SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY

General, Concepts and Historical Events in Science, Technology and Society

Intellectual Revolutions That Defined Society

LESSON OBJECTIVES

At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

1. Discuss how the ideas postulated by Copernicus, Darwin, Freud contributed to the spark of
scientific revolution; and

2. Analyze how scientific revolution is done in various parts of the world like Latin America, East
Asia, Middle East, and Africa.

Scientific Revolution

1. Science as an idea. It includes ideas, theories, and all available systematic explanations and
observations about the natural and physical world.

2. Science as an intellectual activity. It encompasses a systematic a practical study of the natural and
physical world. This process of study involves systematic observation and experimentation.

3. Science as a personal and social activity. This explains that science is both knowledge and activities
done by human beings to develop better understanding of the world around them. It is a means to
improve life and to survive in life. It is interwoven with peoples lives.

4. Science as a body of knowledge. It is the subject or a discipline, a field of study, or a body of

knowledge that deals with the process of learning bout natural and physical world.

Human beings have embarked in scientific activities in order to know and understand everything around
them. They have persistently observed and studied the natural and physical world in order to find meanings
and seek answers to many questions. They have developed new ideas, later known as philosophy, to provide
alternative or possible explanations to certain phenomena. Humans also used religion to rationalize the
origins of life and all lifeless forms.

The idea of scientific revolution is claimed to have started in the early 16th up to the 18th century in Europe.
Why in Europe? The probable answer is the invention of the printing machine and the blooming intellectual
activities done in various places of learning and the growing number of scholars in the various fields of human
interests.

This does not mean, however, that science is a foreign idea transported from other areas of the
globe. Anyone who can examine the history of science, technology, medicine, and mathematics is aware that
all great civilizations of the ancient world had their own sophisticated traditions and activities related to
these disciplines.

Scientific revolution was the period of enlighten when the developments in the fields of mathematics,
physics, astronomy, biology and chemistry transformed the views of society about nature. It explained the
emergence or birth of modern science as a result of these developments from the disciplines mentioned. The
ideas generated during this period enabled the people to reflect, rethink, and reexamine their beliefs and
their way of life. There is no doubt that it ignited vast human interest to rethink and reexamine their beliefs
and their way of life.

Scientific revolution was the golden age for people committed to scholarly life in science but it was
also a deeply trying moment 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. Some rules
and religious leaders did not accept many of the early works of scientists. But these did not stop people
especially scientists to satisfy their curiosity of the natural and physical world.

Scientific revolution is very significant in the development of human beings, transformation society, and in
the formulation of scientific ideas. It significantly improved the conduct of scientific investigations,
experiments and observations. The scientific revolutions also led to the creation of new research fields in
science and prompted the establishment of a strong foundation for modern science. In many ways, scientific
revolution transformed the natural world and the world of ideas.

Some Intellectual and their Revolutionary

To further understand what exactly happened during the scientific revolution, it is important to examine the
different individuals whose ideas have shaken and contested the dominant theories and ideas during this
period - the truths of their time. Scientist in all periods of time are driven by their curiosity, critical thinking,
and creativity to explore the physical and the natural world. Their love for Science is driven by their passion
to know and to discover.

The Scientific Revolution is a term commonly referring to the transformation of thought about nature
through which the Aristotelian tradition was replaced by so-called "modern" science.

Scientist are not driven by clamor for honor and publicity. They are ordinary people doing extraordinary
things. Some Scientists were never appreciated during their times, some were sentenced to death, while
others were condemned by the Church during their time. In spite of all the predicaments and challenges they
experienced, they never stopped experimenting, theorizing, discovering new knowledge and ideas

Nicolaus Copernicus
 For nearly 2000 years, civilization and astronomy was dominated by
the Aristotle and Ptolemaic model of the universe

 He was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, and feared

persecution and heresy.

 He was interested in

astronomy and

science from a

young age

Astronomy of the time was based on Ptolemy’s model of Aristotle’s universe

 The Copernican model was heliocentric  sun centered.

 His model explained the retrograde motion of some planets from Earth’s perspective. This was
because the Earth orbits the sun faster than some planets and slower than others.

 Copernicus still believed in the theory of uniform circular motion, like Aristotle, even though he
recognized it did not precisely describe planetary motion.

 Never-the-less, Copernicus hypothesis that the “universe” (known at the time) was heliocentric was
correct.

 Even though it was different from what we now know to be correct.

 The Copernican Revolution was a gradual recognition that the Earth was not the center of the universe

 It changed the paradigm scientists used.

 Paradigm – a set of scientific ideas and assumptions

 This “revolution” has helped change our views

of our place in the universe, by making us not
necessarily the most important part of it, and
helping humanity realize that we are a part of
the universe, but not the biggest part.

Charles Darwin(February 12, 1809 – April 19, 1882)

Education
Discovering His Passion
 Studied medicine at Edinburgh, theology at Cambridge
 Interest in natural history
 Taught by a freed black slave who told him exciting tales of the South American
Rainforest

HMS Beagle
 Took five years, two-thirds of which Darwin spent on land.
 Collected an enormous number of specimens, many of them new to science.
HMS Beagle Discoveries
 Galápagos: collected birds, noted that mockingbirds differed depending on which
island they came from.
 Transmutation: creatures new to islands become altered in some way to
form new species.

Evolutionary Theory
1. Evolution did occur.
2. Evolutionary change is gradual, requiring thousands to millions of years.
3. The primary mechanism for evolution is natural selection.
  The survival or extinction of each organism is determined by that organism's
ability to adapt to its environment.
4. Evolution by common descent is the dominant scientific explanation of
diversification in nature.

On the Origin of Species Religious Atmosphere

 Never once uses the word “evolution,” instead refers to his theory as “descent
with modification.”
 Proclaimed himself “the Devil’s Chaplain.”
Publishing the theory felt “like confessing a murder.”
Darwin’s ImpactReligion
 We may now dismiss this most powerful reason for believing in God.
 Richard Dawkins: “I could not imagine being an atheist before 1859, when
Darwin’s Origin of Species was published. . . Darwin made it possible to be
an intellectually fulfilled atheist”
Darwin’s ImpactPhilosophy
Man is the consequence of a series of improbable events
Emancipation of science from philosophy
Changed our perceptions with an argument entirely outside the framework of classical
philosophy.
Darwin’s Impact Society
Revelations about Race
Eugenics
Social Darwinism

Other Contributions to Science The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
 Published in 1872.
 Focused on the evolution of human psychology and its continuity with the behavior of animals.
 The human mind and cultures were developed by natural and sexual selection
Later Life Overwork, Illness, and Death

 Plagued by illness for over 20 years until his death.

  Buried in Westminster Abbey next to Isaac Newton

Sigmund FreudPsychology
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
-Austrian, doctor
-father of psychoanalysis
One of the first psychologists to study human motivation
-Psychiatry vs. Psychology
-up until 20th century frontal lobotomies were performed on patients

Freud-believed that mental illness is a result of nurture, not nature.

He asked the question:
“What makes people do things?”
Answer: MOTIVATION
Needs motivate human behavior (food, shelter, clothing…)

Maslow's hierarchy of human needs. (From Maslow, A. (1970}. Motivation and personality (2nd ed.). New
York: Harper & Row; reprinted by permission of Harper Collins Publishers.)
Being deprived of a need arouses a feeling called a DRIVE OR DESIRE. Animals respond
instinctively, humans learn various ways to respond.
Human motivation explains the reasons why people behave the way they do.
People have DRIVES OR DESIRES in the back of their minds
ie: Will to live, will to die
Some of these desires cause people to behave irrationally

People are born with a certain number of instincts or DRIVES (human instinctive
behavior)
The human mind has 3 aspects which influence behaviour:

E
ID- unconconscious part of the mind g
(this part of the mind seeks to bring us pleasure) Superego
o
-primitive parts of our personality including
aggression and sexual drives Id
EGO-conscious part of the mind (Rational Self). Decides what action to take for positive
means and what to do based on what is believed is the right thing to do. Aware of reality.
SUPEREGO- unconscious part of the mind that
acts as our conscience. Reminds us of what we should do.
The ID and the SUPEREGO are in constant conflict. Your DRIVE tells you to do one thing
, while SOCIETY tells you to do something else.
If you don’t resolve this conflict between the ID and the EGO, you may experience
unhappiness or mental distress.
Thus, in order to understand motivation, you must understand what is in your
unconscious memory. This is the basis for PSYCHOANALYSIS.
Psychoanalysis has as its core the idea that each of us has an unconscious part whose
existence, activities and thoughts are hidden behind a mental barrier that we cannot
voluntarily remove. Behind this barrier are repressed and psychologically dangerous
thoughts that give rise to unconscious conflicts, which in turn, can result in psychological
and physical symptoms.”