LESSON 1: HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
NOTES:
● QUANTUM MEANS FIXED
● SCIENCE IS SYSTEMATIC
● OBSERVATION CAN PROVE IF #
IS TRUE
● EXPERIMENT IS CONDUCTED
TO ANSWER AND SOLVE
QUESTIONS
● “Metacognition”, means
“thinking about your own
thinking”.
Science is not a single idea; it is not as
stable as other disciplines are. It covers
compounding contributions of different
natural philosophers and scientists all
throughout history.
ATOMIC MODEL AND THEORY
TIMELINE
DEMOCRITUS - DALTON - THOMSON -
RUTHERFORD - BOHR - CHADWICK -
MODERN
DEMOCRITUS - ATOMS
DALTON - DALTON VIEWS ATOMS AS
TINY SOLID BALLS.
THOMSON - HIS ATOMIC MODEL WAS
KNOWN AS THE RAISIN BUN MODEL.
PLUM PUDDING.
RUTHERFORD - HE DISCOVERED
PROTONS AND NUCLEUS
BOHR - HE IMPROVED RUTHERFORD’S
MODEL. PLANETARY MODEL.
CHADWICK - DISCOVERED NEUTRONS
WHILE WORKING WITH RUTHERFORD.
QUANTUM MODEL.
MODERN - IN THE MODERN MODEL,
ELECTRONS ARE MOVING AROUND
THE NUCLEUS.
“NULLIUS IN VERBA” = “no one’s word”
In 1660, a group of knowledge makers
founded the “College for the Promoting
of Physico-mathematical Experiential
Learning”, this was later re-founded in
1663 as “The Royal Society of London
for the Improvement of Natural
Knowledge.”
“Societies Philosophical Transactions”
– it is one of the world’s oldest peer-
reviewed scientific journals.
In fact, the word “science” was only
termed just recently in 1840 by William
Whewell, an English scientist who also
served as a historian and a priest.
NATURAL PHILOSOPHERS TO
SCIENTIST
The history of science includes more types
of people from different parts of the world.
The history of science aims to show the
different worlds of knowledge that will
serve as lenses in viewing our relatively
evolving science. Each systems has
social norms which gives account on what
is a valid way to make and share the
generated knowledge in order to have a
global science perspective.
Humanity is still historically crafting our
understanding of the world. This discipline
also serves as a lens of the science of the
past, that science of the past is also
influenced by religion, because of its
unifying quest in the never-ending attempt
of humans in searching for the truth.
PERRENIAL TRUTH =
Humans have numerical attempts to
describe the natural world because it is
wonderful and fascinating to know, and to
control it. This boils down to the saying
“knowledge is power”, the knowledge of
knowing how things work and why thing
exists gives the bearer power, which is why
one must study the history of science.

The history of science, highlights
understanding of what is good and bad,
and what should be the acceptable
behavior of scientists and engineers in
facing the future based on the learnings
of the past.
It aims to answer the questions on “how
science and technology shaped society,
and vice versa?”, and “how to science
things out?”
LESSON 2: THE ALCHEMIST
Alchemy wasn’t a practice of magic as
many thought it was, “Alchemists”, people
involved in the practice of alchemy, were
experimentally skilled and theorists of
understanding and answering the perennial
question, “What is matter?”
The field of chemistry, known to be the
central science, came from the word
“alchemy”, which might mean “black
earth”, that symbolizes the rich and fertile
lands of Egypt, the land of “Khem”.
Alchemy is a philosophical manner of
thinking about the material world and
changing it.
Alchemists wrote different books and
published them but using allegorical
codes.
It was not publicly available for the people.
They use code words called Decknamen,
which may mean the words written in their
books were “not what it seems”.
The most known alchemical practice
transcribed in many alchemical books was
focused on transmutation or changing
materials into a new form.
There are two kinds of alchemical metals:
Noble metals – Gold (sun) and Silver
(moon)
Base metals – Mercury (mercury), Copper
(Venus), Iron (Mars),
Tin (Jupiter), and Lead (Saturn)
There are also two forms of
transmutations:
Particulars – one transmutation (Ex.
Copper turning to
silver)
Universals – turning anything into new
form.
(Philosopher’s stone) - The Tincture, The
Powder, Materia Prima.
A SUBSTANCE THAT CAN TURN BASE
INTO NOBLE METALS.
ASIAN ALCHEMY
● ELIXIR OF LIFE
● WAIDAN
INDIAN ALCHEMY
● FOCUSED ON NATURAL
MEDICINE AND PRESERVATION
OF HEALTH
● THEIR AYURVEDIC PRACTICE
OF LIFE FOCUSED ON NATURAL
PRODUCTS AND TOXICOLOGY.
Southeast Asian countries like the
Philippines also showed alchemical
practices, the “Babaylans” - spiritual
shamans who specialized in
communicating to spirits, showed
intelligence on the practice of medicine,
scientific crafts, and predicting weather and
seasons.
The Middle-eastern alchemists with the
influence of Aristotelian, Chinese, and
Indian alchemical practices, were more
advanced in the conquest, but they
focused more on mathematics and
understanding the heavens. A Persian
alchemist, Jabir Ibn Hayyan also known
as “Geber '' in Europe was known for
authoring more than three thousand
texts about alchemical practices,
including mineralogy, transmutation,
and medical elixirs, and invented new
equipment.
WHAT HAPPENED TO ALCHEMY?
Since alchemy exhibits elements of
religion and science, and during the 16th
to 18th century, there was an evident
separation of the church and state,
alchemy had to choose between “being a
science” or “being a religion” in order for
the discipline to survive, it chose to “be
science”. - TURNED INTO CHEMISTRY
Alchemy did not completely die out, part
of it lives on in the discipline of the central
science, chemistry. The death of alchemy
is proof that “knowledge kept, dies, but
the knowledge shared, grows.”
Chemistry continues to practice some of its
alchemical roots, but with more scientific
foundation. - SCIENTIFIC METHOD
scientific foundation. - SCIENTIFIC
METHOD
“be science”. - TURNED INTO
CHEMISTRY
LESSON 3 : Natural Philosophers: The
“how’s” and “why’s” of us
Greeks were people of interest and craft,
they practiced natural philosophy, which
means that their practice of intellect was –
“self -conscious inquiry into nature.”
A lot of the Greeks contributed in the
practice of science today, like the art of
“scientific inquiry”, this started off with
their quest on answering important
perennial questions.
Ancient Greek philosophers were not
purely scientists as there was no single
discipline of science then, they didn’t
make detailed or any accurate knowledge
based on observation, but they came up
with many theories that attempts to take
account and answer the “why’s” and
“how’s” in the material world.
They drew red lines between the abstract
and the material
world, attempted to separate the myths
and truths, and the
practice of natural philosophy became a
conquest for abstract
Knowledge.
PRE-SOCRATICS
Before the time of Socrates, there were
many philosophers in the Ancient Greeks
who have taken initiatives to spark
questions on the material world.
“School of thoughts”, which are not literal
physical schools, to spread ideas of the
world.
These schools are a group of students and
teachers that asks and attempts to answer
the questions on the natural world and
reason out. The biggest contribution of the
school is the “rational debates”, in order to
generate knowledge.
THALES
● He was the first European
philosopher that was recorded in
the ancient Greece that contributed
in the crafting of knowledge
● He was known to be first on many
things, one of these was, he was
known to be the first individual to
have made and proved his own
theorem, the Thales’s Theorem
● He believed in separating the
divinities of the gods to the power of
the human intellect, knowledge
became an object, but this doesn’t
mean he was against them, he in
fact believed that things have souls
within them
● He was also regarded as the
founder of the first European
“schools of philosophy” called the
“Milesians”. This School was
 known for its articulate attempts in
explaining the natural and the
material world and started making
theories about them.
● The theories of Thales were later
dismissed by Plato and Aristotle.
ANAXIMANDER
● is also one of the first Greeks to
contribute to the body of
knowledge, he has more recorded
theories than Thales, because he is
also the first European
philosopher to write down his
ideas.
● He believed that the material world
and the natural world is governed
by discoverable laws, he also
introduced the concept of a
formless initial state, called the
“apeiron”.
● He also contributed works on
astronomy, geometry and
mathematics, he was also the one
who introduced the “gnomon”,
which is being used by the Asian
philosophers for over two millennia.
● Anaximander also worked on the
possibility of animal transformation,
which is influenced by the Greeks
myths, this work was one of the
primordial points of starting to ask
the question, “where did we come
from?”, which eventually led to the
theory of evolution.
EMPEDOCLES
● The last great thinker and
philosopher that was said to be
associated with the Milesian
schools was Empedocles.
● Empedocles literally made a book
called “On Nature”, here he formed
his theories on the four classical
elements, the earth, air, fire, and
water, and adding all of this by two
strong forces of love and strife.
● One of the primeval questions of
the philosophers that they
attempted to answer was the
question, “what is matter?”.
PHYTAGORAS
● Pythagoras is one of the most
famous pre-Socratic
philosophers, he studied the
philosophy of the Milesians, but
he was a more abstract thinker.
● He was the one who introduced
idealism in the practice of
science, an idealist like him,
generates abstract models of
perfect materials.
● But his largest contribution known
until today is his math, his idealism
shifted from Egyptian and
Mesopotamian mathematics, which
are practical mathematics, to a
new and pure mathematics, the
geometry.
Pythagoras’s creation of the pure,
elegant and abstract mathematics
became a model of proving systems of
knowledge, which is being used now as
a practice in science to prove a point,
after all “math is the language of
science”, but many also believes that
“mathematics is a separate and
independent body of knowledge.”
DEMOCRITUS
The most known natural philosopher in
the pre-Socratic era that contributed a lot
in the sciences was the first person to
scientifically ask the question “what is
matter?” and “what is matter made off?”
using philosophical approach.
The biggest thread in the Greek of
knowledge was “Atomism”, a theory that
remains a theory until today, but has been
supported through time.
Democritus held the idea of the small
particle that is indestructible, uncreated,
always in motion, and infinite number,
which may be in many forms and sizes. In
his attempt to answer the question, “what is
matter?”, like the Milesians, he was also a
materialist.
To test his hypothesis, he held a bottle filled
with air and placed it under water to prove
that air is made of something as it forms
bubbles – this allowed him to come up of
the theory, but he still had a lot to prove. He
argued with many fellow philosophers Zeno
and Parmenides using the “void
hypothesis”.
SOCRATES
● The urban Athens started in circa
399 BCE, during these era was the
rise of the famous philosopher,
Socrates. He is not a natural
philosopher, he did not even dwell
on studying nature, his studies
was more on politics, morality,
and citizenship. But, he
contributed a lot in the quest of
understanding the universe by
“asking questions”, which
eventually has influenced a lot of
succeeding philosophers in their
manner of teaching their ideas.
● Today, we call it as “Socratic
Method”, the “art of questioning”,
and this method is used in many
disciplines, for science, we call it
“Scientific inquiry method”, this
method involves constantly asking
questions so that the students can
breakdown into the problem, and
eventually create and test their
hypothesis. The Socratic method is
a relevant method used in negative
hypothesis elimination, and
improving the possibilities of what is
right.
● But his biggest contribution in the
history were not books or even
philosophical phrases, his biggest
contribution is “legacy”. Though
Socrates did not directly
contribute to science, he
inspired two icons in classical
Greek philosophy. His student,
Plato, and his student’s student,
Aristotle.
PLATO
● Plato had a great impact on what is
now called “Metacognition”,
means “thinking about your own
thinking”. Until now his
establishment of physical schools
called “academy”, is still being used
to describe philosophical learning
for higher education.
● Plato emphasized in the original
Academy the training on how to
think properly over the door of the
academy. He was inspired by
Pythagoras, thus he based his
philosophy on geometry. He taught
inspired idealism or a theory of
nature based on the abstracts of the
world, he believed of rules that the
material world is a perfect example.
He had to fit his observations to the
theories of idealism rather than the
other way around, this is one of the
major reasons why he was more
regarded as a philosopher than a
scientist, but he’s actually both.
Plato’s system on cosmos was
perfect, he believed that the natural
world is governed by perfect rules,
and believed that all materials were
made of atoms with varied
geometrical shapes, “Platonic
Solids”, each solids createsnsacred
elements,;

Tetrahedron – fire,
Cubes – earth ,
Octahedron – air,
Icosahedrons – water ,
Dodecahedron – whole universe.
His theory of the heavens believes that the
wanderers of the cosmos, both stars and
planets, have a uniform circular motion.
ARISTOTLE
Aristotle is the star student of Plato, is
referred as the only Greek
that has more written philosophies than
him.
Aristotle was a mentee and a rival to
Plato, in terms of philosophy.
Aristotle’s philosophy has more regard on
the common sense, unlike Plato whose
philosophy is abstract, Aristotle’s work is
passed on ideas that are grounded on
empirical evidences, he observed the world
and then explained it, developing his own
theories. This order of operations is being
used by in the practice of modern science.
Aristotle came from Macedonian roots
who studied in the Academy of Plato in
Athens for twenty years, until Plato died.
He later took a very lucrative job as the
tutor of the son of King Philip II of
Macedonia, Alexander the Great.
Alexander expanded the territory of the
state by conquering parts of all three
continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Ironically, Aristotle is known for writing
books on “ethics”, but supported his
student, Alexander the Great, to invade
Persia, kill barbarians, and conquer other
states. He remained teacher and adviser to
Alexander, until “Alex” died in young age,
Aristotle then decided to go back to Athens
and
decided to put up his own school as well,
the “Lyceum”.
Aristotle wrote many of his books and
works on meta-physics, “On the heavens”,
“On the soul” – this book was a primeval
book that married protobiology and
psychology, and the most influential natural
philosophy textbook of Aristotle in his
school is called “Physics”.
Plato saw the world of idealism, while
Aristotle had accepted the some of the
concepts of discord, and that things
naturally messes up, but always trying to
go back to its original
position or situation.
Aristotle trusted the senses, he used it for
his works, such as history of animals, he is
one of the first to write down his
observations of animals and classified
them in their kinds. He also tried to order
the system of the living things, animals,
which led to the development of the
taxonomy. He also attempted to answer the
question “what is life?”, the taxonomy he
created were based on what he called
“system of souls”.
Plants – has the simplest soul, they have
the vegetative soul.
Animals – have a mobility soul, they have
vegetative and sensitive animal souls.
Humans – has the highest form of soul,
combination of vegetative, sensitive and
the rational soul, and these three souls
allows the humans to think and reflect.
His system of classification influenced the
succeeding natural philosophers and
scientists today.
NATURAL PHILOSOPHERS
Both Plato and Aristotle’s views on the
material and natural world influenced many
natural philosophers, they both inspired
centuries of scholars to think about
thinking, observe the laws of nature, and to
reflect on the universe.
The Ancient Greece has indeed
contributed a lot and has rippled through
centuries and across the world. Just like
Egypt, this powerful, and long standing
state of greatness and power came to an
end, the Ancient Greece ended in the
Roman conquest in 146 BCE.
Note:
Socrates - Plato - Aristotle - Alexander
The Great
Plato - academy
Aristotle – lyceum
LESSON 4 - The Engineers: The Artists
GREAT BUILDERS
There were many great builders in the
history of humankind, their strong
infrastructure serves as a portal for the
modern world to have a glimpse of their
lives in the past.
The Egyptians were great builders, they
created measurement mathematics for
construction purposes, they invented the
cubit system and used it to build the
Pyramids of Egypt.
The Babylonians were also great
builders and architects as they built the
Hanging Garden of Babylon during the
time of Nebuchadnezzar as a testament of
power.
The Mesoamericans were also great
builders of temples and houses, like the
concrete construction of the city of
Machu Pichu in Peru.
There were many builders in the world, but
a certain civilization invested their strength
in technology, and building, rather than
reasoning and natural philosophy, the
Romans.
The Romans ended the flourishing growth
of reasoning of ancient Greece as they
conquered the state at around 146 BCE.
The Romans were great builders, they
built many and strong monumental
buildings, roads, bridges, arches, and most
famous domes which still stand today.
They engineered a lot of infrastructures
that were useful for the state, like
aqueducts, that are used to carry tons of
water to quench the thirst of the people
of the state and used for farming.
Roman’s search for knowledge did not
rely on reasoning like the Greeks, they
did not ask the questions, “where are we?”,
“what is matter?” or “when are we?”
Instead, they focused on the question,
“how to apply the knowledge?”
The Greeks' collection of knowledge
obtained by the state on geometry, physics,
astronomy, and even other disciplines
contributed by great natural philosophers
that spread in the Hellenistic world, were
mostly adapted by the Romans.
Aristotle sought knowledge and
classified it in two forms, is it “useful”
or is the knowledge “theoretical”.
TWO FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE
Techne – the root word of “technology”, in
the historical times, the word techne is
associated with the arts – the art of
craftmanship, this also meant that the
practical knowledge can be learned by
doing, and relate to practical world.
Episteme – the root word of
“epistemology”, is considered as the study
of knowledge, this form of knowledge is
mostly associated to science, because
science is abstract.
The Greco-Roman politicians were also
like most of the heads of state today, they
invested on technology and engineering
to build big and strong weapons, for the
Greco- Roman empire, the catapults and
ships are proof of power. In the ancient
Mediterranean times, the people that build
those “war machines” were called
“Architectons” or the “Architects.”
ARCHIMEDES OF SYRACUSE
Since the architects and engineers were
mostly on the art of craftsmanship, they
didn’t have much of a written document to
take account of. But there were famous
Architectons during these times, the most
famous is Archimedes of Syracuse.
Archimedes is a famous mathematician, he
also worked with geometrical proofs, like
the area a circle, infinitesimals, and
exponents. He used his intellect to help the
Greeks fight the Romans by inventing a lot
of war machines.
_________________________________
Today, the practice of construction is
mixing cement, sand and adding water to
build concrete buildings, but this practice
goes back in 150 BCE, as the Roman
engineers began mixing ash, rocks,
water, and lime to build Roman concretes,
this also known as “opus caementitum”.
This material was durable and could be
poured and shaped in different forms, this
technology was used to form domes. The
Pantheon in Rome is covered by 143
foot diameter of dome of concrete that
stood until today.
The Romans found out that the “arches”
are strong supports for weights rather
than straight joints without understanding
forces. This is a big deal if you are trying to
move a really heavy material, like water.
The water during the Roman era was able
to move long distances using “Arch
Aqueducts”. This allowed the city to grow
further in population and in territory. The
Romans also changed their lands in many
ways too, they drained the marches of their
home city using sewer systems which were
called “Cloaca Maxima”, which literally
means, “Big Sewers.”
Their roads became a key to many doors
for the Romans, their builders stepped up
their game and took the art of logistics to a
different level. Look at the map of Rome,
consider the “Apian Way”, the first leg was
built on 312 BCE, using layers of fitted
stones and gravel, it started from Rome
southeast, through “heel” of Italy, it
connected the several towns and cities
across the region of the peninsula.
The Apian way became an open door for
the Roman troops to efficiently crush their
enemies, and then further expanded. It is
one of the many well preserved
infrastructures of Rome that lasted up to
date. Their roads crisscrossed along parts
of Africa, Asia, and Europe, as the old
saying goes, “All roads, lead to Rome”.
“Flavian Amphitheater”, the
“Colosseum”.
The most known infrastructure of the
Roman empire today that flooded
blood for many years is the “Flavian
Amphitheater”, the “Colosseum”. It had a
retractable roof, this was manned by sailors
who used complicated rigging in order to
move the canvas covering the viewers.
Sometimes, the engineers had to flood the
colosseum to allow naval battles to be
viewed.
Public works were for Romans, before the
industrial revolution in the 19th century, the
construction of roads, sewer systems, and
other infrastructures required a lot of
materials and laborers, slaves.
One out of three people in Rome, Italy,
were enslaved, the Roman slaves involved
highly educated people like engineers and
even physicians, their knowledge-based
constructions were still standing today.
Though they could buy their freedom to
become voting citizens, many still
remained as slaves.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio wrote about
architectures, buildings and urban planning
and engineering also involved
understanding of human systems, he
inspired De Vinci’s Vitruvian man. His
architecture sums up the concepts about
the obtained and flourishing knowledge
during the Hellenistic era and the Greco-
Roman world. His technical manuals were
focused with the harmonie of the human
bodies as well as the management of the
cities.
There were many great builders, the
engineers of the
past were able to create a portal for the
people today
to visit the past by seeing their works.
The Greco-Roman architecture and
engineering still
stands today, it is a testament of the
impact of
science and technology to social,
economic and
political power.
LESSON 5 - The Scientists: Version 2.0
The “Scientific Method”, is not necessarily
a step by step process that only follows one
flow of direction to obtain a conclusion.
There is no single method of pursuit in
seeking scientific knowledge, but scientific
methods should possess basic principles of
seeking knowledge; rationality,
experimentation, ruthless self-examination.
The development of the “Scientific Method”
is given credit to three great intellectuals
who took part in the pursuit of knowledge.
GALILEO GALILEI
• Born in 1564, is an Italian scientist who
largely took part in the cosmological
understanding of the world view today.
• In 1609, he re-invented the telescope
and used it as an instrument that changed
astronomy today. Upon his observation of
the universe using technology of telescope,
he developed his support to the
heliocentric view.
• In 1611, he became vocal to his stand
on the cosmological understanding of
the world and supported heliocentrism,
so he was called by the church for
inquisition.
• He stated that the bible and nature do not
disagree with another, the bible is the word
for the people, a guide and story on how to
behave and why, while nature is God’s
physical work. He simply stated that
“Science is the uncovering of God’s work”.
• Though Galilei was a faithful man, the
church did not believe him.
• And in 1616, the church banned all the
studies on the cosmos pertaining
to heliocentrism.
• In 1623, by this time he published the
“Assayer” where he strongly stated that
scientists should be free to do their
works, that God moves the heavens in
many ways, so the source of ultimate
truth will always be faith.
Galilei’s message opened the “Dialogue of
the Two Chief Systems of the Cosmos” in
1632, he stood for Heliocentrism, which did
not match Geocentrism.
The dialogue did not end well so he was
called for inquisition, and in 1633 he
was house arrested for the rest of his
life.
Isolation did not stop Galilei and continued
“Sciencing” astronomy, physics, and other
fields of science.
FRANCIS BACON
• Born in London in 1561, also shares
credit in the development of the
scientific method. He proposed that there
should be a whole new approach to
science, which should be practical,
instrumental, and supported by the state.
• He wanted a new replacement system of
understanding natural philosophy by
wrapping up all the fields of natural
philosophies.
• He also believed science should not be
based on the Aristotelian method of
seeking scientific knowledge by rational
argumentation, instead, it should be
experimentally proven.
• Natural philosophy should be used to
improve the well-being of humanity by
leading to technological advances.
• Francis Bacon wanted to understand the
natural world to control it by means of
“useful art” – techne – like the development
of the gun powder, silk, and the printing
press from understanding the basic
knowledge.
• He wanted to focus on “useful
knowledge”.
• He believed that a natural philosopher
should have first-hand experience in the
experimentation and test the important
questions without relying on the words of
the long-dead Greek and Arabic
Philosophers.
Solomon’s House
The world of science must have a central
planning and support system, and that it
should be a program or a system that works
for the public good.
In 1626, he published his book “New
Atlantis” where he outlined his own
vision of a utopic scientific society.
He proposed developing a hub for
intellectual work, a super university which
will be called as the “Solomon’s House”,
here all personnel (exclusively all male)
would be segregated to specific roles.
The Traveler – They will travel the world to
gather facts.
The Experimentalist – They will conduct
experiment to create new facts.
The Book Worm – Extract facts from the
books which will be submitted to the
experimentalists to test it.
The Analyzer – All results of the
experiment will be submitted to them and
will be analyzed.
The Interpreters of Nature – Composed
of three men who will take all the facts and
use them to produce new “axioms”, new
truth.
The Benefactors – The “Dowry-men” will
use the new axioms to put it in practical
use, the people of techne.
RENE DESCARTES
Born in central France in 1596, but he lived
most of his time in the Netherlands. He
is known as one of the founding figures of
modern mathematics, modern
philosophy, and he bridged geometry
and algebra, this allowed him to develop
“cartesian coordinates”.
Having heard of what had happened to
Galileo in 1633 of being house arrested, he
stopped publishing his own book
supporting Heliocentrism, “Le Monde”,
or “The World”. He did come up with a new
cosmological idea based on Heliocentrism
which featured a chaotic moving aethereal
fluid where the planets and stars are
suspended, instead of spheres.
In 1637, Descartes published his book
called “Discourse on the Method”, which
was his major contribution in the history of
scientific knowledge. He started from the
very beginning with a very abstract
question, “how do we know what we
know?”. This question became the core of
the philosophy of epistemology, and
until today, philosophers still debate
Descartes' question on the origin of
knowledge.
Descartes wanted to challenge the king of
philosophy, Aristotle, and his attack on him
boils down to his two arguments.
Two major arguments of Descartes to
Aristotle
Knowledge is obtained through the
senses, which lacks absolute certainty,
because the senses often deceive us.
Human reason can also be deceived.
Logical conclusions from false
premises will lead you to wrong
answers.
He used mathematics, and only
mathematics as a way towards proof in
order to explain the natural world. He used
the “Systematic doubting” method,
simply doubting yourself on what you
really know.
The “Scientific Method” was born, and the
founding members of the royal society
pointed these three as their inspirations.
Scientists were not called “scientists” until
1840, the term was coined by William
Whewell, an English scientist who also
served as a historian and a priest. There
were many scientists that contributed a lot
in the scientific body of knowledge.
These three great thinkers were the
major contributors to the scientific way
of understanding the natural world.
Galileo Galilei is an experimentalist, he
focused on the independent rationality and
comparison on theories about the natural
world.
Francis Bacon is a practical thinker, he
focused on experimentation and social
norms in promoting scientific research.
Rene Descartes is a pure philosopher,
who promoted always asking yourself on
“how sure you are on what you know?”.
• Science is not a one man team, it is a
contribution of different people from
different times and different fields in
order to understand and explain the
natural and the material world.
• The questions on “what is matter?”,
“where are we?”, “when are we?”,
“what is life?” and the “how’s” and
“why’s”, are questions that goes back
to the alchemists, natural philosophers,
and even engineers of the ancient times,
and until today, we still ask those
question.