Editing Scientific Revolution

{{Short description|Emergence of modern science in the early modern period}}
{{About|a period in the history of science|the process of scientific progress via revolutions, proposed by [[Thomas Kuhn]]|Paradigm shift}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox historical event
  |Event_Name     = Scientific Revolution
  |partof =
  |Image_Name     = File:Jan Matejko-Astronomer Copernicus-Conversation with God.jpg
  |Imagesize      = 250px
  |Image_Alt      = 
  |Image_Caption  = ''[[Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God]]'' by [[Jan Matejko]], 1873
  |Thumb_Time     = 
  |AKA            = 
  |Participants   = 
  |Location       = Europe
  |Date           = 1543–1687
  |nongregorian   = 
  |Deaths         = 
  |Result         = [[Copernican Revolution]]<br>[[Age of Enlightenment]]
  |URL            = 
}}
The '''Scientific Revolution''' was a series of events that marked the [[emergence]] of [[History of science|modern science]] during the [[early modern period]], when developments in [[History of mathematics#Mathematics during the Scientific Revolution|mathematics]], [[History of physics#Scientific Revolution|physics]], [[History of astronomy#Renaissance Period|astronomy]], [[History of biology#Renaissance and early modern developments|biology]] (including [[History of anatomy|human anatomy]]) and [[History of chemistry#17th and 18th centuries: Early chemistry|chemistry]] transformed the views of society about nature.<ref name="Galileo">Galilei, Galileo (1974) ''Two New Sciences'', trans. [[Stillman Drake]], (Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Pr. pp. 217, 225, 296–67.</ref><ref name="Moody">{{cite journal|author=Moody, Ernest A.|year=1951|title=Galileo and Avempace: The Dynamics of the Leaning Tower Experiment (I)|journal=Journal of the History of Ideas|volume=12|issue=2|pages=163–93|doi=10.2307/2707514|jstor=2707514}}</ref><ref name="Clagett">Clagett, Marshall (1961) ''The Science of Mechanics in the Middle Ages''. Madison, Univ. of Wisconsin Pr. pp. 218–19, 252–55, 346, 409–16, 547, 576–78, 673–82</ref><ref>[[Anneliese Maier|Maier, Anneliese]] (1982) "Galileo and the Scholastic Theory of Impetus", pp. 103–23 in ''On the Threshold of Exact Science: Selected Writings of Anneliese Maier on Late Medieval Natural Philosophy''. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Pr. {{ISBN|0-8122-7831-3}}</ref><ref name="Hannam, James 2011 p342">[[#Hannam|Hannam]], p. 342</ref><ref name="Grant" /> The Scientific Revolution took place in Europe in the second half of the [[Renaissance]] period, with the 1543 [[Nicolaus Copernicus]] publication ''[[De revolutionibus orbium coelestium]]'' (''On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres'') often cited as its beginning.<ref>Juan Valdez, The Snow Cone Diaries: A Philosopher's Guide to the Information Age, p 367.</ref> The Scientific Revolution has been called "the most important transformation in human history" since the [[Neolithic Revolution]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Daston |first=Lorraine |date=2015-11-28 |title=The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution by David Wootton review – a big bang moment |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/28/invention-of-science-scientific-revolution-david-wootton-review |access-date=2024-11-14 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

The era of the [[Science in the Renaissance|Scientific Renaissance]] focused to some degree on recovering the knowledge of the ancients and is considered to have culminated in [[Isaac Newton]]'s 1687 publication ''[[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica|Principia]]'' which formulated the [[Newton's laws of motion|laws of motion]] and [[Newton's law of universal gravitation|universal gravitation]],<ref>{{cite web |title=PHYS 200 – Lecture 3 – Newton's Laws of Motion – Open Yale Courses |url=http://oyc.yale.edu/physics/phys-200/lecture-3 |website=oyc.yale.edu |access-date=2 August 2015 |archive-date=30 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230930201050/https://oyc.yale.edu/physics/phys-200/lecture-3 |url-status=live }}</ref> thereby completing the synthesis of a new [[cosmology]]. The subsequent [[Age of Enlightenment]] saw the concept of a scientific revolution emerge in the 18th-century work of [[Jean Sylvain Bailly]], who described a two-stage process of sweeping away the old and establishing the new.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Cohen |first=I. Bernard |year=1976 |title=The Eighteenth-Century Origins of the Concept of Scientific Revolution |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=257–88 |doi=10.2307/2708824 |jstor=2708824}}</ref> There continues to be scholarly engagement regarding the boundaries of the Scientific Revolution and its chronology.

==Introduction==
Great advances in science have been termed "revolutions" since the 18th century. For example, in 1747, the French mathematician [[Alexis Clairaut]] wrote that "[[Isaac Newton|Newton]] was said in his own life to have created a revolution".<ref>
{{Cite journal|first=Alexis-Claude |last=Clairaut|year=1747|title=Du système du Monde, Dans Les Principes de la gravitation universelle}}
</ref> The word was also used in the preface to [[Antoine Lavoisier]]'s 1789 work announcing the discovery of oxygen. "Few revolutions in science have immediately excited so much general notice as the introduction of the theory of oxygen ... Lavoisier saw his theory accepted by all the most eminent men of his time, and established over a great part of Europe within a few years from its first promulgation."<ref>{{cite book|title=History of the inductive sciences|year=1837|first=William |last=Whewell|volume=2|pages=275, 280|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyinductiv05whewgoog#page/n279/mode/2up}}</ref>

In the 19th century, [[William Whewell]] described the revolution in [[science]] itself – the [[scientific method]] – that had taken place in the 15th–16th century. "Among the most conspicuous of the revolutions which opinions on this subject have undergone, is the transition from an implicit trust in the internal powers of man's mind to a professed dependence upon external observation; and from an unbounded reverence for the wisdom of the past, to a fervid expectation of change and improvement."<ref>{{cite book|title=Philosophy of the Inductive sciences|year=1840|first=William |last=Whewell|volume=2|page=318|url=https://archive.org/stream/philosophyinduc04whewgoog#page/n328/mode/2up}}</ref> This gave rise to the common view of the Scientific Revolution today:
{{blockquote|A new view of nature emerged, replacing the Greek view that had dominated science for almost 2,000 years. Science became an autonomous discipline, distinct from both philosophy and technology, and came to be regarded as having utilitarian goals.<ref>
{{cite book|title=Encyclopædia Britannica|chapter=Physical Sciences|edition=15th|volume=25|page=830|year=1993}}</ref>}}

[[File:Galileo Galilei by Ottavio Leoni Marucelliana (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of [[Galileo Galilei]] by [[Ottavio Leoni|Leoni]]]]
[[File:Astronomia Nova.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Astronomia Nova]]'' by [[Johannes Kepler]] (1609)]]
The Scientific Revolution is traditionally assumed to start with the [[Copernican Revolution]] (initiated in 1543) and to be complete in the "grand synthesis" of Isaac Newton's 1687 ''[[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica|Principia]]''. Much of the change of attitude came from [[Francis Bacon]]<ref name="Sweet Briar College">{{cite web |url=http://www.psychology.sbc.edu/Empiricism.htm |title=Empiricism: The influence of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and David Hume |publisher=Sweet Briar College|access-date=21 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130708012140/http://www.psychology.sbc.edu/Empiricism.htm|archive-date=8 July 2013}}</ref> whose "confident and emphatic announcement" in the modern progress of science inspired the creation of scientific societies such as the [[Royal Society]],<ref>Syfret (1948) p. 75</ref> and [[Galileo Galilei|Galileo]] who championed [[Nicolaus Copernicus|Copernicus]] and developed the science of motion.<ref name="Schuster 1996">{{cite book |author-last=Schuster |author-first=John A. |year=1996 |orig-year=1990 |editor1-last=Cantor |editor1-first=Geoffrey |editor2-last=Olby |editor2-first=Robert |editor3-last=Christie |editor3-first=John |editor4-last=Hodge |editor4-first=Jonathon |title=Companion to the History of Modern Science |chapter=Scientific Revolution |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6GIPEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA217 |location=[[Abingdon, Oxfordshire]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |pages=217–242 |isbn=9780415145787}}</ref>

The Scientific Revolution was enabled by advances in book production.<ref>Owen Gingerich, "Copernicus and the Impact of Printing." ''Vistas in Astronomy'' 17 (1975): 201-218.</ref><ref>Anthony Corones, "Copernicus, Printing and the Politics of Knowledge." in ''1543 and All That'' (Springer, Dordrecht, 2000) pp. 271-289.</ref> Before the advent of the [[printing press]], introduced in Europe in the 1440s by [[Johannes Gutenberg]], there was no mass market on the continent for scientific treatises, as there had been for religious books. Printing decisively changed the way scientific knowledge was created, as well as how it was disseminated. It enabled accurate diagrams, maps, anatomical drawings, and representations of flora and fauna to be reproduced, and printing made scholarly books more widely accessible, allowing researchers to consult ancient texts freely and to compare their own observations with those of fellow scholars.<ref name="Martyn Lyons 2011">Martyn Lyons, ''Books: A Living History''. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011, 71.</ref> Although printers' blunders still often resulted in the spread of false data (for instance, in Galileo's ''[[Sidereus Nuncius]]'' (The Starry Messenger), published in Venice in 1610, his telescopic images of the lunar surface mistakenly appeared back to front), the development of engraved metal plates allowed accurate visual information to be made permanent, a change from previously, when woodcut illustrations deteriorated through repetitive use. The ability to access previous scientific research meant that researchers did not have to always start from scratch in making sense of their own observational data.<ref name="Martyn Lyons 2011"/>

In the 20th century, [[Alexandre Koyré]] introduced the term "scientific revolution", centering his analysis on Galileo. The term was popularized by [[Herbert Butterfield]] in his ''Origins of Modern Science''. [[Thomas Kuhn]]'s 1962 work ''[[The Structure of Scientific Revolutions]]'' emphasizes that different theoretical frameworks—such as [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]]'s [[theory of relativity]] and [[Newton's theory of gravity]], which it replaced—cannot be directly compared without meaning loss.

===Significance===
The period saw a fundamental transformation in scientific ideas across mathematics, physics, astronomy, and biology in institutions supporting scientific investigation and in the more widely held picture of the universe.<ref name="Schuster 1996"/> The Scientific Revolution led to the establishment of several modern sciences. In 1984, [[Joseph Ben-David]] wrote:

{{blockquote|Rapid accumulation of knowledge, which has characterized the development of science since the 17th century, had never occurred before that time. The new kind of scientific activity emerged only in a few countries of Western Europe, and it was restricted to that small area for about two hundred years. (Since the 19th century, scientific knowledge has been assimilated by the rest of the world).<ref>{{Cite book  | last = Hunt  | first = Shelby D.  | title = Controversy in marketing theory: for reason, realism, truth, and objectivity  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=07lchJbdWGgC | publisher = M.E. Sharpe  | year = 2003  | page = 18  | isbn = 978-0-7656-0932-8}}</ref>}}

Many contemporary writers and modern historians claim that there was a revolutionary change in world view. In 1611 English poet [[John Donne]] wrote:
{{blockquote|[The] new Philosophy calls all in doubt,<br />
The Element of fire is quite put out;<br />
The Sun is lost, and th'earth, and no man's wit<br />
Can well direct him where to look for it.<ref>Donne, John ''An Anatomy of the World'', quoted in Kuhn, Thomas S. (1957) ''The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought''. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Pr. p. 194.</ref>}}

Butterfield was less disconcerted but nevertheless saw the change as fundamental:
{{blockquote|Since that revolution turned the authority in English not only of the Middle Ages but of the ancient world—since it started not only in the eclipse of scholastic philosophy but in the destruction of Aristotelian physics—it outshines everything since the rise of Christianity and reduces the Renaissance and Reformation to the rank of mere episodes, mere internal displacements within the system of medieval Christendom.... [It] looms so large as the real origin both of the modern world and of the modern mentality that our customary periodization of European history has become an anachronism and an encumbrance.<ref>Herbert Butterfield, ''[https://archive.org/details/originsofmoderns007291mbp The Origins of Modern Science, 1300–1800]'', (New York: Macmillan Co., 1959) p. viii.</ref>}}

Historian [[Peter Harrison (historian)|Peter Harrison]] attributes Christianity to having contributed to the rise of the Scientific Revolution:
{{blockquote| historians of science have long known that religious factors played a significantly positive role in the emergence and persistence of modern science in the West. Not only were many of the key figures in the rise of science individuals with sincere religious commitments, but the new approaches to nature that they pioneered were underpinned in various ways by religious assumptions. ... Yet, many of the leading figures in the scientific revolution imagined themselves to be champions of a science that was more compatible with Christianity than the medieval ideas about the natural world that they replaced.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Harrison|first1=Peter|title=Christianity and the rise of western science|website=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]|date=8 May 2012|url=http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/05/08/3498202.htm|access-date=28 August 2014|archive-date=9 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180809040202/http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/05/08/3498202.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

==Ancient and medieval background==
[[File:PeuerbachSuperioribus2.png|thumb|[[Ptolemaic system|Ptolemaic model]] of the spheres for [[Venus]], [[Mars]], [[Jupiter]], and [[Saturn]]. [[Georg von Peuerbach]], ''Theoricae novae planetarum'', 1474.]]

{{Further|Aristotelian physics|Science in the Middle Ages}}
The Scientific Revolution was built upon the foundation of [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] learning and science in the Middle Ages, as it had been elaborated and further developed by [[Byzantine science|Roman/Byzantine science]] and [[Science in the medieval Islamic world|medieval Islamic science]].<ref name="Grant">[[#Grant|Grant]], pp. 29–30, 42–47.</ref> Some scholars have noted a direct tie between "particular aspects of traditional Christianity" and the rise of science.<ref>{{citation | last = Noll | first = Mark | author-link = Mark Noll | title = Science, Religion, and A.D. White: Seeking Peace in the "Warfare Between Science and Theology" | publisher = The Biologos Foundation | page = 4 | url = http://biologos.org/uploads/projects/noll_scholarly_essay2.pdf | access-date = 14 January 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150322013257/http://biologos.org/uploads/projects/noll_scholarly_essay2.pdf | archive-date = 22 March 2015 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Citation | last1 = Lindberg | first1 = David C. | author-link = David C. Lindberg | last2 = Numbers | first2 = Ronald L. | author2-link = Ronald L. Numbers | title = God & Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter Between Christianity and Science | place = Berkeley and Los Angeles | publisher = University of California Press | year = 1986 | chapter = Introduction | pages = 5, 12 | isbn = 978-0-520-05538-4 | quote = It would be indefensible to maintain, with [[Reijer Hooykaas|Hooykaas]] and [[Stanley Jaki|Jaki]], that Christianity was fundamentally responsible for the successes of seventeenth-century science.  It would be a mistake of equal magnitude, however, to overlook the intricate interlocking of scientific and religious concerns throughout the century.}}</ref> The "[[Aristotelianism|Aristotelian tradition]]" was still an important intellectual framework in the 17th century, although by that time [[Natural philosophy|natural philosophers]] had moved away from much of it.<ref name="Hannam, James 2011 p342"/> Key scientific ideas dating back to [[classical antiquity]] had changed drastically over the years and in many cases had been discredited.<ref name="Hannam, James 2011 p342"/> The ideas that remained, which were transformed fundamentally during the Scientific Revolution, include:
* [[Aristotle]]'s cosmology that placed the [[Earth]] at the center of a spherical hierarchic [[cosmos]]. The terrestrial and celestial regions were made up of different elements which had different kinds of ''natural movement''.
** The terrestrial region, according to Aristotle, consisted of concentric spheres of the four [[classical element]]s—[[Earth (classical element)|earth]], [[water (classical element)|water]], [[air (classical element)|air]], and [[fire (classical element)|fire]]. All bodies naturally moved in straight lines until they reached the sphere appropriate to their elemental composition—their ''natural place''. All other terrestrial motions were non-natural, or ''violent''.<ref>[[#Grant|Grant]], pp. 55–63, 87–104</ref><ref>[[#Pedersen|Pedersen]], pp. 106–10.</ref>
** The celestial region was made up of the fifth element, [[Aether (classical element)|aether]], which was unchanging and moved naturally with uniform circular motion.<ref>[[#Grant|Grant]], pp. 63–68, 104–16.</ref> In the Aristotelian tradition, astronomical theories sought to explain the observed irregular motion of celestial objects through the combined effects of multiple uniform circular motions.<ref>[[#Pedersen|Pedersen]], p. 25</ref>
* The [[Geocentric model|Ptolemaic model of planetary motion]]: based on the geometrical model of [[Eudoxus of Cnidus]], [[Ptolemy]]'s ''[[Almagest]]'', demonstrated that calculations could compute the exact positions of the Sun, Moon, stars, and planets in the future and in the past, and showed how these computational models were derived from astronomical observations. As such they formed the model for later astronomical developments. The physical basis for Ptolemaic models invoked layers of [[Celestial spheres|spherical shells]], though the most complex models were inconsistent with this physical explanation.<ref>[[#Pedersen|Pedersen]], pp. 86–89.</ref>

Ancient precedent existed for alternative theories and developments which prefigured later discoveries in the area of physics and mechanics; but in light of the limited number of works to survive translation in a period when many books were lost to warfare, such developments remained obscure for centuries and are traditionally held to have had little effect on the re-discovery of such phenomena; whereas the invention of the printing press made the wide dissemination of such incremental advances of knowledge commonplace. Meanwhile, however, significant progress in geometry, mathematics, and astronomy was made in medieval times.

It is also true that many of the important figures of the Scientific Revolution shared in the general [[Renaissance]] respect for ancient learning and cited ancient pedigrees for their innovations. Copernicus,<ref>Kuhn, Thomas (1957) ''The Copernican Revolution''. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Pr. p. 142.</ref> Galileo,<ref name="Galileo" /><ref name="Moody" /><ref name="Clagett" /><ref>{{cite journal|author=Espinoza, Fernando|year=2005|title=An analysis of the historical development of ideas about motion and its implications for teaching|journal=Physics Education|volume=40|issue=2|page=141|bibcode=2005PhyEd..40..139E|doi=10.1088/0031-9120/40/2/002|s2cid=250809354 }}</ref> [[Johannes Kepler]]<ref>
{{cite journal|author=Eastwood, Bruce S. |title=Kepler as Historian of Science: Precursors of Copernican Heliocentrism according to ''De revolutionibus'', I, 10|journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society|volume= 126|year=1982|pages= 367–94}} reprinted in Eastwood, B.S. (1989) ''Astronomy and Optics from Pliny to Descartes,'' London: Variorum Reprints.</ref> and Newton<ref name="rattansi">{{Cite journal|last1=McGuire|first1=J. E.|last2=Rattansi|first2=P.M.|year=1966|title=Newton and the 'Pipes of Pan'|url=http://ls.poly.edu/~jbain/mms/texts/66McGuire%28Pipes%29.pdf|journal=Notes and Records of the Royal Society |volume=21|issue=2|pages=108|doi=10.1098/rsnr.1966.0014|s2cid=143495080|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304064640/http://ls.poly.edu/~jbain/mms/texts/66McGuire(Pipes).pdf|archive-date=4 March 2016}}</ref> all traced different ancient and medieval ancestries for the [[Heliocentrism|heliocentric system]]. In the Axioms Scholium of his ''Principia,'' Newton said its axiomatic [[Newton's laws of motion|three laws of motion]] were already accepted by mathematicians such as [[Christiaan Huygens]], Wallace, Wren and others. While preparing a revised edition of his ''Principia'', Newton attributed his law of gravity and his first law of motion to a range of historical figures.<ref name="rattansi"/><ref name="Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac Newton">{{cite book | last=Newton | first=Isaac | title=Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac Newton|editor1-last=Hall|editor1-first=A.R.|editor2-last=Hall|editor2-first=M.B. | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1962 | pages=310–11 | quote = All those ancients knew the first law [of motion] who attributed to atoms in an infinite vacuum a motion which was rectilinear, extremely swift and perpetual because of the lack of resistance... Aristotle was of the same mind, since he expresses his opinion thus...[in ''Physics'' 4.8.215a19-22], speaking of motion in the void [in which bodies have no gravity and] where there is no impediment he writes: 'Why a body once moved should come to rest anywhere no one can say. For why should it rest here rather than there ? Hence either it will not be moved, or it must be moved indefinitely, unless something stronger impedes it.'}}</ref>

Despite these qualifications, the standard theory of the history of the Scientific Revolution claims that the 17th century was a period of revolutionary scientific changes. Not only were there revolutionary theoretical and experimental developments, but that even more importantly, the way in which scientists worked was radically changed. For instance, although intimations of the concept of [[inertia]] are suggested sporadically in ancient discussion of motion,<ref>{{cite book |first=R. |last=Sorabji |year=2005 |title=The Philosophy of the Commentators, 200–600 AD: Physics |series=G – Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-8988-4 |lccn=2004063547 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0QpQw8JDgQcC&pg=PA348 |page=348 |quote=An impetus is an inner force impressed into a moving body from without. It thus contrasts with purely external forces like the action of air on projectiles in Aristotle, and with purely internal forces like the nature of the elements in Aristotle and his followers.… Impetus theories also contrast with theories of inertia which replaced them in the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries.… Such inertial ideas are merely sporadic in Antiquity and not consciously attended to as a separate option. Aristotle, for example, argues in ''Phys.'' 4.8 that in a vacuum a moving body would never stop, but the possible implications for inertia are not discussed. |access-date=18 November 2020 |archive-date=2 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240102074100/https://books.google.com/books?id=0QpQw8JDgQcC&pg=PA348#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Heath, Thomas L. (1949) ''Mathematics in Aristotle''. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 115–16.</ref> the salient point is that Newton's theory differed from ancient understandings in key ways, such as an external force being a requirement for violent motion in Aristotle's theory.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1119/1.1970872| title = Galileo and the Law of Inertia| journal = American Journal of Physics| volume = 32| issue = 8| pages = 601–608| year = 1964| last1 = Drake | first1 = S. | bibcode = 1964AmJPh..32..601D}}</ref>

==Scientific method==
{{Anchor|Scientific method}}
Under the [[scientific method]] as conceived in the 17th century, natural and artificial circumstances were set aside as a research tradition of systematic experimentation was slowly accepted by the scientific community. The philosophy of using an [[Inductive reasoning|inductive]] approach to obtain knowledge—to abandon assumption and to attempt to observe with an open mind—was in contrast with the earlier, Aristotelian approach of [[deductive reasoning|deduction]], by which analysis of known facts produced further understanding. In practice, many scientists and philosophers believed that a healthy mix of both was needed—the willingness to question assumptions, yet also to interpret observations assumed to have some degree of validity.{{fact|date=April 2023}}

By the end of the Scientific Revolution the qualitative world of book-reading philosophers had been changed into a mechanical, mathematical world to be known through experimental research. Though it is certainly not true that Newtonian science was like modern science in all respects, it conceptually resembled ours in many ways. Many of the hallmarks of modern science, especially with regard to its institutionalization and professionalization, did not become standard until the mid-19th century.{{fact|date=April 2023}}

===Empiricism===
{{main|Empiricism}}
The Aristotelian scientific tradition's primary mode of interacting with the world was through observation and searching for "natural" circumstances through reasoning. Coupled with this approach was the belief that rare events which seemed to contradict theoretical models were aberrations, telling nothing about nature as it "naturally" was. During the Scientific Revolution, changing perceptions about the role of the scientist in respect to nature, the value of evidence, experimental or observed, led towards a scientific methodology in which empiricism played a large role.{{fact|date=April 2023}}

By the start of the Scientific Revolution, empiricism had already become an important component of science and natural philosophy. [[European science in the Middle Ages|Prior thinkers]], including the early-14th-century [[Nominalism|nominalist]] philosopher [[William of Ockham]], had begun the intellectual movement toward empiricism.<ref>[[#Hannam|Hannam]], p. 162</ref> The term British empiricism came into use to describe philosophical differences perceived between two of its founders [[Francis Bacon]], described as empiricist, and [[René Descartes]], who was described as a rationalist. [[Thomas Hobbes]], [[George Berkeley]], and [[David Hume]] were the philosophy's primary exponents who developed a sophisticated empirical tradition as the basis of human knowledge.{{fact|date=April 2023}}

An influential formulation of empiricism was [[John Locke]]'s ''[[An Essay Concerning Human Understanding]]'' (1689), in which he maintained that the only true knowledge that could be accessible to the human mind was that which was based on experience. He wrote that the human mind was created as a ''[[tabula rasa]]'', a "blank tablet," upon which sensory impressions were recorded and built up knowledge through a process of reflection.{{fact|date=April 2023}}

===Bacon's contributions===
[[File:Somer Francis Bacon.jpg|thumb|left|[[Francis Bacon]] was a pivotal figure in establishing the [[scientific method]] of investigation. Portrait by [[Frans Pourbus the Younger]] (1617).]]
The philosophical underpinnings of the Scientific Revolution were laid out by Francis Bacon, who has been called the father of empiricism.<ref name="Sweet Briar College"/> His works established and popularised inductive methodologies for scientific inquiry, often called the ''[[Baconian method]]'', or simply the scientific method. His demand for a planned procedure of investigating all things natural marked a new turn in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, much of which still surrounds conceptions of proper [[methodology]] today.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Principe |first1=Lawrence |title=The Scientific Revolution: A Very Short Introduction |date=28 April 2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-956-741-6 |pages=120–121}}</ref>

Bacon proposed a great reformation of all process of knowledge for the advancement of learning divine and human, which he called ''Instauratio Magna'' (The Great Instauration). For Bacon, this reformation would lead to a great advancement in science and a progeny of inventions that would relieve mankind's miseries and needs. His ''[[Novum Organum]]'' was published in 1620, in which he argues man is "the minister and interpreter of nature," "knowledge and human power are synonymous," "effects are produced by the means of instruments and helps," "man while operating can only apply or withdraw natural bodies; nature internally performs the rest," and "nature can only be commanded by obeying her".<ref name = "Novum Organum" /> Here is an abstract of the philosophy of this work, that by the knowledge of nature and the using of instruments, man can govern or direct the natural work of nature to produce definite results. Therefore, that man, by seeking knowledge of nature, can reach power over it—and thus reestablish the "Empire of Man over creation," which had been lost by [[Fall of man|the Fall]] together with man's original purity. In this way, he believed, would mankind be raised above conditions of helplessness, poverty and misery, while coming into a condition of peace, prosperity and security.<ref>{{Citation | last = Bacon | first = Francis | title = Temporis Partus Maximus | year = 1605}}.</ref>

For this purpose of obtaining knowledge of and power over nature, Bacon outlined in this work a new system of logic he believed to be superior to the old ways of [[syllogism]], developing his scientific method, consisting of procedures for isolating the formal cause of a phenomenon (heat, for example) through eliminative induction. For him, the philosopher should proceed through inductive reasoning from [[fact]] to [[axiom]] to [[Scientific law|physical law]]. Before beginning this induction, though, the enquirer must free his or her mind from certain false notions or tendencies which distort the truth. In particular, he found that philosophy was too preoccupied with words, particularly discourse and debate, rather than actually observing the material world: "For while men believe their reason governs words, in fact, words turn back and reflect their power upon the understanding, and so render philosophy and science sophistical and inactive."<ref>{{Citation | last = Zagorin | first = Perez | title = Francis Bacon | place = Princeton | publisher = Princeton University Press | year = 1998 | page = 84|isbn=978-0-691-00966-7}}</ref>

Bacon considered that it is of greatest importance to science not to keep doing intellectual discussions or seeking merely contemplative aims, but that it should work for the bettering of mankind's life by bringing forth new inventions, even stating "inventions are also, as it were, new creations and imitations of divine works".<ref name="Novum Organum">{{cite web|last= Bacon|first= Francis|title=Novum Organum|title-link= s:Novum Organum}}</ref>{{Page needed | date = January 2014}} He explored the far-reaching and world-changing character of inventions, such as the [[printing press]], [[gunpowder]] and the [[compass]]. Despite his influence on scientific methodology, he rejected correct novel theories such as [[William Gilbert (physician)|William Gilbert]]'s [[magnetism]], Copernicus's heliocentrism, and [[Kepler's laws of planetary motion]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Gillispie|first=Charles Coulston|url=https://archive.org/details/edgeofobjectivit00char|title=The Edge of Objectivity: An Essay in the History of Scientific Ideas|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1960|isbn=0-691-02350-6|page=74|author-link=Charles Coulston Gillispie}}</ref>

===Scientific experimentation===
Bacon first described the [[scientific experimentation|experimental method]].
{{blockquote | There remains simple experience; which, if taken as it comes, is called accident, if sought for, experiment. The true method of experience first lights the candle [hypothesis], and then by means of the candle shows the way [arranges and delimits the experiment]; commencing as it does with experience duly ordered and digested, not bungling or erratic, and from it deducing axioms [theories], and from established axioms again new experiments. | Francis Bacon. ''Novum Organum.'' 1620.<ref>Durant, Will. The Story of Philosophy. Page 101 Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. 1926. {{ISBN|978-0-671-69500-2}}</ref>}}

Gilbert was an early advocate of this method. He passionately rejected both the prevailing Aristotelian philosophy and the [[Scholasticism|scholastic]] method of university teaching. His book ''[[De Magnete]]'' was written in 1600, and he is regarded by some as the father of [[electricity]] and magnetism.<ref>[[Merriam-Webster]] Collegiate Dictionary, 2000, CD-ROM, version 2.5.</ref> In this work, he describes many of his experiments with his model Earth called the [[terrella]]. From these experiments, he concluded that the Earth was itself magnetic and that this was the reason [[compass]]es point north.{{fact|date=April 2023}}

[[File:Gilbert De Magnete Illo044.jpg|thumb|left|Diagram from [[William Gilbert (astronomer)|William Gilbert]]'s ''[[De Magnete]]'', a pioneering 1600 work of experimental science]]
''De Magnete'' was influential because of the inherent interest of its subject matter as well as for the rigorous way in which Gilbert describes his experiments and his rejection of ancient theories of magnetism.<ref>Gimpel, Jean (1976) ''The Medieval Machine: The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages''. New York, Penguin. {{ISBN|0-7607-3582-4}}. p. 194.</ref> According to [[Thomas Thomson (chemist)|Thomas Thomson]], "Gilbert['s]... book on magnetism published in 1600, is one of the finest examples of inductive philosophy that has ever been presented to the world. It is the more remarkable, because it preceded the ''Novum Organum'' of Bacon, in which the inductive method of philosophizing was first explained."<ref>Thomson, Thomas (1812) [https://books.google.com/books?id=nqjjR4Qt9IgC ''History of the Royal Society: from its Institution to the End of the Eighteenth Century''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221208081358/https://books.google.com/books?id=nqjjR4Qt9IgC& |date=8 December 2022 }}. R. Baldwin. p. 461</ref>

Galileo Galilei has been called the "father of modern [[observational astronomy]],"<ref>{{Cite journal|title = A Short History of Science to the Nineteenth Century|first = Charles|last = Singer|year = 1941|publisher = Clarendon Press|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=mPIgAAAAMAAJ|page = 217|access-date = 23 March 2023|archive-date = 26 March 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164811/https://books.google.com/books?id=mPIgAAAAMAAJ|url-status = live}}</ref> the "father of modern physics,"<ref>{{cite book |title=Renaissance Genius: Galileo Galilei & His Legacy to Modern Science |first1=David |last1=Whitehouse |publisher=Sterling Publishing Company |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4027-6977-1 |page=219 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bGKrPVoQY8QC&pg=PA219 |access-date=7 November 2015 |archive-date=2 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240102074054/https://books.google.com/books?id=bGKrPVoQY8QC&pg=PA219#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> the "father of science,"<ref>{{cite book |title=The Mathematical Theory of Elasticity |edition=2nd |first1=Richard B. |last1=Hetnarski |first2=Józef |last2=Ignaczak |publisher=CRC Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4398-2888-5 |page=3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=18CYMW-CG_gC&pg=PA3 |access-date=7 November 2015 |archive-date=2 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240102074010/https://books.google.com/books?id=18CYMW-CG_gC&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> and "the Father of Modern Science."<ref name=finocchiaro2007>{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.2007.00189_68.x|title=The Person of the Millennium: The Unique Impact of Galileo on World History ? By Manfred Weidhorn|journal=The Historian|volume=69|issue=3|page=601|year=2007|last1=Finocchiaro|first1=Maurice A.|s2cid=144988723}}</ref> His original contributions to the science of motion were made through an innovative combination of experiment and mathematics.<ref>[[#Sharratt|Sharratt]], pp. 204–05</ref> Galileo was one of the first modern thinkers to clearly state that the laws of nature are mathematical. In ''[[The Assayer]]'' he wrote "Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe&nbsp;... It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures;...."<ref>{{cite book |last=Drake |first=Stillman |date=1957 |title=Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo |location=New York |publisher=[[Doubleday & Company]] |isbn=978-0-385-09239-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/discoveriesopini00gali_0/page/237 237–38] |url=https://archive.org/details/discoveriesopini00gali_0/page/237 }}</ref> His mathematical analyses are a further development of a tradition employed by late scholastic natural philosophers, which Galileo learned when he studied philosophy.<ref>Wallace, William A. (1984) ''Galileo and His Sources: The Heritage of the Collegio Romano in Galileo's Science,'' Princeton: Princeton Univ. Pr. {{ISBN|0-691-08355-X}}</ref> He ignored Aristotelianism. In broader terms, his work marked another step towards the eventual separation of science from both philosophy and religion; a major development in human thought. He was often willing to change his views in accordance with observation. In order to perform his experiments, Galileo had to set up standards of length and time, so that measurements made on different days and in different laboratories could be compared in a reproducible fashion. This provided a reliable foundation on which to confirm mathematical laws using inductive reasoning.{{fact|date=April 2023}}

Galileo showed an appreciation for the relationship between mathematics, theoretical physics, and experimental physics. He understood the [[parabola]], both in terms of [[conic section]]s and in terms of the [[Abscissa and ordinate|ordinate]] (y) varying as the square of the abscissa (x). Galilei further asserted that the parabola was the theoretically ideal [[trajectory]] of a uniformly accelerated projectile in the absence of [[friction]] and other disturbances. He conceded that there are limits to the validity of this theory, noting on theoretical grounds that a projectile trajectory of a size comparable to that of the Earth could not possibly be a parabola,<ref>[[#Sharratt|Sharratt]], pp. 202–04</ref> but he nevertheless maintained that for distances up to the range of the artillery of his day, the deviation of a projectile's trajectory from a parabola would be only very slight.<ref>[[#Sharratt|Sharratt]], 202–04</ref><ref>{{Cite book|ref= Reference-Favaro-1890|editor-last= Favaro|editor-first= Antonio|date= 1890–1909|title= Le Opere di Galileo Galilei, Edizione Nazionale|url= http://moro.imss.fi.it/lettura/LetturaWEB.DLL?VOL=8&VOLPAG=274|volume= 8|pages= 274–75|trans-title= The Works of Galileo Galilei, National Edition|language= it|place= [[Florence]]|publisher= Barbera|isbn= 978-88-09-20881-0|access-date= 20 July 2014|archive-date= 27 September 2007|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070927232006/http://moro.imss.fi.it/lettura/LetturaWEB.DLL?VOL=8&VOLPAG=274|url-status= live}}</ref>

===Mathematization===
Scientific knowledge, according to the Aristotelians, was concerned with establishing true and necessary causes of things.<ref>Dear, Peter (2009) ''Revolutionizing the Sciences''. Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|0-691-14206-8}}. pp. 65–67, 134–38.</ref> To the extent that medieval natural philosophers used mathematical problems, they limited social studies to theoretical analyses of local speed and other aspects of life.<ref>[[#Grant|Grant]], pp. 101–03, 148–50.</ref> The actual measurement of a physical quantity, and the comparison of that measurement to a value computed on the basis of theory, was largely limited to the mathematical disciplines of astronomy and [[optics]] in Europe.<ref>[[#Pedersen|Pedersen]], p. 231.</ref><ref name="astronomies">McCluskey, Stephen C. (1998) ''Astronomies and Cultures in Early Medieval Europe''. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr. pp. 180–84, 198–202.</ref>

In the 16th and 17th centuries, European scientists began increasingly applying quantitative measurements to the measurement of physical phenomena on the Earth. Galileo maintained strongly that mathematics provided a kind of necessary certainty that could be compared to God's: "...with regard to those few [mathematical [[theorem|propositions]]] which the human intellect does understand, I believe its knowledge equals the Divine in objective certainty..."<ref>{{cite book |last=Galilei |first=Galileo |author-link=Galileo Galilei |title=Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems |title-link=Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems |publisher=University of California Press |others=Translated by [[Stillman Drake]] |year=1967 |edition=2nd |place=Berkeley |page=[https://archive.org/details/dialogueconcerni0000gali/page/103 103] |orig-year=Composed in 1632}}

* In the 1661 translation by [[Thomas Salusbury (translator)|Thomas Salusbury]]: "... the knowledge of those few comprehended by humane understanding, equalleth the divine, as to the certainty objectivè ..." p. 92 (from the [http://archimedes.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/toc/toc.cgi?page=92;dir=galil_syste_065_en_1661;step=textonly Archimedes Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110512190415/http://archimedes.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/toc/toc.cgi?page=92;dir=galil_syste_065_en_1661;step=textonly|date=12 May 2011}})
* In the original Italian: "... ma di quelle poche intese dall'intelletto umano credo che la cognizione agguagli la divina nella certezza obiettiva, poiché arriva a comprenderne la necessità ..." (from the copy at the [[wikisource:it:Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo tolemaico e copernicano/Giornata prima|Italian Wikisource]])</ref>

Galileo anticipates the concept of a systematic mathematical interpretation of the world in his book ''[[The Assayer|Il Saggiatore]]'':

{{blockquote|Philosophy [i.e., physics] is written in this grand book—I mean the universe—which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of [[mathematics]], and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one is wandering around in a dark labyrinth.<ref>[[Galileo Galilei]], ''Il Saggiatore'' (''[[The Assayer]]'', 1623), as translated by [[Stillman Drake]] (1957), ''Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo'' pp. 237–38</ref>}}In 1591 [[François Viète]] published ''In Artem Analyticem Isagoge'', which gave the first symbolic notation of parameters in [[algebra]]. Newton's development of [[infinitesimal calculus]] opened up new applications of the methods of mathematics to science. Newton taught that scientific theory should be coupled with rigorous experimentation, which became the keystone of modern science.{{fact|date=April 2023}}

===Mechanical philosophy===
[[File:Sir Isaac Newton by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt.jpg|thumb|right|[[Isaac Newton]] in a 1702 portrait by [[Godfrey Kneller]]]]Aristotle recognized four kinds of causes, and where applicable, the most important of them is the "final cause". The final cause was the aim, goal, or purpose of some natural process or man-made thing. Until the Scientific Revolution, it was very natural to see such aims, such as a child's growth, for example, leading to a mature adult. Intelligence was assumed only in the purpose of man-made artifacts; it was not attributed to other animals or to nature.

In "[[mechanical philosophy]]" no field or action at a distance is permitted, particles or corpuscles of matter are fundamentally inert. Motion is caused by direct physical collision. Where natural substances had previously been understood organically, the mechanical philosophers viewed them as machines.<ref>[[#Westfall|Westfall]], pp. 30–33.</ref> As a result, Newton's theory seemed like some kind of throwback to "spooky [[action at a distance]]". According to Thomas Kuhn, Newton and Descartes held the [[teleology|teleological principle]] that God conserved the amount of motion in the universe:

<blockquote>Gravity, interpreted as an innate attraction between every pair of particles of matter, was an occult quality in the same sense as the scholastics' "tendency to fall" had been.... By the mid eighteenth century that interpretation had been almost universally accepted, and the result was a genuine reversion (which is not the same as a retrogression) to a scholastic standard. Innate attractions and repulsions joined size, shape, position and motion as physically irreducible primary properties of matter.<ref>Kuhn, Thomas (1970), [http://projektintegracija.pravo.hr/_download/repository/Kuhn_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions.pdf ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020001221/http://projektintegracija.pravo.hr/_download/repository/Kuhn_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions.pdf |date=20 October 2014 }}. University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|0-226-45807-5}}. pp. 105–06.</ref></blockquote>

Newton had also specifically attributed the inherent power of inertia to matter, against the mechanist thesis that matter has no inherent powers. But whereas Newton vehemently denied gravity was an inherent power of matter, his collaborator [[Roger Cotes]] made gravity also an inherent power of matter, as set out in his famous preface to the ''Principia's'' 1713 second edition which he edited, and contradicted Newton. And it was Cotes's interpretation of gravity rather than Newton's that came to be accepted.{{fact|date=April 2023}}

===Institutionalization===
[[File:Gresham College from Record of RS.jpg|thumb|The [[Royal Society]] had its origins in [[Gresham College]] in the [[City of London]], and was the first scientific society in the world.]]
The first moves towards the institutionalization of scientific investigation and dissemination took the form of the establishment of societies, where new discoveries were aired, discussed, and published. The first scientific society to be established was the [[Royal Society]] of London. This grew out of an earlier group, centered around [[Gresham College and the formation of the Royal Society|Gresham College]] in the 1640s and 1650s. According to a history of the college:

<blockquote>The scientific network which centered on Gresham College played a crucial part in the meetings which led to the formation of the Royal Society.<ref>Chartres, Richard and Vermont, David (1998) [https://web.archive.org/web/20120612121813/http://www.gresham.ac.uk/greshamftp/historygreshm_bk2.pdf A Brief History of Gresham College]. Gresham College. {{ISBN|0-947822-16-X}}. p. 38</ref></blockquote>

These physicians and natural philosophers were influenced by the "new science", as promoted by Bacon in his ''[[New Atlantis]]'', from approximately 1645 onwards. A group known as ''The Philosophical Society of Oxford'' was run under a set of rules still retained by the [[Bodleian Library]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Societies/RS.html|title=London Royal Society|publisher=[[University of St Andrews]]|access-date=8 December 2009|archive-date=14 April 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090414152731/http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Societies/RS.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

On 28 November 1660, the "1660 committee of 12" announced the formation of a "College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematical Experimental Learning", which would meet weekly to discuss science and run experiments. At the second meeting, [[Robert Moray]] announced that [[Charles II of England|King Charles]] approved of the gatherings, and a [[royal charter]] was signed on 15 July 1662 creating the "Royal Society of London", with [[William Brouncker, 2nd Viscount Brouncker|Lord Brouncker]] serving as the first president. A second royal charter was signed on 23 April 1663, with the king noted as the founder and with the name of "the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge"; [[Robert Hooke]] was appointed as curator of experiments in November. This initial royal favour has continued, and since then every monarch has been the patron of the society.<ref name="pw">{{cite web|url=http://royalsociety.org/News.aspx?id=973&terms=prince+of+wales|title=Prince of Wales opens Royal Society's refurbished building|date=7 July 2004|publisher=The Royal Society|access-date=7 December 2009|archive-date=20 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520230010/https://royalsociety.org/news.aspx?id=973&terms=prince+of+wales|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Académie des Sciences 1698.jpg|thumb|The French [[Academy of Sciences]] was established in 1666.]]

The society's first secretary was [[Henry Oldenburg]]. Its early meetings included experiments performed first by Hooke and then by [[Denis Papin]], who was appointed in 1684. These experiments varied in their subject area and were important in some cases and trivial in others.<ref name=hen1>Henderson (1941) p. 29</ref> The society began publication of ''[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|Philosophical Transactions]]'' from 1665, the oldest and longest-running scientific journal in the world, which established the important principles of [[scientific priority]] and [[peer review]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org/ | title = Philosophical Transactions − the world's first science journal | publisher = The Royal Society | access-date = 22 November 2015 | archive-date = 6 November 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181106193718/http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org/ | url-status = live }}</ref>

The French established the [[French Academy of Sciences|Academy of Sciences]] in 1666. In contrast to the private origins of its British counterpart, the academy was founded as a government body by [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert]]. Its rules were set down in 1699 by King [[Louis XIV]], when it received the name of 'Royal Academy of Sciences' and was installed in the [[Louvre]] in Paris.

==New ideas==
As the Scientific Revolution was not marked by any single change, the following new ideas contributed to what is called the Scientific Revolution. Many of them were revolutions in their own fields.

=== Astronomy ===

==== Heliocentrism ====
For almost five millennia, the [[geocentric model]] of the Earth as the center of the universe had been accepted by all but a few astronomers. In Aristotle's cosmology, Earth's central location was perhaps less significant than its identification as a realm of imperfection, inconstancy, irregularity, and change, as opposed to the "heavens" (Moon, Sun, planets, stars), which were regarded as perfect, permanent, unchangeable, and in religious thought, the realm of heavenly beings. The Earth was even composed of different material, the four elements "earth", "water", "fire", and "air", while sufficiently far above its surface (roughly the Moon's orbit), the heavens were composed of a different substance called "aether".<ref>{{citation |last1=Lewis |first1=C.S. |title=The Discarded Image |publisher=Canto Classics |isbn=978-1-107-60470-4 |year=2012 |pages=3, 4 }}</ref> The heliocentric model that replaced it involved the radical displacement of the Earth to an orbit around the Sun; sharing a placement with the other planets implied a universe of heavenly components made from the same changeable substances as the Earth. Heavenly motions no longer needed to be governed by a theoretical perfection, confined to circular orbits.

[[File:JKepler.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of [[Johannes Kepler]], one of the founders and fathers of modern [[astronomy]], the [[scientific method]], [[Natural science|natural]] and [[modern science]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.dpma.de/english/our_office/publications/milestones/greatinventors/johanneskepler/index.html | title=DPMA &#124; Johannes Kepler }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nasa.gov/kepler/education/johannes |title=Johannes Kepler: His Life, His Laws and Times &#124; NASA |access-date=1 September 2023 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624003856/https://www.nasa.gov/kepler/education/johannes/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/timeline/people/kepler.html | title=Molecular Expressions: Science, Optics and You - Timeline - Johannes Kepler }}</ref>]]

Copernicus' 1543 work on the heliocentric model of the [[Solar System]] tried to demonstrate that the Sun was the center of the universe. Few were bothered by this suggestion, and the pope and several archbishops were interested enough by it to want more detail.<ref>[[#Hannam|Hannam]], p. 303</ref> His model was later used to create [[Gregorian calendar|the calendar]] of [[Pope Gregory XIII]].<ref>[[#Hannam|Hannam]], p. 329</ref> However, the idea that the Earth moved around the Sun was doubted by most of Copernicus' contemporaries. It contradicted not only empirical observation, due to the absence of an observable [[stellar parallax]],<ref>[[#Hannam|Hannam]], p. 283</ref> but more significantly at the time, the authority of Aristotle. The discoveries of Kepler and Galileo gave the theory credibility. 

Kepler was an astronomer who is best known for his [[Kepler's laws of planetary motion|laws of planetary motion]], and Kepler´s books ''[[Astronomia nova]]'', ''[[Harmonice Mundi]]'', and ''[[Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae]]'' influenced among others [[Isaac Newton]], providing one of the foundations for his theory of [[Newton's law of universal gravitation|universal gravitation]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Voelkel|first=James R.|date=2001|title=Commentary on Ernan McMullin, "The Impact of Newton's Principia on the Philosophy of Science"|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3080920|journal=Philosophy of Science|volume=68|issue=3|pages=319–326|doi=10.1086/392885|jstor=3080920|s2cid=144781947|issn=0031-8248}}</ref> One of the most significant books in the history of astronomy, the Astronomia nova provided strong arguments for heliocentrism and contributed valuable insight into the movement of the planets. This included the first mention of the planets' elliptical paths and the change of their movement to the movement of free floating bodies as opposed to objects on rotating spheres. It is recognized as one of the most important works of the Scientific Revolution.<ref>{{Cite book | last=Voelkel | first=James R. | author-link=James R. Voelkel | title=The composition of Kepler's Astronomia nova | date=2001 | publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] | location=Princeton  | isbn=0-691-00738-1 | pages=1}}</ref> Using the accurate observations of [[Tycho Brahe]], Kepler proposed that the planets move around the Sun not in circular orbits but in elliptical ones. Together with Kepler´s other laws of planetary motion, this allowed him to create a model of the Solar System that was an improvement over Copernicus' original system. 

Galileo's main contributions to the acceptance of the heliocentric system were his mechanics, the observations he made with his telescope, as well as his detailed presentation of the case for the system. Using an early theory of [[inertia]], Galileo could explain why rocks dropped from a tower fall straight down even if the Earth rotates. His observations of the [[moons of Jupiter]], the phases of [[Venus]], the spots on the Sun, and [[List of mountains on the Moon|mountains on the Moon]] all helped to discredit the Aristotelian philosophy and the Ptolemaic theory of the Solar System. Through their combined discoveries, the heliocentric system gained support, and at the end of the 17th century it was generally accepted by astronomers.

This work culminated in the work of Newton, and his ''Principia'' formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation which dominated scientists' view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. By deriving Kepler's laws of planetary motion from his mathematical description of gravity, and then using the same principles to account for the trajectories of [[comet]]s, the [[tide]]s, the precession of the [[equinox]]es, and other phenomena, Newton removed the last doubts about the validity of the heliocentric model of the cosmos. This work also demonstrated that the motion of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies could be described by the same principles. His prediction that the Earth should be shaped as an oblate spheroid was later vindicated by other scientists. His laws of motion were to be the solid foundation of mechanics; his [[Newton's law of universal gravitation|law of universal gravitation]] combined terrestrial and celestial mechanics into one great system that seemed to be able to describe the whole world in mathematical formulae.

==== Gravitation ====
[[File:NewtonsPrincipia.jpg|thumb|[[Isaac Newton]]'s ''[[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica|Principia]]'' developed the first set of unified scientific laws.]]

Newton also developed the theory of gravitation. In 1679, Newton began to consider gravitation and its effect on the orbits of planets with reference to Kepler's laws of planetary motion. This followed stimulation by a brief exchange of letters in 1679–80 with Hooke, opened a correspondence intended to elicit contributions from Newton to Royal Society transactions.<ref>''Correspondence of Isaac Newton, vol. 2, 1676–1687'' ed. H.W. Turnbull, Cambridge University Press 1960; at page 297, document No. 235, letter from Hooke to Newton dated 24 November 1679.</ref> Newton's reawakening interest in astronomical matters received further stimulus by the appearance of a comet in the winter of 1680–81, on which he corresponded with [[John Flamsteed]].<ref>[[#Westfall|Westfall]], pp. 391–92</ref> After the exchanges with Hooke, Newton worked out proof that the elliptical form of planetary orbits would result from a [[centripetal force]] [[inverse-square law|inversely proportional to the square of the radius vector]]. Newton communicated his results to [[Edmond Halley]] and to the Royal Society in ''[[De motu corporum in gyrum]]'' in 1684.<ref>Whiteside D.T. (ed.) (1974) ''Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton'', vol. 6, 1684–1691, Cambridge University Press. p. 30.</ref> This tract contained the nucleus that Newton developed and expanded to form the ''Principia''.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/newton_isaac.shtml Isaac Newton (1643–1727)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150310093436/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/newton_isaac.shtml |date=10 March 2015 }}, BBC – History</ref>

The ''Principia'' was published on 5 July 1687 with encouragement and financial help from Halley.<ref>[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Halley.html Halley biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213164959/http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Halley.html |date=13 February 2009 }}. Groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk. Retrieved on 26 September 2011.</ref> In this work, Newton states the [[Newton's laws of motion|three universal laws of motion]] that contributed to many advances during the [[Industrial Revolution]] which soon followed and were not to be improved upon for more than 200 years. Many of these advancements continue to be the underpinnings of non-relativistic technologies in the modern world. He used the Latin word ''gravitas'' (weight) for the effect that would become known as [[gravity]] and defined the law of universal gravitation.

Newton's postulate of an invisible [[action at a distance|force able to act over vast distances]] led to him being criticised for introducing "[[occult]] agencies" into science.<ref>Edelglass et al., ''Matter and Mind'', {{ISBN|0-940262-45-2}}. p. 54</ref> Later, in the second edition of the ''Principia'' (1713), Newton firmly rejected such criticisms in a concluding "[[General Scholium]]," writing that it was enough that the phenomena implied a gravitational attraction, as they did; but they did not so far indicate its cause, and it was both unnecessary and improper to frame hypotheses of things that were not implied by the phenomena. (Here Newton used what became his famous expression "''[[hypotheses non fingo]]''").<ref>On the meaning and origins of this expression, see Kirsten Walsh, [https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/emxphi/2010/10/does-newton-feign-an-hypothesis/ Does Newton feign an hypothesis?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714120054/https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/emxphi/2010/10/does-newton-feign-an-hypothesis/ |date=14 July 2014 }}, [https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/emxphi/ Early Modern Experimental Philosophy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721051523/https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/emxphi/ |date=21 July 2011 }}, 18 October 2010.</ref>

===Biology and medicine===
[[File:Vesalius Fabrica p190.jpg|right|upright=0.9|thumb|[[Andreas Vesalius|Vesalius]]'s intricately detailed drawings of human dissections in ''Fabrica'' helped to overturn the medical theories of [[Galen]].]]

The writings of Greek physician [[Galen]] had dominated European medical thinking for over a millennium. The Flemish scholar [[Andreas Vesalius]] demonstrated mistakes in Galen's ideas. Vesalius dissected human corpses, whereas Galen dissected animal corpses. Published in 1543, Vesalius' ''[[De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem|De humani corporis fabrica]]''<ref>[http://ceb.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/books.htm Page through a virtual copy of Vesalius's ''De Humanis Corporis Fabrica''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141011220907/http://ceb.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/books.htm |date=11 October 2014 }}. Archive.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved on 26 September 2011.</ref> was a groundbreaking work of [[Human body|human anatomy]]. It emphasized the priority of dissection and what has come to be called the "anatomical" view of the body, seeing human internal functioning as an essentially corporeal structure filled with organs arranged in three-dimensional space. This was in stark contrast to many of the anatomical models used previously, which had strong Galenic/Aristotelean elements, as well as elements of [[astrology]].

Besides the first good description of the [[sphenoid bone]], Vesalius showed that the [[sternum]] consists of three portions and the [[sacrum]] of five or six; and he described accurately the [[vestibule of the ear|vestibule]] in the interior of the [[temporal bone]]. He verified the observation of anatomist [[Charles Estienne]] on the valves of the [[hepatic veins]], described the [[Azygos vein|vena azygos]], and discovered the canal which passes in the fetus between the [[umbilical vein]] and the vena cava, since named [[ductus venosus]]. He described the [[greater omentum|omentum]] and its connections with the stomach, the [[spleen]] and the [[Large intestine|colon]]; gave the first correct views of the structure of the [[pylorus]]; observed the small size of the caecal [[Appendix (anatomy)|appendix]] in man; gave the first good account of the [[mediastinum]] and [[Pulmonary pleurae|pleura]] and the fullest description of the anatomy of the brain yet advanced.

Before Vesalius, the anatomical notes by [[Alessandro Achillini]] demonstrate a detailed description of the human body and compare what he had found during his dissections to what others like Galen and [[Avicenna]] had found and notes their similarities and differences.<ref>{{cite book|first=Alessandro |last=Achillini|editor1-last=Lind|editor1-first=L. R.|chapter=Anatomical Notes by the Great Alexander Achillinus of Bologna|title=Studies in Pre-Vesalian Anatomy: Biography, Translations, Documents|date=1975|publisher=The American Philosophical Society|location=Independence Square Philadelphia|pages=42–65}}</ref> [[Niccolò Massa]] was an Italian anatomist who wrote an early anatomy text ''Anatomiae Libri Introductorius'' in 1536, described the [[cerebrospinal fluid]] and was the author of several medical works.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Niccolò Massa, His Family and His Fortune|date = 1981|last = Palmer|first = Richard|pmc=1139070|pmid=7038357|volume=25|issue = 4|journal=Med Hist|pages=385–410|doi=10.1017/s0025727300034888}}</ref> [[Jean Fernel]] was a French physician who introduced the term "[[physiology]]" to describe the study of the body's function and was the first person to describe the [[spinal canal]].

[[File:William Harvey ( 1578-1657) Venenbild.jpg|Image of [[vein]]s from [[William Harvey]]'s ''Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus''. Harvey demonstrated that blood circulated around the body, rather than being created in the liver.|left|thumb]]

Further groundbreaking work was carried out by [[William Harvey]], who published ''De Motu Cordis'' in 1628. Harvey made a detailed analysis of the overall structure of the [[heart]], going on to an analysis of the [[Artery|arteries]], showing how their pulsation depends upon the contraction of the left [[Ventricle (heart)|ventricle]], while the contraction of the right ventricle propels its charge of blood into the [[pulmonary artery]]. He noticed that the two ventricles move together almost simultaneously and not independently like had been thought previously by his predecessors.<ref>Harvey, William ''De motu cordis'', cited in Debus, Allen G. (1978) ''Man and Nature in the Renaissance''. Cambridge Univ. Pr. p. 69.</ref>

Harvey estimated the capacity of the heart, how much blood is expelled through each pump of the heart, and the number of times the heart beats in half an hour. From these estimations, he demonstrated that according to Gaelen's theory that blood was continually produced in the [[liver]], the absurdly large figure of 540 pounds of blood would have to be produced every day. Having this simple mathematical proportion at hand—which would imply a seemingly impossible role for the liver—Harvey went on to demonstrate how the blood circulated in a circle by means of countless experiments initially done on serpents and fish: tying their veins and arteries in separate periods of time, Harvey noticed the modifications which occurred; indeed, as he tied the veins, the heart would become empty, while as he did the same to the arteries, the organ would swell up. This process was later performed on the human body: the physician tied a tight [[Ligature (medicine)|ligature]] onto the upper arm of a person. This would cut off blood flow from the arteries and the veins. When this was done, the arm below the ligature was cool and pale, while above the ligature it was warm and swollen. The ligature was loosened slightly, which allowed blood from the arteries to come into the arm, since arteries are deeper in the flesh than the veins. When this was done, the opposite effect was seen in the lower arm. It was now warm and swollen. The veins were also more visible, since now they were full of blood.

Various other advances in medical understanding and practice were made. French physician [[Pierre Fauchard]] started [[dentistry]] science as we know it today, and he has been named "the father of modern dentistry". Surgeon [[Ambroise Paré]] was a leader in surgical techniques and [[battlefield medicine]], especially the treatment of [[wound]]s,<ref>Zimmer, Carl. (2004) ''Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain – and How It Changed the World.'' New York: Free Press. {{ISBN|0-7432-7205-6}}</ref> and [[Herman Boerhaave]] is sometimes referred to as a "father of physiology" because of his exemplary teaching in [[Leiden]] and his textbook ''Institutiones medicae'' (1708).

===Chemistry===
[[File:Sceptical chymist 1661 Boyle Title page AQ18 (3).jpg|upright=0.9|thumb|right|Title page from ''[[The Sceptical Chymist]]'', a foundational text of chemistry, written by Robert Boyle in 1661]]

[[Chemistry]], and its antecedent [[alchemy]], became an increasingly important aspect of scientific thought in the course of the 16th and 17th centuries. The importance of chemistry is indicated by the range of important scholars who actively engaged in chemical research. Among them were the astronomer [[Tycho Brahe]],<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1086/354267| title = Laboratory Design and the Aim of Science: Andreas Libavius versus Tycho Brahe| journal = Isis| volume = 77| issue = 4| pages = 585–610| year = 1986| last1 = Hannaway | first1 = O. | s2cid = 144538848}}</ref> the chemical physician [[Paracelsus]], [[Robert Boyle]], [[Thomas Browne]] and Isaac Newton. Unlike the mechanical philosophy, the chemical philosophy stressed the active powers of matter, which alchemists frequently expressed in terms of vital or active principles—of spirits operating in nature.<ref>Westfall, Richard S. (1983) ''Never at Rest''. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-27435-4}}. pp. 18–23.</ref>

Practical attempts to improve the refining of ores and their extraction to [[Smelting|smelt]] metals were an important source of information for early chemists in the 16th century, among them [[Georgius Agricola]], who published his great work ''[[De re metallica]]'' in 1556.<ref>[http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mainzv/exhibit/agricola.htm Agricola, Georg (1494–1555)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081123032301/http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mainzv/exhibit/agricola.htm |date=23 November 2008 }}. Scs.uiuc.edu. Retrieved on 26 September 2011.</ref> His work describes the highly developed and complex processes of mining metal ores, metal extraction and metallurgy of the time. His approach removed the mysticism associated with the subject, creating the practical base upon which others could build.<ref>[[Karl Alfred von Zittel|von Zittel, Karl Alfred]] (1901) ''History of Geology and Palaeontology'', p. 15</ref>

Chemist [[Robert Boyle]] is considered to have refined the modern scientific method for alchemy and to have separated chemistry further from alchemy.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20131203073012/http://understandingscience.ucc.ie/pages/sci_robertboyle.htm Robert Boyle]. understandingscience.ucc.ie</ref> Although his research clearly has its roots in the alchemical tradition, Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist and therefore one of the founders of modern chemistry, and one of the pioneers of modern experimental scientific method. Although Boyle was not the original discoverer, he is best known for [[Boyle's law]], which he presented in 1662:<ref name=acottLaw>{{cite journal |author=Acott, Chris |title=The diving "Law-ers": A brief resume of their lives. |journal=[[South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal]] |volume=29 |issue=1 |year=1999 |issn=0813-1988 |oclc=16986801 |url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/5990 |access-date=17 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110402073203/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/5990 |archive-date=2 April 2011 |url-status=usurped }}</ref> the law describes the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas, if the temperature is kept constant within a [[closed system]].<ref>Levine, Ira. N (1978). "Physical Chemistry" University of Brooklyn: [[McGraw-Hill]].  p. 12</ref>

Boyle is also credited for his landmark publication ''[[The Sceptical Chymist]]'' in 1661, which is seen as a cornerstone book in the field of chemistry. In the work, Boyle presents his hypothesis that every phenomenon was the result of collisions of particles in motion. Boyle appealed to chemists to experiment and asserted that experiments denied the limiting of chemical elements to only the classic four: earth, fire, air, and water. He also pleaded that chemistry should cease to be subservient to medicine or to alchemy, and rise to the status of a science. Importantly, he advocated a rigorous approach to scientific experiment: he believed all theories must be tested experimentally before being regarded as true. The work contains some of the earliest modern ideas of [[atom]]s, [[molecule]]s, and [[chemical reaction]], and marks the beginning of modern chemistry.

=== Physical ===

==== Optics ====
[[File:Kepler - Ad Vitellionem paralipomena quibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, 1604 - 158093 F.jpg|199px|thumb|right|The first treatise about optics by [[Johannes Kepler]], ''Ad Vitellionem paralipomena quibus astronomiae pars optica traditur'' (1604)]][[File:Opticks.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Isaac Newton]]'s 1704 ''[[Opticks|Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light]]'']]
In 1604 Johannes Kepler published ''Astronomiae Pars Optica'' (''The Optical Part of Astronomy''). In it, he describes the inverse-square law governing the intensity of [[light]], reflection by flat and curved mirrors, and principles of [[pinhole camera]]s, as well as the astronomical implications of optics such as [[parallax]] and the apparent sizes of heavenly bodies. ''Astronomiae Pars Optica'' is generally recognized as the foundation of modern [[optics]].<ref>Caspar, Max (1993) ''Kepler''. Courier Corporation. {{ISBN|0-486-67605-6}}. pp. 142–46</ref>

[[Willebrord Snellius]] found the mathematical law of [[refraction]], now known as [[Snell's law]], in 1621. It had been published earlier in 984 AD by [[Ibn Sahl (mathematician)|Ibn Sahl]]. Subsequently René Descartes showed, by using geometric construction and the law of refraction (also known as Descartes' law), that the angular radius of a rainbow is 42° (i.e. the angle subtended at the eye by the edge of the rainbow and the rainbow's centre is 42°).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tipler|first=P.A. and G. Mosca|year=2004|title=Physics for Scientists and Engineers|publisher=W.H. Freeman|isbn=978-0-7167-4389-7|page= 1068}}</ref> He also independently discovered the [[Specular reflection|law of reflection]], and his essay on optics was the first published mention of this law. [[Christiaan Huygens]] wrote several works in the area of optics. These included the ''Opera reliqua'' (also known as ''Christiani Hugenii Zuilichemii, dum viveret Zelhemii toparchae, opuscula posthuma'') and the ''[[Traité de la lumière]]''.

Newton investigated the refraction of light, demonstrating that a [[Dispersive prism|prism]] could decompose white light into a [[Visible spectrum|spectrum]] of colours, and that a [[lens]] and a second prism could recompose the multicoloured spectrum into white light. He also showed that the coloured light does not change its properties by separating out a coloured beam and shining it on various objects. Newton noted that regardless of whether it was reflected or scattered or transmitted, it stayed the same colour. Thus, he observed that colour is the result of objects interacting with already-coloured light rather than objects generating the colour themselves. This is known as [[Early life of Isaac Newton#Newton's theory of colour|Newton's theory of colour]]. From this work he concluded that any refracting [[telescope]] would suffer from the [[dispersion (optics)|dispersion]] of light into colours. The interest of the Royal Society encouraged him to publish his notes ''On Colour''. Newton argued that light is composed of particles or ''corpuscles'' and that are refracted by accelerating toward the denser medium, but he had to associate them with [[wave]]s to explain the [[diffraction]] of light.

In his ''Hypothesis of Light'' of 1675, Newton posited the existence of the [[luminiferous aether|ether]] to transmit forces between particles. In 1704, Newton published ''[[Opticks]]'', in which he expounded his corpuscular theory of light. He considered light to be made up of extremely subtle corpuscles, that ordinary matter was made of grosser corpuscles and speculated that through a kind of alchemical transmutation "Are not gross Bodies and Light convertible into one another, ...and may not Bodies receive much of their Activity from the Particles of Light which enter their Composition?"<ref>{{Citation |last=Dobbs |first=J.T. |date=December 1982 |title=Newton's Alchemy and His Theory of Matter |journal=Isis |volume=73 |issue=4 |pages=523 |doi=10.1086/353114|s2cid=170669199 }} quoting ''Opticks''</ref>

[[Antonie van Leeuwenhoek]] constructed powerful single lens microscopes and made extensive observations that he published around 1660, paving the way for the science of microbiology.

==== Electricity ====
[[File:Guericke Sulfur globe.jpg|thumb|right|[[Otto von Guericke]]'s experiments on [[electrostatics]], published 1672]]

William Gilbert, in ''De Magnete'', invented the [[Neo-Latin]] word ''electricus'' from ''{{lang|grc|ἤλεκτρον}}'' (''elektron''), the Greek word for "amber". Gilbert undertook a number of careful electrical experiments, in the course of which he discovered that many substances other than amber, such as sulphur, wax, glass, etc.,<ref name=pr>Priestley, Joseph (1757) ''History of Electricity''. London</ref> were capable of manifesting electrical properties. Gilbert discovered that a heated body lost its electricity and that moisture prevented the [[electrification]] of all bodies. He noticed that electrified substances attracted all other substances indiscriminately, whereas a magnet only attracted iron. The many discoveries of this nature earned Gilbert the title ''founder of the electrical science''.<ref name="EncyclopediaAmericana">Maver, William, Jr.: "Electricity, its History and Progress", [https://archive.org/stream/encyclopediaame21unkngoog#page/n210/mode/1up The Encyclopedia Americana; a library of universal knowledge, vol. X, pp.&nbsp;172ff]. (1918). New York: Encyclopedia Americana Corp.</ref> By investigating the forces on a light metallic needle, balanced on a point, he extended the list of electric bodies and found that many substances, including metals and natural magnets, showed no attractive forces when rubbed. He noticed that dry weather with north or east wind was the most favourable atmospheric condition for exhibiting electric phenomena—an observation liable to misconception until the difference between [[Electrical conductor|conductor]] and [[Insulator (electricity)|insulator]] was understood.<ref name="Dampier, W. C. D.">Dampier, W.C.D. (1905). The theory of experimental electricity. Cambridge physical series. Cambridge [Eng.: University Press.</ref>

Robert Boyle worked frequently at the new science of electricity and added several substances to Gilbert's list of electrics. He left a detailed account of his researches under the title of ''Experiments on the Origin of Electricity''.<ref name="Dampier, W. C. D." /> In 1675 Boyle stated that electric attraction and repulsion can act across a vacuum. One of his important discoveries was that electrified bodies in a vacuum would attract light substances, this indicating that the electrical effect did not depend upon the air as a medium.<ref name=pr/><ref name="EncyclopediaAmericana" /><ref>Benjamin, P. (1895). [https://books.google.com/books?id=hkMPAAAAMAAJ A history of electricity] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221208081359/https://books.google.com/books?id=hkMPAAAAMAAJ |date=8 December 2022 }}: (The intellectual rise in electricity) from antiquity to the days of Benjamin Franklin. New York: J. Wiley & Sons.</ref><ref>Boyle, Robert (1676). ''Experiments and notes about the mechanical origin or production of particular qualities''.</ref><ref>Boyle, Robert (1675) ''Experiments on the Origin of Electricity''</ref>

This was followed in 1660 by [[Otto von Guericke]], who invented an early [[electrostatic generator]]. By the end of the 17th century, researchers had developed practical means of generating electricity by friction with an electrostatic generator, but the development of electrostatic machines did not begin in earnest until the 18th century when they became fundamental instruments in the studies about the science of electricity. The first usage of the word ''electricity'' is ascribed to [[Thomas Browne]] in his 1646 work ''[[Pseudodoxia Epidemica]]''. In 1729 [[Stephen Gray (scientist)|Stephen Gray]] demonstrated that electricity could be "transmitted" through metal filaments.<ref>{{cite book | last = Jenkins | first = Rhys | title = Links in the History of Engineering and Technology from Tudor Times | publisher = Ayer Publishing | year = 1936| page = 66 | isbn = 978-0-8369-2167-0}}</ref>

==Mechanical devices==
As an aid to scientific investigation, various tools, measuring aids and calculating devices were developed in this period.

===Calculating devices===
[[File:Napier's Bones.JPG|thumb|upright|right|An ivory set of [[Napier's Bones]], an early calculating device invented by [[John Napier]]]]

[[John Napier]] introduced [[logarithm]]s as a powerful mathematical tool. With the help of [[Henry Briggs (mathematician)|Henry Briggs]] their logarithmic tables embodied a computational advance that made calculations by hand much quicker.<ref name = DNB>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Napier, John}}</ref> His [[Napier's bones]] used a set of numbered rods as a multiplication tool using the system of [[lattice multiplication]]. The way was opened to later scientific advances, particularly in astronomy and [[dynamics (mechanics)|dynamics]].

At [[Oxford University]], [[Edmund Gunter]] built the first [[analog device]] to aid computation. The 'Gunter's scale' was a large plane scale, engraved with various scales, or lines. Natural lines, such as the line of chords, the line of [[Trigonometric functions|sines and tangents]] are placed on one side of the scale and the corresponding artificial or logarithmic ones were on the other side. This calculating aid was a predecessor of the [[Slide rule#History|slide rule]]. It was [[William Oughtred]] who first used two such scales sliding by one another to perform direct multiplication and division and thus is credited as the inventor of the slide rule in 1622.

[[Blaise Pascal]] invented the [[Mechanical calculator#The 17th century|mechanical calculator]] in 1642.<ref>{{cite book|title=Histoire des instruments et machines à calculer, trois siècles de mécanique pensante 1642–1942 |first=Jean|last=Marguin|year=1994|publisher=Hermann|isbn=978-2-7056-6166-3|page=48}} citing {{cite book|ref=Taton|title=Le calcul mécanique|first=René|last=Taton|year=1963|publisher=Presses universitaires de France|location=Paris}}</ref> The introduction of his [[Pascal's calculator|Pascaline]] in 1645 launched the development of mechanical calculators first in Europe and then all over the world.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Schum, David A.|journal=Michigan Law Review|volume=77|issue=3|year=1979|title=A Review of a Case against Blaise Pascal and His Heirs|pages=446–83|jstor=1288133|doi=10.2307/1288133|url=https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3673&context=mlr|access-date=3 December 2019|archive-date=5 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200305124054/https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3673&context=mlr|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Pascal.html Pascal biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219055935/http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Pascal.html |date=19 December 2008 }}. Groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk. Retrieved on 26 September 2011.</ref> [[Gottfried Leibniz]], building on Pascal's work, became one of the most prolific inventors in the field of mechanical calculators; he was the first to describe a [[pinwheel calculator]] in 1685,<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=David Eugene |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rOQHAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA173 |title=A Source Book in Mathematics |publisher=McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. |year=1929 |location=New York and London |pages=173–181 |url-access=registration}}</ref> and he invented the [[Leibniz wheel]], used in the [[arithmometer]], the first mass-produced mechanical calculator. He also refined the [[binary number]] system, the foundation of virtually all modern computer architectures.<ref>
{{cite journal|author=McEvoy, John G. |title=A "Revolutionary" Philosophy of Science: Feyerabend and the Degeneration of Critical Rationalism into Sceptical Fallibilism |journal=Philosophy of Science|volume= 42|issue= 1 |pages=49–66 |date=March 1975|jstor=187297 |doi=10.1086/288620|s2cid=143046530 }}</ref>

[[John Hadley]] was the inventor of the [[octant (instrument)|octant]], the precursor to the [[sextant]] (invented by [[John Bird (astronomer)|John Bird]]), which greatly improved the science of [[navigation]].

===Industrial machines===
[[File:Savery-engine.jpg|upright|thumb|The 1698 ''[[Thomas Savery|Savery Engine]]'' was the first successful [[steam engine]].]]

[[Denis Papin]] was best known for his pioneering invention of the [[steam digester]], the forerunner of the [[steam engine]].<ref>{{Cite ODNB|id=21249|title=Papin, Denis}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=DK|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4M01NTdvu3kC&q=%22Steam+digester%22+%22papin%22+%22steam+engine%22&pg=PA106|title=Engineers: From the Great Pyramids to the Pioneers of Space Travel|date=16 April 2012|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-1-4654-0682-8|pages=106|language=en|access-date=18 November 2020|archive-date=2 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240102074010/https://books.google.com/books?id=4M01NTdvu3kC&q=%22Steam+digester%22+%22papin%22+%22steam+engine%22&pg=PA106#v=snippet&q=%22Steam%20digester%22%20%22papin%22%20%22steam%20engine%22&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> The first working steam engine was patented in 1698 by the English inventor [[Thomas Savery]], as a "...new invention for raising of water and occasioning motion to all sorts of mill work by the impellent force of fire, which will be of great use and advantage for drayning mines, serveing townes with water, and for the working of all sorts of mills where they have not the benefitt of water nor constant windes."<ref name=jenkins>{{cite book | last = Jenkins | first = Rhys | title = Links in the History of Engineering and Technology from Tudor Times | publisher = Ayer Publishing | year = 1936 | pages = 66 | isbn = 978-0-8369-2167-0}}</ref> The invention was demonstrated to the Royal Society on 14 June 1699, and the machine was described by Savery in his book ''The Miner's Friend; or, An Engine to Raise Water by Fire'' (1702),<ref>{{cite book | last = Savery | first = Thomas | author-link = Thomas Savery | title = The Miner's Friend: Or, an Engine to Raise Water by Fire | publisher = S. Crouch | year = 1827 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=v_-yJ5c5a98C | access-date = 7 November 2015 | archive-date = 2 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240102074106/https://books.google.com/books?id=v_-yJ5c5a98C | url-status = live }}</ref> in which he claimed that it could pump water out of mines. [[Thomas Newcomen]] perfected the practical steam engine for pumping water, the [[Newcomen atmospheric engine|Newcomen steam engine]]. Consequently, Newcomen can be regarded as a forefather of the Industrial Revolution.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/newcomen_thomas.shtml Thomas Newcomen (1663–1729)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224060234/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/newcomen_thomas.shtml |date=24 December 2019 }}, BBC – History</ref>

[[Abraham Darby I]] was the first, and most famous, of three generations of the Darby family who played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. He developed a method of producing high-grade iron in a [[blast furnace]] fueled by [[Coke (fuel)|coke]] rather than [[charcoal]]. This was a major step forward in the production of iron as a raw material for the Industrial Revolution.

===Telescopes===
[[Refracting telescope]]s first appeared in the Netherlands in 1608, apparently the product of spectacle makers experimenting with lenses. The inventor is unknown, but [[Hans Lipperhey]] applied for the first patent, followed by [[Jacob Metius]] of [[Alkmaar]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/instruments/telescope.html |title=galileo.rice.edu ''The Galileo Project > Science > The Telescope'' by Al Van Helden "The Hague discussed the patent applications first of Hans Lipperhey of Middelburg, and then of Jacob Metius of Alkmaar... another citizen of Middelburg, Sacharias Janssen had a telescope at about the same time but was at the Frankfurt Fair where he tried to sell it" |access-date=20 July 2014 |archive-date=23 June 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040623033108/http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/instruments/telescope.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Galileo was one of the first scientists to use this tool for his astronomical observations in 1609.<ref>{{cite book|author=Loker, Aleck|title=Profiles in Colonial History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lq1rd1ecFCYC&pg=PA15|date=2008|publisher=Aleck Loker|isbn=978-1-928874-16-4|pages=15–|access-date=7 November 2015|archive-date=2 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240102074055/https://books.google.com/books?id=Lq1rd1ecFCYC&pg=PA15#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[reflecting telescope]] was described by [[James Gregory (mathematician)|James Gregory]] in his book ''Optica Promota'' (1663). He argued that a mirror shaped like the part of a [[conic section]], would correct the [[spherical aberration]] that flawed the accuracy of refracting telescopes. His design, the "[[Gregorian telescope]]", however, remained un-built.

In 1666, Newton argued that the faults of the refracting telescope were fundamental because the lens refracted light of different colors differently. He concluded that light could not be refracted through a lens without causing [[chromatic aberration]]s.<ref>Newton, Isaac. ''Optics'', bk. i. pt. ii. prop. 3</ref> From these experiments Newton concluded that no improvement could be made in the refracting telescope.<ref>''Treatise on Optics'', p. 112</ref> However, he was able to demonstrate that the angle of reflection remained the same for all colors, so he decided to build a [[Newton's reflector|reflecting telescope]].<ref>{{cite book|author=White, Michael |title=Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l2C3NV38tM0C&pg=PA170|year=1999|publisher=Perseus Books|isbn=978-0-7382-0143-6|page=170}}</ref> It was completed in 1668 and is the earliest known functional reflecting telescope.<ref name="mymathdone.com">Hall, Alfred Rupert. [http://www.mymathdone.com/isaac-newton-adventurer-in-thought/ ''Isaac Newton: adventurer in thought''] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20140618125253/http://www.mymathdone.com/isaac-newton-adventurer-in-thought/ |date=18 June 2014 }}. p. 67</ref> 50 years later, Hadley developed ways to make precision aspheric and [[Parabolic reflector|parabolic]] [[Objective (optics)|objective]] mirrors for reflecting telescopes, building the first parabolic Newtonian telescope and a Gregorian telescope with accurately shaped mirrors.<ref>{{cite book|author=King, Henry C.  |title=The History of the Telescope |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KAWwzHlDVksC&pg=PA77 |date= 2003 |publisher=Courier Dover Publications |isbn=978-0-486-43265-6 |pages=77–}}</ref><ref>[http://www.telescope-optics.net/two-mirror.htm telescopeѲptics.net – 8.2. Two-mirror telescopes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225070614/https://www.telescope-optics.net/two-mirror.htm |date=25 February 2021 }}. Telescope-optics.net. Retrieved on 26 September 2011.</ref> These were successfully demonstrated to the Royal Society.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations//groundup/lesson/scopes/hadley/index.php |title=Hadley's Reflector |publisher=amazing-space.stsci.edu |access-date=1 August 2013 |archive-date=26 May 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120526002533/http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations//groundup/lesson/scopes/hadley/index.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Other devices===
[[File:Boyle air pump.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Air pump]] built by [[Robert Boyle]]. Many new instruments were devised in this period, which greatly aided in the expansion of scientific knowledge.]]

The invention of the [[vacuum pump]] paved the way for the experiments of [[Robert Boyle]] and Robert Hooke into the nature of [[vacuum]] and [[atmospheric pressure]]. The first such device was made by [[Otto von Guericke]] in 1654. It consisted of a piston and an [[Air gun#History|air gun cylinder]] with flaps that could suck the air from any vessel that it was connected to. In 1657, he pumped the air out of two conjoined hemispheres and demonstrated that a team of sixteen horses were incapable of pulling it apart.<ref>{{cite book | first=John | last=Lienhard | title=Rain Steam & Speed | chapter=Gases and Force | year=2005 | publisher=[[KUHF]] FM Radio | chapter-url=http://www.kuhf.org/cons/cdprojects/steam/track7.html | access-date=20 March 2015 | archive-date=20 September 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920010118/http://www.kuhf.org/cons/cdprojects/steam/track7.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> The air pump construction was greatly improved by Hooke in 1658.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh |title=On the Early History of the Air-pump in England |author=Wilson, George |date=15 January 1849 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QNosAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA207}}</ref>

[[Evangelista Torricelli]] invented the mercury [[barometer]] in 1643. The motivation for the invention was to improve on the suction pumps that were used to raise water out of the mines. Torricelli constructed a sealed tube filled with mercury, set vertically into a basin of the same substance. The column of mercury fell downwards, leaving a Torricellian vacuum above.<ref name="John Timbs">{{cite book|last1=Timbs|first1=John|title=Wonderful Inventions: From the Mariner's Compass to the Electric Telegraph Cable|date=1868|publisher=George Routledge and Sons|location=London|isbn=978-1-172-82780-0|page=41|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vGMJAAAAIAAJ|access-date=2 June 2014}}</ref>

=== Materials, construction, and aesthetics ===
Surviving instruments from this period<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://chsi.harvard.edu/|title=The Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments|website=chsi.harvard.edu|language=en|access-date=30 May 2017|archive-date=7 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170607113032/https://chsi.harvard.edu/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/|title=Search Home|website=collections.peabody.yale.edu|language=en|access-date=30 May 2017|archive-date=30 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170530182003/http://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://utsic.escalator.utoronto.ca/home/|title=University of Toronto Scientific Instruments Collection|website=utsic.escalator.utoronto.ca|language=en-US|access-date=30 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170526141806/http://utsic.escalator.utoronto.ca/home/|archive-date=26 May 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/collections/|title=Adler Planetarium Collections Department|work=Adler Planetarium|access-date=30 May 2017|language=en-US|archive-date=10 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710100852/http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/collections/|url-status=live}}</ref> tend to be made of durable metals such as brass, gold, or steel, although examples such as telescopes<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dioptrice.com/|title=Dioptrice : pre-1775 refracting telescopes|website=www.dioptrice.com|language=en|access-date=30 May 2017|archive-date=17 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517235301/http://dioptrice.com/|url-status=live}}</ref> made of wood, pasteboard, or with leather components exist.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dioptrice.com/telescopes/466?search=wooden|title=Dioptrice : Accession #: M-428a|website=www.dioptrice.com|language=en|access-date=30 May 2017|archive-date=6 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170806091743/http://www.dioptrice.com/telescopes/466?search=wooden|url-status=dead}}</ref> Those instruments that exist in collections today tend to be robust examples, made by skilled craftspeople for and at the expense of wealthy patrons.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Kemp|first=Martin|title=Interpretation and Cultural History |chapter='Intellectual Ornaments': Style, Function and society in Some Instruments of Art |year=1991|publisher=St. Martin's Press|pages=135–52|doi=10.1007/978-1-349-21272-9_6|isbn=978-1-349-21274-3}}</ref> These may have been commissioned as displays of wealth. In addition, the instruments preserved in collections may not have received heavy use in scientific work; instruments that had visibly received heavy use were typically destroyed, deemed unfit for display, or excluded from collections altogether.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Schaffer|first=Simon|title=Easily Cracked: Scientific Instruments in States of Disrepair|journal=Isis|volume=102|issue=4|pages=706–17|doi=10.1086/663608|pmid=22448545|bibcode=2011Isis..102..706S|year=2011|s2cid=24626572}}</ref> It is also postulated that the scientific instruments preserved in many collections were chosen because they were more appealing to collectors, by virtue of being more ornate, more portable, or made with higher-grade materials.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.refa.org.ar/contenido-autores-revista.php?idAutor=75.|title=REFA, Revista Electrónica de Fuentes y Archivos del Centro de Estudios Históricos Prof. Carlos S.A. Segreti, publicacion periodica digital.|last=Anderson|first=Katharine|website=www.refa.org.ar|language=es|access-date=30 May 2017|archive-date=6 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106173943/http://www.refa.org.ar/contenido-autores-revista.php?idAutor=75.|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Intact air pumps are particularly rare.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Bennett|first=Jim|date=1 December 2011|title=Early Modern Mathematical Instruments|journal=Isis|volume=102|issue=4|pages=697–705|doi=10.1086/663607|pmid=22448544|s2cid=22184409|issn=0021-1753}}</ref> The pump at right included a glass sphere to permit demonstrations inside the vacuum chamber, a common use. The base was wooden, and the cylindrical pump was brass.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kingscollections.org/exhibitions/specialcollections/to-scrutinize-nature/boyle-and-hooke/boyles-air-pump|title=King's Collections : Online Exhibitions : Boyle's air-pump|website=www.kingscollections.org|language=en|access-date=31 May 2017|archive-date=20 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170520111812/http://www.kingscollections.org/exhibitions/specialcollections/to-scrutinize-nature/boyle-and-hooke/boyles-air-pump|url-status=live}}</ref> Other vacuum chambers that survived were made of brass hemispheres.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://waywiser.rc.fas.harvard.edu/view/objects/asitem/search@/4/displayDate-asc?t:state:flow=efd7f60c-909c-47d9-8399-d61d27444422|title=Abbé Jean-Antoine Nollet Air Pump|website=waywiser.rc.fas.harvard.edu|access-date=31 May 2017}}{{dead link|date=August 2017|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

Instrument makers of the late 17th and early 18th centuries were commissioned by organizations seeking help with navigation, surveying, warfare, and astronomical observation.<ref name=":3" /> The increase in uses for such instruments, and their widespread use in global exploration and conflict, created a need for new methods of manufacture and repair, which would be met by the Industrial Revolution.<ref name=":2" />

==Criticism==
[[File:Ricci Guangqi 2.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Matteo Ricci]] (left) and [[Xu Guangqi]] (right) in [[Athanasius Kircher]], ''La Chine ... Illustrée'', Amsterdam, 1670]]

The idea that modern science took place as a kind of revolution has been debated among historians.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shapin |first1=Steven |title=The Scientific Revolution |date=5 November 2018 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-39834-1 |pages=1–2 |edition=Second}}</ref> A weakness of the idea of a scientific revolution is the lack of a systematic approach to the question of knowledge in the period comprehended between the 14th and 17th centuries,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shapin |first1=Steven |title=The Scientific Revolution |date=5 November 2018 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-39834-1 |pages=3-4, 67-68}}</ref> leading to misunderstandings on the value and role of modern authors. From this standpoint, the [[continuity thesis]] is the hypothesis that there was no radical discontinuity between the intellectual development of the Middle Ages and the developments in the Renaissance and early modern period and has been deeply and widely documented by the works of scholars like Pierre Duhem, John Hermann Randall, Alistair Crombie and William A. Wallace, who proved the preexistence of a wide range of ideas used by the followers of the Scientific Revolution thesis to substantiate their claims. Thus, the idea of a scientific revolution following the Renaissance is—according to the continuity thesis—a myth. Some continuity theorists point to earlier intellectual revolutions occurring in the Middle Ages, usually referring to either a European [[Renaissance of the 12th century]]<ref>[[#Grant|Grant]]</ref><ref>Hannam, James (31 October 2012) [http://biologos.org/blog/medieval-christianity-and-the-rise-of-modern-science-part-2 Medieval Christianity and the Rise of Modern Science, Part 2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140307003619/http://biologos.org/blog/medieval-christianity-and-the-rise-of-modern-science-part-2 |date=7 March 2014 }}. biologos.org</ref> or a medieval [[Science in the medieval Islamic world|Muslim scientific revolution]],<ref>Hassan, Ahmad Y and Hill, Donald Routledge  (1986), ''Islamic Technology: An Illustrated History'', p. 282, [[Cambridge University Press]].</ref><ref>[[Abdus Salam|Salam, Abdus]], Dalafi, H.R. and Hassan, Mohamed (1994). ''Renaissance of Sciences in Islamic Countries'', p. 162. [[World Scientific]], {{ISBN|9971-5-0713-7}}.</ref><ref>Briffault, Robert (1919). [https://archive.org/details/makingofhumanity00brifrich ''The Making of Humanity'']. London, G. Allen & Unwin ltd. p. 188.</ref> as a sign of continuity.<ref>Huff, Toby E. (2003) ''The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West'', 2nd. ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-52994-8}}. pp. 54–55.</ref>

Another contrary view has been recently proposed by Arun Bala in his [[dialogue|dialogical]] history of the birth of modern science. Bala proposes that the changes involved in the Scientific Revolution—the [[Philosophy of mathematics|mathematical realist]] turn, the mechanical philosophy, the [[atomism]], the central role assigned to the Sun in Copernican heliocentrism—have to be seen as rooted in multicultural influences on Europe. He sees specific influences in [[Ibn al-Haytham|Alhazen]]'s physical optical theory, [[History of science and technology in China|Chinese mechanical technologies]] leading to the perception of the world as a machine, the [[Hindu–Arabic numeral system]], which carried implicitly a new mode of mathematical atomic thinking, and the heliocentrism rooted in ancient Egyptian religious ideas associated with [[Hermeticism]].<ref>Saliba, George (1999). [http://www.columbia.edu/~gas1/project/visions/case1/sci.1.html Whose Science is Arabic Science in Renaissance Europe?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080115070924/http://www.columbia.edu/~gas1/project/visions/case1/sci.1.html |date=15 January 2008 }} [[Columbia University]].</ref> Bala argues that by ignoring such multicultural impacts we have been led to a [[Eurocentrism|Eurocentric]] conception of the Scientific Revolution.<ref>Bala, Arun (2006) ''Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science''. Palgrave Macmillan. {{ISBN|0-230-60979-1}}{{page needed|date=March 2013}}</ref> However, he states: "The makers of the revolution—Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, and many others—had to selectively appropriate relevant ideas, transform them, and create new auxiliary concepts in order to complete their task... In the ultimate analysis, even if the revolution was rooted upon a multicultural base it is the accomplishment of Europeans in Europe."<ref>{{cite book|title=The Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science|last=Bala|first=Arun|date=13 November 2006 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DZyIDAAAQBAJ|page=176|publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-60121-5 }}</ref> Critics note that lacking documentary evidence of transmission of specific scientific ideas, Bala's model will remain "a working hypothesis, not a conclusion".<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Sobol | first = Peter G. | title = Review of ''The Dialogue of Civilizations and the Birth of Modern Science'' | journal = Isis | volume = 98 | issue = 4 | pages = 829–30 |date=December 2007 | doi = 10.1086/529293}}</ref>

A third approach takes the term "Renaissance" literally as a "rebirth". A closer study of [[Greek philosophy]] and [[Greek mathematics]] demonstrates that nearly all of the so-called revolutionary results of the so-called Scientific Revolution were in actuality restatements of ideas that were in many cases older than those of Aristotle and in nearly all cases at least as old as [[Archimedes]]. Aristotle even explicitly argues against some of the ideas that were espoused during the Scientific Revolution, such as heliocentrism. The basic ideas of the scientific method were well known to Archimedes and his contemporaries, as demonstrated in the discovery of [[buoyancy]]. This approach to the Scientific Revolution reduces it to a period of relearning classical ideas that is very much an extension of the Renaissance. This view does not deny that a change occurred but argues that it was a reassertion of previous knowledge (a renaissance) and not the creation of new knowledge. It cites statements from Newton, Copernicus and others in favour of the [[Pythagoreanism|Pythagorean]] worldview as evidence.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=228080|title=Copernicus' Relation to Aristarchus and Pythagoras|author=Africa, Thomas W. |journal=Isis|volume=52|issue=3 |year=1961|pages=403–09|doi=10.1086/349478|s2cid=144088134}}</ref><ref>A survey of the debate over the significance of these antecedents is in Lindberg, D.C. (1992) ''The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, 600 B.C. to A.D. 1450''. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr. {{ISBN|0-226-48231-6}}. pp. 355–68.</ref>

In more recent analysis of the Scientific Revolution during this period, there has been criticism of the dominance of male scientists of the time.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Structure of Scientific Revolutions|last=Kuhn|first=Thomas|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1962|isbn=978-0-226-45811-3}}</ref> Female scholars were not given the opportunities that a male scholar would have had, and the incorporation of women's work in the sciences during this time tends to be obscured. Scholars have tried to look into the participation of women in the 17th century in science, and even with sciences as simple as domestic knowledge women were making advances.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Silva|first=Vanessa|date=2014|title=Beyond the Academy – Histories of Gender and Knowledge|journal=Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology|pages=166–67}}</ref> With the limited history provided from texts of the period we cannot know the extent of women's roles in developing the scientific ideas and inventions. Another idea to consider is the way this period influenced even the women scientists of the periods following it. [[Annie Jump Cannon]] was a 20th century astronomer who benefitted from the laws and theories developed from this period; she made several advances in the century following the Scientific Revolution. It was an important period for the future of science, including the incorporation of women into fields using the developments made.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Madame Curie Complex|last=Des Jardins|first=Julie|publisher=The Feminist Press|year=2010|isbn=978-1-55861-613-4|pages=89–90}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{portal|border=no|History of science|Science|World}}
* [[Chemical revolution]]
* [[History of gravitational theory]]
* [[Information revolution]]
* [[History of science and technology in China]]
* [[Islamic Golden Age#Natural sciences|Science during the Islamic Golden Age]]
* ''[[The Structure of Scientific Revolutions]]'' (book)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin}}
* Burns, William E. ''The Scientific Revolution in Global Perspective'' (Oxford University Press, 2016) xv + 198 pp.
* Cohen, H. Floris. ''The Rise of Modern Science Explained: A Comparative History'' (Cambridge University Press, 2015). vi + 296 pp.
* {{cite book|title=The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional, and Intellectual Contexts|publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press|year=1996|isbn= 978-0-521-56762-6|ref=Grant|author=Grant, E. }}
* {{cite book|title=The Genesis of Science|year=2011|isbn=978-1-59698-155-3|ref=Hannam|author=Hannam, James|publisher=Regnery }}
* Henry, John. ''The Scientific Revolution and the Origins of Modern Science'' (2008), 176 pp
* Knight, David. ''Voyaging in Strange Seas: The Great Revolution in Science'' (Yale U.P., 2014)  viii + 329 pp.
*  Lindberg, D.C. ''The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, 600 B.C. to A.D. 1450'' (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1992).
* {{cite book|last1=Lyons |first1=Martyn |title=Books: A Living History |location=Los Angeles |publisher=The J. Paul Getty Museum |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-60606-083-4}}
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z7M8AAAAIAAJ |title=Early Physics and Astronomy: A Historical Introduction|publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press|year= 1993|isbn= 978-0-521-40899-8|ref=Pedersen|author=Pedersen, Olaf }}
* {{cite book |title=Galileo: Decisive Innovator |last=Sharratt |first=Michael |date=1994 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-56671-1|location=Cambridge |ref=Sharratt }}
* {{cite book |title=The Scientific Revolution |last=Shapin |first=Steven |date=1996 |publisher=Chicago University Press |isbn=978-0-226-75020-0 |location=Chicago |ref=Shapin |url=https://archive.org/details/scientificrevolu00shap_0 }}
* Weinberg, Steven. ''To Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science'' (2015)  xiv + 417 pp.
* Westfall, Richard S. ''Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton'' (1983).
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ED76ljJ6CD0C |title=The Construction of Modern Science|publisher= John Wiley and Sons |year=1971|isbn= 978-0-521-29295-5|ref=Westfall|author=Westfall, Richard S.|place= New York}}
* Wootton, David. ''The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution'' (Penguin, 2015) . xiv + 769 pp. {{ISBN|0-06-175952-X}}

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline|Scientific revolution}}
* {{Wikiquote-inline}}

{{Refend}}

{{Nicolaus Copernicus}}
{{Isaac Newton}}
{{History of science}}
{{philosophy of science}}
{{Western culture}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Innovation]]
[[Category:Scientific Revolution| ]]