Essay, Research Paper

Before the scientific revolution, the Catholic or European worldview was basically a mixture of the theories of Aristotle and Ptolemy. It is of import for the modern-day pupil of the scientific revolution to maintain in head the rational background of the Middle Ages and non to judge the scientists of the Middle Ages as ignorant or missing of import experimental accomplishments. Aristotle set the phase for the common positions on gesture and its causes, and a mixture of the theories of Aristotle and Ptolemy was responsible for the Catholic & # 8217 ; s thought of uranology. The field of what today is known as kineticss was in the in-between ages a extremely erroneous theory based on the case in point that all heavy tellurian organic structures had a natural gesture towards the centre of the existence, the centre of the Earth, while gesture in any other way was violent gesture and required the operation of a & # 8220 ; mover & # 8221 ; ( Butterfield 15 ) . Harmonizing to the theory of Aristotle every bit shortly as the mover ceased to run the organic structure fell directly to Earth or the dropped all of a sudden to rest. The velocity of the organic structure was dependent upon and straight relative to the force exerted by the mover. In other words a changeless force provided unvarying gesture. Furthermore Aristotle stated that the velocity of the object was reciprocally relative to the opposition of the medium through which the organic structure traveled, and if the opposition was reduced to zero, the velocity would be infinite. Therefore, Aristotelians regarded a complete vacuity as impossible, saying that even God Himself could non make one ( Butterfield 16 ) . The theory came to a superb extremum in the mode by which it accounted for projectile gesture such as the flight of an pointer. The thought was that as the missile traveled through the air, the air that was pushed and compressed in the forepart had to hotfoot around behind the object to forestall a vacuity from organizing. & # 8220 ; The gesture of the missile, since it was caused by a perturbation in the medium itself, was a thing which it was non possible to conceive of taking topographic point in a vacuity & # 8221 ; ( Butterfield 18 ) . It should be added that the speed of the missile in the vacuity while it was being & # 8220 ; pushed & # 8221 ; by the mover would be infinite, since opposition would be nil. Aristotle non merely formed the footing for the European & # 8217 ; s position of kineticss, but besides formed the bulk of astronomical idea every bit good. The Catholic & # 8217 ; s position of uranology was besides extremely erroneous and was a combination of the thoughts of Aristotle and Ptolemy, but is found by Butterfield to be best explained by Dante, a Catholic author. First of all, they viewed affair as being composed of one or a mixture of the four elements Earth, H2O, air, and fire. The first two being drawn to earth and the latter holding a natural to tendency to lift. They viewed the celestial organic structures,

Sun, Moon, and stars, to be composed of a fifth, incorruptible component and was attached to domains composed, harmonizing to Aristotle, of a really elusive ethereal substance, traveling more quietly than liquids and without any clash ( Butterfield 32 ) . But with the transition of clip the common position came to be that the domains were glassy or crystalline Earths, solid but still crystalline. Harmonizing to Dante there were 10 skies, the last being the Empyrean Heaven, place of God and without gesture, while the first was nighest to Earth and carried the Moon. The following six carried the Sun and the planets, while the 8th carried the stars. The 9th Earth had no seeable marks of being, but they thought it must be at that place to turn the whole system of domains from E to west one time every 24 hours ( Butterfield 32 ) . Finally, harmonizing to Dante, all the assorted domains are moved by Intelligences or Liquors, the lowliest of whom are the angels who move the domain of the Moon ( Butterfield 34 ) . It was the authorization of Aristotle and his replacements that was responsible for all these beliefs, even the 1s which may look to hold been created by the church-the hierarchy of celestial spheres, the revolving domains, the Intelligences which moved the planets, and the position of affair being composed of four elements with the heavenly organic structures being composed of the incorruptible 5th kernel. The beauty of this basically Aristotelean system had been soberly compromised by the betterments in astronomical observation which took topographic point early in the Christian epoch. In the age of Ptolemy, the complications had become serious, and the whole heavenly machinery needed farther amplification to account for the planets which in no manner followed unvarying round gesture. Ptolemy developed an luxuriant description of this unusual gesture by saying that epicycles, or smaller domains attached to the larger 1s as above mentioned, were the agencies by which the planets followed such unusual waies in the sky. The whole system required eighty spheres nevertheless and many authors differed in their sentiment on merely how many spheres the sky contained and how to truly history for the unusual waies of the planets.

All this set the phase for the scientific revolution. For since the celestial spheres were composed of a complex system of domains and heavenly machinery, there was no clear, simple, or rational account for the motions of all the celestial organic structures. Therefore, new systems were shortly to be devised and the trusters in the old systems were more than ready to leap to the defensive in order to conserve their established beliefs. As in the words of Einstein, & # 8220 ; Great thoughts have ever encountered violent resistance from the mediocre mind. & # 8221 ; But however, alteration did come, but non without a long, difficult, and sometimes violent battle.