STAS 111: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
February 14, 2023 | Week 4 | Eleonor Trinidad
SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
• It has been established that most, if not all, of the
discoveries and inventions in science and technology
during each time period were due to human needs and
wants.
• Brilliant minds responded to the call of the times and
created things that could make life easier for the people.
• There have also been instances when advancements in
science and technology changed people’s perceptions and
beliefs.
• Much of these events happened in a period now known as
the Intellectual Revolution.
• Scientific Revolution is used to refer to the great
intellectual achievements of science from sixteenth to
seventeenth century marking a radical change in the
assumptions attitudes and methods in scientific inquiry.
• Scientific revolution was the golden age for people
committed to scholarly life in science but it was also a
deeply trying moments to some scientific individuals that
led to their painful death or condemnation from the
religious institutions who tried to preserve their faith,
religion and theological views.
• The Scientific Revolution develops as an offshoot of the
Renaissance.
• The same questioning spirit that fueled the Renaissance
led scientists to question traditional beliefs and the Church
about the workings of the universe. It was a new way of
thinking about the natural world.
• Before 1500, the Bible and Aristotle were the only
authorities accepted as truth
• A geocentric model of the universe, in which the Earth is
at the center was supported during the Middle Ages
• Until the mid 1500’s, European scholars accepted and
believed the teachings of Ptolemy, an ancient Greek
astronomer. Ptolemy taught that the Earth was the center
of the universe.
• People felt this was common sense, and the geocentric
theory was supported by the Church.
• It was not until some startling discoveries caused
Europeans to change the way they viewed the physical
world.
• Industrial revolution – refers to complex technological
innovations from 1750 to 1895 characterized by the
substitutions of machines for human skill and machine
power for that of human and animal bringing a shift from
handicraft to manufacture and marking the birth of modern
economy.
CAUSES OR GENESIS OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
• The remarkable achievements of specific individuals such
as Nicolas Copernicus, Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes,
Andreas Vesalius, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei,
Robert Hooke and Isaac Newton.
• The philosophy of new science, a new way of doing
science using what is known as the scientific method
advocated by Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes among
others.
• The desire to break away from the ideas of the feudal
middle ages and the Aristotelian view.
• The establishments of the universities from the 12th
century which were later engaged in the critical analysis of
the Aristotelean views.
SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY | INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION
INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION
• The Renaissance hopeful period of concerned with the
present life as well as the empirical and mundane interest
in the natural world and humanity.
• Important inventions such as mechanical clock, lenses,
telescope, microscope etc.
• The combinations and cooperation’s of the skills of the
craftsmen and the intellectual, computational and logical
method of the scholars.
• Printing press spread new ideas
• Age of Exploration fueled a great deal of scientific
research because of technology needed for navigation
• Translation of the works of Muslim scholars opened the
minds of European thinkers to new scientific knowledge
CAUSES OR GENESIS OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
• Nicolaus Copernicus
o Copernicus was a Polish mathematician and
astronomer who studied in Italy.
o In 1543 Copernicus published De revolutionibus
orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the
Heavenly Spheres).
o In his book, Copernicus made two conclusions: The
universe is heliocentric, or sun-centered.
o The Earth is merely one of several planets revolving
around the sun.
o Copernicus’ model of the solar system:
→ Sun
→ Moon
→ Mercury
→ Venus
→ Earth
→ Mars
→ Jupiter
→ Saturn
o Copernicus came to these conclusions using
mathematical formulas.
o The Copernican conception of the universe marked
the start of modern science and astronomy.
o Up to the time of Copernicus, people thought that
there was a sort of crystal sphere that kept the
planets, moon, and stars in orbit around the Earth. It
was Copernicus that proposed the idea that the Earth
revolved around the sun, and not vice versa. The sun
was the center of the Universe, not the Earth.
o Most scholars rejected Copernicus’s theory.
o Most scholars rejected his theory because it went
against Ptolemy, the Church, and because it called for
the Earth to rotate on its axis.
o Many scientists of the time also felt that if Ptolemy’s
reasoning about the planets was wrong, then the
whole system of human knowledge could be wrong.
• Tycho Brahe
o In the late 1500s, the Danish astronomer Tycho
Brahe provided evidence that supported Copernicus’
heliocentric theory.
o Brahe set up an astronomical observatory.
o Every night for years he carefully observed the sky,
accumulating data about the movement of the stars
and planets.
1
STAS 111: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
February 14, 2023 | Week 4 | Eleonor Trinidad
CAUSES OR GENESIS OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
• Johannes Kepler
o After Brahe’s death, his assistant, the German
astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler,
used Brahe’s data to calculate the orbits of the
planets revolving around the sun. Kepler’s
calculations supported Copernicus’ heliocentric
theory.
o His calculations also showed that the planets moved
in oval shaped orbits, and not perfect circles, as
Ptolemy and Copernicus believed.
o Kepler’s finding help explain the paths followed by
man-made satellites today.
• Galileo Galilei
o Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer who built
upon the scientific foundations laid by Copernicus and
Kepler.
o Galileo assembled the first telescope which allowed
him to see mountains on the moon and fiery spots on
the sun.
o He also observed four moons rotating around Jupiter
exactly the way Copernicus said the Earth rotated
around the sun.
o Galileo also discovered that objects fall at the same
speed regardless of weight.
o The Church punished him for his belief in this idea.
He was questioned by the Inquisition and forced to
confess that his ideas were wrong.
o The Church came against Galileo because it claimed
that the Earth was fixed and unmoving.
o When threatened with death before the Inquisition in
1633, Galileo recanted his beliefs, even though he
knew the Earth moved.
o Galileo was put under house arrest, and was not
allowed to publish his ideas.
• Sir Isaac Newton
o Sir Isaac Newton was an English scholar who built
upon the work of Copernicus and Galileo.
o Newton was the most influential scientist of the
Scientific Revolution.
o He used math to prove the existence of gravity – a
force that kept planets in their orbits around the sun,
and also caused objects to fall towards the earth.
o Newton published his scientific ideas in his book
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.
o He discovered laws of light and color, and formulated
the laws of motion:
→ A body at rest stays at rest
→ Acceleration is caused by force
→ For every action there is an equal opposite reaction
o He invented calculus – a method of mathematical
analysis.
• Charles Darwin
o Studied medicine at Edinburgh, theology at
Cambridge
o Interest in natural history
o Taught by a freed black slave who told him exciting
tales of the South American Rainforest
o Darwin developed the biological theory of evolution
that explains how modern organisms evolved over
long periods of time through descent from common
ancestors
o In 1831, he began a 5-year voyage on the HMS
Beagle that would change his life.
SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY | INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION
INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION
o Darwin observed that the characteristics of many
animals and plants varied noticeably among the
different Galapagos Islands. Among the tortoises, the
shape of the shell corresponds to different habitats.
o Darwin thought about the patterns he’d seen on his
voyage
o He realized that there were many similarities between
the animals he’d seen.
o There was evidence that suggested that species were
not fixed and that they could change by some natural
process.
• Artificial Selection
o To find an explanation for change in nature, Darwin
studied the changes produced by plant and animal
breeders
o Some plants bear larger or smaller fruits than others
o Some cows give more or less milk than others in their
herd
o This told Darwin that variation could be passed from
parents to offspring and used to improve
o crops and livestock
o In artificial selection, nature provides the variations,
and humans select the ones they find useful
o Darwin knew that variation occurs in wild species as
well as domesticated species
o He realized that that natural variation provided the
raw material for evolution
o Darwin wanted to gather as much evidence as he
could to support his ideas before he made them
public
o In 1858, Darwin read an essay by Alfred Wallace
whose thoughts about evolution were almost identical
to his!
o In order to not get “scooped”, Darwin decided to
present his work at a scientific meeting in 1858 along
with some of Wallace’s essay
o The next year, Darwin published his complete work
on evolution: On the Origin of Species
o Struggle for Existence
o From Malthus’ theory of supply and demand, Darwin
reasoned that if more individuals are produced than
can survive, they will have to compete for food, living
space and other necessities of life
o Darwin described this as the struggle for existence
o Variation and Adaptation
o Individuals have natural variations among their
inheritable traits
o Some variations are better suited to life in their
environment than others
o Fast predators capture prey more efficiently
o Prey that are faster, better camouflaged or better
protected avoid being caught.
o Any heritable characteristic that increases an
organisms ability to survive and reproduce in its
environment is called an adaptation
o Examples of Adaptations:
→ Tiger’s claws
→ Camouflage colors
→ Plant structures
→ Avoidance behaviors
2
STAS 111: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
February 14, 2023 | Week 4 | Eleonor Trinidad
CAUSES OR GENESIS OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
• Darwin felt that there must be a connection between an
animal’s environment and how it survives
• Ability to survive and reproduce in a specific environment
is called fitness
• Fitness depends upon how well an organism is suited for
its environment
• Fitness is a result of adaptation
• Good adaptations allow organisms to survive and are
passed on to their offspring.
• Good fitness – Reproduce
• Low Fitness – Few offspring/extinction
• Darwin thought that this seemed very similar to artificial
selection
• He referred to “survival of the fittest” as Natural Selection
• Survival means more than just staying alive. It means
reproducing and passing adaptations on to the next
generation
• Natural Selection – Nature chooses
• Artificial selection – Man chooses
• Favorable characteristics are inherited over several
generations.
• Natural Selection is the process by which organisms with
variations most suited to their local environment survive
and leave more offspring
• Natural Selection occurs in any situation in which more
individuals are born than can survive
• Over time, natural selection results in changes in the
inherited characteristics of a population.
• These changes increase a species’ fitness in its
environment.
• A single “tree of life” links all living things
• This is known as the principle of common descent.
• Darwin argued that living things have been evolving on
Earth for millions of years.
• Today, fields like genetics and molecular biology support
Darwin’s basic ideas about evolution
DARWIN'S FOUR POSTULATES
Individuals within species vary some of these variations
1 are passed on to offspring individuals vary in their ability
to survive and reproduce
2 Individuals with the most favorable adaptations are
more likely to survive and reproduce.
Natural selection produces organisms with different
3 structures than their ancestor, different niches, and new
habitats.
4 Each living species has descended, with changes, over
time.
CAUSES OR GENESIS OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
• Lamarck’s Evolutionary Hypotheses
o Proposed that the use or disuse of organs caused
organisms to gain or lose traits over time.
o These new characteristics could be passed on to the
next generation.
→ Suggest that species are not fixed
→ Explain that evolution uses natural processes
→ Recognize that there is a link between an organism’s
environment and its body structures
→ Lamarck’s work paved the way for later biologists,
including Darwin.
SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY | INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION
INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION
• Thomas Malthus
o In 1798, Thomas Malthus noticed that people were
being born faster than people were dying
o He reasoned that if the human population grew
unchecked, there would not be enough living space
and food for everyone
o The forces that work against human population
growth are war, famine and disease
o He reasoned that what Malthus proposed for human
populations also applied to all living things.
o He observed that most organisms produce many
more offspring than survive.
o He wondered which individuals would survive and
why
o If all the offspring that were produced did survive, they
would overrun the world.
ORGANIC EVOLUTION
• The slow and gradual process by which living organisms
have changed from the simplest unicellular form to the
most complex multi-cellular forms that are existing today.
• Sigmund Freud
o An Austrian Neurologist who became fascinated with
studying hysteria.
o Father of psychoanalysis.
o Psychology was considered more of an art rather than
a science.
o Psychoanalysis – is the study that explains human
behavior.
LEVEL OF CONCIOUSNESS
• Iceberg theory
o Conscious mind – like the top of the iceberg, only a
small portion of our mind is accessible to us.
o Preconscious mind – material that is unconscious,
but can be easily brought into awareness. Moves
back & forth easily between conscious &
unconscious.
o Unconscious mind – is completely outside of our
awareness (could produce anxiety if made
conscious).
STRUCTURES OF PERSONALITY
• Id – “pleasure principle” unconscious impulses that want
to be gratified, without regard to potential punishment.
• Original Core of an Individual personality
• Biological Driven
• Primarily Unconscious
• Ego “reality principle”
o Tries to satisfy id impulses while minimizing
punishment & guilt.
o Self-Identity which arises out of ID
o It controls voluntary motion and self- reservation
behavior
• Superego
o the “moral principle” of our personality which tells us
right from wrong our conscience.
o Developing out of the Ego
o Serves as conscience
3
STAS 111: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION
February 14, 2023 | Week 4 | Eleonor Trinidad

TERMINOLOGIES

• Conscious mind – consists of thoughts that focus on the

present state of the mind
• Preconscious mind – consists of what can be retrieved
from the memory
• Subconscious mind – consists of primitive desires,
wishes or impulse which is mediates by the preconscious
mind

SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY | INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION 4