GED 109: STS CHAPTER 2

"Intellectual Revolutions • The first to explain the world in terms of

natural laws rather than myths about
That Defined Society" gods and heroes.
• Also passed on the idea of the value of
math and experiment in science,
Normal Science although they usually thought only in terms
of one to the exclusion of the other.
• It is an acceptable level of errors • ARISTOTLE was the most influential figure
• Experimenting within a settled paradigm in Western Science until the 1600s.
or explanatory framework. o created a body of scientific theory
• When they make a theory, it's not that towered like a colossus over
questionable Western Civilization for some 2000
• Lacking for breakthroughs of such years
discoveries
There were several factors that worked both to
overthrow Aristotle's system and preserve it;
Revolutionary Science
1. Aristotle's theories relied very little on
• Change of basic ideas within the ruling experiment
theory of science. 2. The Church had grafted Aristotle's theories
• Returned to normal science under a new onto its theology
worldview. 3. There were Renaissance scholars who were
uncovering other Greek authors who
contradicted Aristotle.
INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION
Pattern of Development
An intellectual revolution is a period where
paradigm shifts occurred and where scientific
beliefs that have been widely embraced and The combination of these factors generated
accepted by the people were challenged and a cycle that undermined Aristotle but also slowed
opposed. down the creation of a new set of theories.

PARADIGM SHIFT COPERNICUS

"The successive transition from one paradigm to • The first person who started this slow
another via revolution is the usual developmental process of dismantling Aristotle's
pattern of mature science" - Kuhn, The Structure of cosmology
Scientific Revolutions
COPERNICAN REVOLUTION

• According to Encyclopedia Britannica,

Copernican revolution is known as the
shift in the field of astronomy from a
geocentric understanding of the universe,
centred around Earth, to a heliocentric
understanding, centred around the Sun.

NICOLAS COPERNICUS

• Polish scholar working at the University of

Padua in northern Italy.
• He wrestled with the paths of planetary
THE BIRTH OF MODERN SCIENCE orbits.

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 • Heavens do not always appear to move in TYCHO BRAHE (1546-1607)
perfect, uninterrupted circles.
• Rather, they sometimes seem to move • Danish nobleman
backward in what is known as • Supernova caused him to do research
retrogradations. astronomy
• Concerning the Revolutions of the • Tracked the entire orbits of various stars
Celestial Worlds and planets using only the naked eye
• He kept extensive records of his
RETROGRADE MOTION observations

• was simply a perspective effect caused

when Earth passes a slower-moving outer
planet that makes the planet appear to be
moving backward relative to the
background stars.

EPICYCLES

• A circle in which a planet moves and which

has a center that is itself carried around at
the same time on the circumference of a
larger circle.
• By the 1500s, the model of the universe had
some 80 epicycles attached to ten
crystalline spheres. This showed him the universe was not
changeless and it shook his very core beliefs
PTOLEMY
JOHANNES KEPLER
• The second century Greek astronomer He
was the main authority who put order to • brilliant mathematician.
and passed this cumbersome system of • He had a mystical vision of the
epicycles to posterity. mathematical perfection of the universe.
• He was also open minded enough to realize
COPERNICUS' SOLUTION that Brahe's data showed the planetary
orbits were not circular.
• It was basically geometric Placing the sun at
the center of the universe and having the TRIVIA: SN 1604 Kepler's Supernova
earth orbit it, he reduced the unwieldy
number of epicycles from 80 to 34. A few years before Tycho died another supernova was
observed by Kepler in the constellation of Ophiuchus on
His book, Concerning the Revolutions of the October 17th 1604. It has been observed by others as
Celestial Worlds, published in 1543. early as Oct. 4th (last known supernova in Milky Way)

-laid the foundations for a revolution in how GALILEO GALILEI

Europeans would view the world and its place in the
universe. • He was the first to successfully use math to
define the workings of the cosmos. Although
However, Copernicus' intention was not to create a such a conclusion as elliptical orbits inevitably
radically new theory but to get back to even older met with fierce opposition, the combination of
ideas by such Greeks as Plato and Pythagoras who Brahe's observations and Kepler's math helped
believed in a heliocentric (sun-centred) universe. break the perfection of the Aristotelian universe.
He detailed his radical theory of the universe • An Italian astronomer
in which the Earth, along with the other • TELESCOPE, which would further shatter
planets, rotated around the Sun. the old theory and lead the way to a new
one.

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 o Using his telescope, Galileo saw the DARWINIAN REVOLUTION
sun's perfection marred by sunspots
and the moon's perfection marred
by craters. He also saw four moons The publication in 1859 of The Origin of Species
orbiting Jupiter. by Charles Darwin ushered in a new era in the
intellectual history of humanity.
• The Church tried to preserve the
Aristotelian and Ptolemaic views of the • Darwin is deservedly given credit for the
universe by clamping down on Galileo and theory of biological evolution:
his book and making him promise not to o he accumulated evidence
preach his beliefs. demonstrating that organisms
• Galileo's work was the first comprehensive evolve and discovered the process,
attack on the Aristotelian/Ptolemaic of natural selection, by which they
cosmic model. He treated celestial objects evolve.
as subject to the same laws as terrestrial
objects. NATURAL SELECTION

ISAAC NEWTON • process through which populations of living

organisms adapt and change.
• Newton had to invent a whole new branch
of math, calculus, for figuring out rates of Individuals in a population are naturally
motion and change. variable, meaning that they are all different in
some ways. This variation means that some
• The implications of Newton's THEORY OF
individuals have traits better suited to the
GRAVITY can easily escape us since we
environment than others.
now take it for granted that physical laws
apply the same throughout the universe.
• His THREE LAWS OF MOTION were The importance of Darwin's achievement is that
simple, could be applied everywhere, and it completed the Copernican revolution initiated
could be used with calculus to solve any three centuries earlier, and thereby radically
problems of motion that came up. changed our conception of the universe and the
place of humanity in it.
• Newton's work also completed the fusion
of math promoted by Renaissance
humanists, Aristotelian logic pushed by • The adaptations and diversity of organisms
medieval university professors, and • The origin of novel and highly organized
experiment to test a hypothesis pioneered forms
by such men as Leonardo da Vinci and • The origin of humanity itself could now be
Galileo into what we call the scientific explained by an orderly process of change
method. governed by natural laws
• The origin of organisms and their marvelous
This fusion had gradually been taking place adaptations were, however, either left
since the Renaissance, but the invention of unexplained or attributed to the design of
calculus made math a much more dynamic tool an omniscient Creator.
for predicting and manipulating the laws of
nature. WILLIAM PALEY

• English theologian
The printing of Newton's book, Principia
Mathematica, in 1687 is often seen as the start of • NATURAL THEOLOGY (1802)
the Enlightenment (1687-1789). It was a significant o elaborated the argument-from--
turning point in history, for, armed with the tools of design as a forceful demonstration
Newton's laws and calculus, scientists had of the existence of the Creator.
unprecedented faith in their ability to understand,
predict, and manipulate the laws of nature for their BRIDGEWATER TREATISES
purposes.
• Published between 1833 and 1840
• Were written by eminent scientists and
philosophers to set forth "the power,

JANICAH REYES 3
 wisdom, and goodness of god as
manifested in the creation."
2. MORE IMPORTANT
FREUDIAN REVOLUTION a. Reason is that Freud gave people a
new way of thinking about why they
acted the way they did. He created
SIGMUND FREUD a whole new way of interpreting
behaviors
• Born in 1856, before the advent of
telephones, radios, automobiles, airplanes,
SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION IN MESOAMERICA
and a host of other material and cultural
changes that had taken place by the time of
his death in 1939. Mesoamerican civilization
• Freud's most obvious impact was to
change the way society thought about • Were isolated from the accumulated
and dealt with mental illness. scientific knowledge of Africa, Asia and
• Before psychoanalysis, which Freud Europe due to that they developed scientific
invented, mental illness was almost knowledge became critical and they
universally considered 'organic'; that is, it became self-reliant.
was thought to come from some kind of
deterioration or disease of the brain.
MAYA CIVILIZATION
• People drew a sharp dividing line between
the "insane" and the "sane."
o Insane people were those with • The most advanced Mesoamerican
physical diseases of the brain. civilization that was well on its way to
o Sane people were those without develop true science.
diseased brains.
MAYA HIEROGLYPHS
PSYCHOANALYSIS
• The Mayans made paper and had a pictorial
• today it is regarded by most sources– script called Maya hieroglyphs
medical, academic, governmental, and
others–as almost entirely incorrect in its The Mayans are also the first to used pitched
conception of the mind. ceilings in their buildings after the invention of the
• This judgment is based on the crucial test of corbelled vault.
psychoanalysis:
o whether or not it helps patients with MOST ACCURATE CALENDAR EVER
behavioral or psychological DESIGNED
problems. The consensus is that it
does not. • The Maya made predictions by aligning
stars with two objects that were separated
Psychoanalysis in its many varieties appears by a large distance, a technique that
to have little or no efficacy in treating mental achieved great accuracy of angular
illness. measurement.

In contrast, psychopharmacology and cognitive- DRESDEN CODEX

behavioral therapies (therapies that simply try to change
what the patient thinks and does rather than analyzing • Contains predictions of solar eclipses for
the causes of the behavior), while far from perfect, do centuries and a table of predicted positions
appear to help. of Venus.

Why Freud is still important? RUBBER

1. PURELY PRACTICAL • Was their first of the earliest inventions and

a. Psychoanalysis has enormous documented it's purpose in ball game
historical significance. TLACHTILI.

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 American are horticulturalists and cultivated SOUTH KOREA
crop plants from the earliest times.
• It’s cultural popularity around the world has
• Papaya. caused a number of startup’s to emerge
• Avocado. working within the digital and technology
• Corn. sectors, including website [Link]
• Cocoa
CHINA

AZTECS • The most well-known and oft-cited Asian

inventions were China's four breakthrough
• Created a system of canals, floodgates, technologies:
and aqueducts. o Papermaking, from about 100 AD;
• They used dikes to separate freshwater and o Movable-type printing;
saltwater. o Gunpowder; and
• They also have a better understanding on o The compass from around 1000 AD.
hydraulic systems.
• They built their temples based on the TAIWAN
settling of the Sun and not Venus.
• They have collected a wealth of botanical,
and medical knowledge and believed in a • Following a similar path to Japan
humoral system that linked plants, animals, meanwhile, moving away from hardware
the human body and the heavens. production, instead turning to software
and content development.
• Aztec physicians even treated dandruff.

ASIA
INKA

• Home to the world's earliest

• Developed an empire in Andes Mountains.
civilizations.
The most famous Inkan site is Machu Pichu,
Peru. • Its indigenous cultures pioneered many
practices that have been integral to
• They have standard measurement units,
societies for centuries, such as agriculture,
medical specialists, astronomical, and
city planning, and religion.
calendric data, recorded into every
architecture of their cities. • The social and political geography of the
continent continues to inform and influence
• KHIPU
the rest of the world.
o They do not have writing systems,
they used a sophisticated system
of tying strings. SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION IN MIDDLE-EAST

ASIAN SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION During the 3,000 years of urbanized life in

Mesopotamia and Egypt tremendous strides were
JAPAN made in various branches of science. and
technology
• Probably the most notable country in Asia
in terms of scientific and technological EGYPTIANS
achievement, particularly in terms of its
electronics and automobile products. • Excelled in such applied science as
medicine, engineering, and surveying;
The general conception is that many of the
cutting-edge technological developments, and to a MESOPOTAMIA
lesser extent scientific advancements, emanate
from Asia. For instance, Japan, Taiwan, South • Greater progress was made in astronomy
Korea, and China together produce astaggering and mathematics.
90% of the world’s digital gadgets.

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 • Both science and pseudosciences spread They deepened our understanding of Malian
from Egypt and Mesopotamia to Phoenicia cosmological myths like and their perceptions of
and Anatolia. the structure of matter and the physical world.
• Mesopotamia's influence can be traced
especially through the partial borrowing of DOGON KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS
Babylonian, Science and divination by the
Hittites and later by the transmission of
• Have also been explored in terms of their
information through Phoenicia.
perceptions on astronomy.
• Dogon propositions about Sirius B have
INVENTION OF ALPHABET
been discussed by Charles Finch in The Star
of Deep Beginnings.
• They based it on the idea developed by the
Egyptians but used their own specific
symbols. SOLAR CALENDAR
• HIEROGLYPHICS
o Symbols used to represent a • Evolved from the Egyptian calendar of
particular sound or groups of twelve months calibrated according to the
sounds. day the star Sirius rose on the horizon with
• This alphabet spread rapidly and was in the Sun.
quite common use among the Northwestern
Semites (Canaanites, Hebrews, Aramaeans, NUBIAN BUILDERS
and especially the Phoenicians) soon after
its invention.
• Calculated the volumes of masonry and
building materials, as well as the slopes of
PHOENICIANS pyramids, for construction purposes.

• Should be the most remembered for being Common patterns and trends emerged across
the beginners of the modern alphabet and the continent these included scientifically proven
written language that is widely used today. methods:
• The Phoenicians are the very first to
develop and use a complete “symbol to • Hydrotherapy
sound” writing system. • Heat therapy
• Spinal manipulation
• Quarantine
• Bone-setting
SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION IN AFRICA • Surgery.
• Incantations
• Other psychotherapeutic devices
The culture of farming within West Africa, that
sometimes accompanied other techniques.
‘New World‘ agricultural growth was spawned by
the use of captives from these
VARIOUS TYPES OF METAL PRODUCTS
African societies that had already made
enormous strides in the field of agronomy. • Have been used over time by Africans from
that Africa emerged in the context of
various commercial routes and
• Plants, whether in terms of legumes, grain,
activities involving the gold trade.
vegetables, tubers, or, wild or cultivated
fruits, also had medicinal implications for • Served a wide range of purposes, including
Africans. armour, cooking utensils, and jewelries.
They became open also with cloth dyeing,
• Some of this such as Hoodia gordonii and
sculpture, and agricultural tools.
Combrettum caffrumare being integrated
within contemporary pharmaceutical
systems. In various parts of ancient, medieval, and
contemporary Africa, building constructions of
various dimensions, shapes, and types emerged,
reflecting various concepts, techniques, raw
material preferences, and decorative principles.

JANICAH REYES 6
 INFORMATION REVOLUTION consumer segmentation, consumer values,
and consumer behavior; jobs and labor
markets.
A period of change that describes current • New and unexpected industries:
economic, social and technological trends beyond o Biotechnology and Fish farming will
the Industrial Revolution. no doubt emerge fast

• The information revolution was fueled by • Fish farming may change us from hunters
advances in semiconductor technology and gatherers on the seas into "marine
o particularly the metal-oxide- pastoralists"
semiconductor field-effect transistor
(MOSFET)
Around 1455, since Gutenberg's printing
o The integrated circuit (IC) chip
revolution, they are made the assumption that the
Information Revolution will evolve as several earlier
Leading to the Information Age in the early
technology-based "revolutions" have evolved over
21st century (Lukasiak, 2010; Orton, 2009).
the past 500 years. In particular, the assumption is
that the Information Revolution will be like the
• SEMICONDUCTORS Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and
o it is an essential component of early nineteenth centuries.
electronic devices. It controls and
manages the flow of electric
current in electric equipment and
devices.

COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY

• At the root of this change, and continuing

advancements in that technology seem to
ensure that this revolution would touch the
lives of people.
• Computers
o Unique machines; they help to
extend the brain power.

The information revolution LED US TO

THE AGE OF THE INTERNET, where optical
communication networks play a key role in
delivering massive amounts of data. The world has
experienced phenomenal network growth during
the last decade, and further growth is imminent.

IMPACT OF THE INFORMATION REVOLUTION

• It is something that practically on one

foresaw or indeed, even talked about ten or
fifteen years ago:
• E-COMMERCE - that is, the explosive
emergence of the Internet as a major,
perhaps eventually the major, worldwide
distribution channel for goods, for services,
and, surprisingly, for managerial and
professional jobs.
• This is profoundly changing economies,
markets, and industry structures;
products and services and their flow;

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