The clockwork universe

Attributed to Simpologist's Photo

Astronomy (not astrology) is the study of the heavens which was key to Aristotelian scholastic. It was believed that above the moon was celestial heavens which were closer to God where things were seen to be perfect and unchanging. Below the moon everything is seen to be constantly changing and not fixed. Aristotelians and Scholastics viewed the world as perfections and purposes. They believed base things such as the earth and flesh remain down here where as a substance like fire rises up towards the heavens which express its qualities and purposes.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Francis took a violent approach towards Aristotle and Scholastics approach where he said the mistake was mixing religion and natural philosophy (science) together which resulted in confusion and obsession with word play but he acted and wanted to change this. His book 'the new organon' was written to help people find out how to get knowledge. He stated that knowledge was human power and the ability to harness power was to navigate, grow crops etc. 

There needed to be separation between science and religion.

New knowledge = induction (particular to theories) test them and then experiment. He believed it was particularly important to test the theories and also to admit when you are wrong as science is dynamic.

Bacons method (the scientific method) protected us from the ideas of the mind. He ended up dying from pneumonia as he was testing to see if meat could be preserved by being filled up with snow. (Now, thats a way to die that you will be remembered by!)

Locke

A little bit more on Locke (as we are all Locked out now!) As we know he believed that understanding comes from experience which are worked on by our powers of reason to produce 'real knowledge.' He was against the idea of 'innate ideas' as he believes at birth you are a 'blank slate.' He said that God gave us reason and the ability to look at it (innate ideas weren't needed.) He was similar to Bacon as they both believed in experience.

Galileo

Galileo was born on the day that Michelangelo died, and Newton was born the day Galileo died which links the renaissance. Kepler influenced his ideas as the telescope was invented which allowed human eyes to observe the heavens with degrees of magnitude undreamed of by previous generations. This gave an insight into observation and allowed him to come to the conclusion that planets were perfect. He could see mountains and valleys on the moon and decided that Jupiter had a number of moons and that Venus went through cycles like the moon. Galileo also decided on the distinctions between

Primary qualities which were measurable such as their shape and mass which helped us understand the world in mathematical law.

Secondary qualities are the way that we perceive which aren't real in the objects themselves they are dependant on humans perception of them.

He also believed that facts were determined by nature not by men or books. He was brought before the inquisition and was shown instruments of torture as he tried to get people to look in the telescope however they said it was magical and untrue as they already had books by Aristotle that explained nature and its creation. He remained in house arrest until his death in 1727.

Newton 1642-1727

Locke saw himself as 'number under-labourer ' that cleared the ground for scientists like Newton. Newton published a book called Principia in 1687 that was a mathematical demonstration of the copernican hypothesis proposed by Kepler. Newton convinced people the world was ordered and knowable which he named the clockwork universe (which can be seen on the front of Russell's book that we read from). After Newton, Aristotle's physics were discredited and the rest was undermined. Newton became the dominant scientific work until most of it was destroyed by Einstein (where he proved Newton to be wrong) in the 20th century. However Newton was still recognised as an enlightening figure of the renaissance period.