INTELLECTUAL

REVOLUTIONS
THAT SHAPED
SOCIETY
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Enumerate the contributions of different intellectual

revolutions to society.
Explain how science, technology and society is
transformed by different intellectual revolutions
Revolution
From the Latin word “revolutionem” – refers to a turning
motion (celestial bodies)

Denote trends
• Social changes outside the political sphere
• mores,
• Culture
• Philosophy
• technology
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS

}
 An age of Intoxication
Transformation
“Invention of destruction”
Reaction Catalyst of
Counter Revolution
modernization
Restoration
THE IMPORTANCE OF
INTELLECTUAL SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION
 A period in Europe
 A change in thinking form traditional to rational and logical thought
 Scientists introduced theories
 Helped society transition into the enlightenment period.
 The beginning of modern science.
DARWINIAN REVOLUTION
oIdeas animating on the origin of species
oIt is not only about the mechanism that drives the
evolution of life on this planet, but the fundamental ideas
of the text have implication that range well beyond the
scope of natural history
oThe assumptions behind Darwin’s arguments challenging
ideas that go much further back than the set of ideas the
Darwin set himself
Darwin’s set of Ideas

a. Ideas of decisive importance when we think about

ourselves
b. The nature of the material universe
c. The planet that we live upon, and
d. Our place in its scheme of life
FREUDIAN REVOLUTION
 Does not merely introduce fresh conceptions which is why called
revolutionary.
 Affects all our thinking, bringing about a general reevaluation of
ideas.
 Explains the very fact that it exhibits the protection of customary
views
 The society creates mechanisms to ensure social control of human
instincts.
FREUDIANISM
 Vulgar nation
 Sexualizing of human activities

IMPACT OF HIS WORKS

 Cautions us against “wild interpretations”, since there is always a
constant insistence on conflict and on the fact that conflicting
tendencies are like parts of a person and the solution is not to be by
mere excision.
COPERNICAN
REVOLUTION
Began the scientific revolution
Radically impacted beliefs in science, astronomy, and
even religion.
We may be standing on the threshold of changes even
more fundamental and far-reaching than those initiated
by Copernicus
The consequence of such a shift are manifold as stated with the
following examples:
a. Ne research activities are started
b. Familiar phenomena are given new interpretations
c. Educational approaches are altered
d. Power structures in society undergo change
e. New bases of consensus are applied to conflicts between belief
systems
INFORMATION REVOLUTION

It is the proliferation of the availability of

information
The accompanying changes in its storage
The dissemination owing to the use of computers.
Refers to the global paradigm prevalent from the late
1990’s onward
Characterized collectively by unprecedented
advancements in technological innovation
The rapid global proliferation, appropriation,
application and use of new Digital Information and
Communication Technologies in everyday life.
THE HISTORY OF INFORMATION REVOLUTION
 Others argue that the information revolution is the digital revolution
that started with the silicon chip, the invention at the start of the
1960’s
 Silicon Chip or micro chips
 The device quickly became a low-cost mass-produced commodity
 It is able to process large amounts of information at high speeds
 It is cheap and powerful
 It is also very small about the size of a finger nail
 The equivalent of the amount of processing power would have required
a room sized computer with costs running into six figures
 Stone Age Information Age
Flint Chips Micro chips
 Revolutionizing our society and
 Basis of a range of tools
economy
which extended the power of
 Extends the powers of men’s
men’s hands.
brains.
 This made people more  Revolutionized our lives
productive
 Runs our appliances, calculators,
computers and other electronic
devices
 It does not only speed ups
communication but it is the
enormous reduction of cost and
storing information
 People feared that the computers and
communications of the current information
revolution would lead to the type of centralized
control depicted in George Orwell’s dystopian
novel 1984.
THE MAYA
 Information provides power
 More people have access to more information that ever before
 Power can be used not only by governments, but also by non-state
actors ranging from large corporations and non-profit organizations
to criminals, terrorists and informal ad hoc groups.
 It depends not on whose army wins, but on whose story wins
MESOAMERICAN
 An important historical region and cultural area in the
America
 It is one of six areas in the world where ancient civilization
arose independently
 The second in the Americas along with Norte Chico in
present-day northern coastal Peru.
 THE AZTEC

Ancient Aztec writing Ancient aztecs

 This was originated as a nomadic tribe in Northern Mexico
 It arrived in Mesoamerica around the beginning of the 13 th
century.
 It emerged as the dominant force in central Mexico
 And develops an intricate social, political, religious and
commercial organizations that brought many of the
region’s city-states under their control by the 15 th century.
Aztecs several important advancements in the domains of education
and science
 Make education compulsory for all children
 This education included basic military training for all male
students
 Made advancements in mathematics, medicine and astronomy
 Steam baths and variety of herbs were used as a medicine.
 They had their own numbers system which used 20 as its base
 This numbering system was used for calculating taxes.
Achievements in Aztec technology

 Chinampa system of farming, stone carving and the remarkable step

pyramids.
 Domain of architectures was the city of Tenochtitlan which was divided into four parts each

having its own architectural value.

 THE
INCA
 Flourished in ancient Peru
 Their empire was extended across western South American
 It was the largest empire ever seen in the Americas and the
largest in the world at that time.
 Conquered people and exploited landscapes
 They lacked level fields for farming and to solve it, they
developed a system of terraces that they constructed
throughout the empire like giant green staircases
 Their architecture includes some of the best stonework
from any ancient civilization
ASIAN
 Their science and technology varied depending on the country and
time.
 In the past, their civilizations most notable for their contributions to
science and technology.
 At present, the most notable country in Asia in terms of its
technological and scientific achievement is Japan – known for its
electronics and automobile products.
 The alchemy was an important precursor to chemistry was also
developed in Asia as found in Chinese and Indian manuscripts.
MIDDLE EAST
 Much essential Muslim knowledge had not yet reached the
West
 The answers to many questions were to be found in Arabic
and Persian sources, including masterpieces of Greek
mathematics that survived as Arabic versions enriched
with commentaries and solutions to equations.
 The scientists hoped to find in these manuscripts
epitomized the new spirit of the scientific revolution, with
its emphasis on empirical data, experimental methods and
observations in Europe
 AFRICAN
 Their intellectual contribution has been overshadowed by the
magnitude of African economic and cultural inputs.
 Reconstruction of their cultures of the past faces problems due to
the lack of writing systems
 Evidence of advanced methods of metal making suggest that
African people may have been the first to enter the Iron Age
Ishango bone
 20,000 year old artifact
 10 centimeters long
 Unearthed among the shores of Edward
Lake in the Congo
 Has three columns of numbers
 Speculated uses include an early version
of the abacus or calculator
 Another possibility is a lunar calendar or
an early type of slide rule
MATH
 Eight thousand years ago, people developed their own numeration
system
 The Yoruba system – based on units of 20 and required an
impressive amount of subtraction to identify different numbers
 ASTRONOMY
 Egyptians charted the movement of the sun and constellations and
the cycles of the moon
 Divided the year into 12 parts
 Developed a yearlong calendar system containing 365 ¼ days
 Clocks were made with moving water and sundial – like clocks
were used
 METALLURGY AND TOOLS
 Steam engines, metal chisels and saws, copper and iron
tools and weapons, nails, glue, carbon steel and bronze
weapons and art were made across the antirety of ancient
Africa.
 Ancient Tanzania furnaces could reach 1,800 degrees
Celsius – 200 to 400 degrees Celsius warmer than those of
the Romans
 ARCHITECTURE
 ENGINEERING
The Creation of sophisticated built environments.
 Egyptians
 The bafflingly raised obelisks and more than 80 pyramids.
 The largest pyramids covers 13 acres and made of 2.25 million blocks of stone
 Zimbabwe and Mozambique
 Massive stones complexes were the hubs of cities
 250- meter long
 15,000 – ton curved granite wall cities
 Castle like compounds with numerous rooms
Empire of Mali
Boasted impressive cities
Grand palaces
Mosques
universities
 MEDICINE
 Before the European invasion of Africa, to name just a few places was more
advanced than medicine in Europe
 Some of these medicines were the use of plans with salicylic acid for pain,
kaolin for diarrhea, and extracts that were confirmed in the 20th century to kill
Gram positive bacteria
 Medical procedures performed in ancient Africa before they were performed in
Europe
 This procedures includes vaccination, autopsy, limb traction and broken bone
setting, bullet removal, brain surgery, skin grafting, filling of dental cavities,
installation of false teeth (Caesarean section), anesthesia and tissue
cauterization
 NAVIGATION
 Most of us learned that the Europeans were the first to sail to the Americas but
several evidences suggest that ancient Africans sailed to south America and
Asia hundreds of years before Europeans
 Ancient societies in Africa build boats, including small reed-based vessels,
sailboats and grander structures with many cabins and even cooking facilities
 The Mali and Songhai built boats – 100 feet long and 13 feet wide that could
carry up to 80 tons
 Due to some evidences, it was said that small numbers of West Africans sailed
to the east coast of South America
 Some ancient people sailed to China and back carrying elephants as cargo