be supported by empirical data.

• In the same vein, it appeared to critics that

psychoanalysis, then, was more of an ideological stance
than a scientific one.
Intellectual Revolutions that Define Society

Freudan Revolution

• Amidts controversy, Freud’s psychoanalysis is

widely credited for dominating psychotherapeutic
practice in the early 20th century.

• Psychodynamic therapies that treat a myriad of

psychological disorders still remain largely
informed by Freud’s work on psychoanalysis.