C

H

A P T

E

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16

TowardaNewHeaven

andaNewEarth:The

ScientificRevolution

andtheEmergenceof

ModernScience

A nineteenth-century painting of Galileo before the Holy Office in the

Vatican in 1633

Louvre, Paris//Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY

CHAPTER OUTLINE

AND FOCUS QUESTIONS

Background to the Scientific Revolution

Q What developments during the Middle Ages and

the Renaissance contributed to the Scientific

Revolution of the seventeenth century?

Toward a New Heaven: A Revolution in

Astronomy

Q What did Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton

contribute to a new vision of the universe, and

how did it differ from the Ptolemaic conception of

the universe?

Advances in Medicine and Chemistry

Q What did Vesalius, Harvey, Boyle, and Lavoisier

contribute to a scientific view of medicine and

chemistry?

Women in the Origins of Modern Science

Q What role did women play in the Scientific

Revolution?

Toward a New Earth: Descartes,

Rationalism, and a New View of Humankind

Q Why is Descartes considered the “founder of

modern rationalism”?

The Spread of Scientific Knowledge

Q How were the ideas of the Scientific Revolution

spread, and what impact did they have on society

and religion?

CRITICAL THINKING

QIn what ways were the intellectual, political,

social, and religious developments of the

seventeenth century related?

CONNECTIONS TO TODAY

QWhat scientific discoveries of the twentieth and

twenty-first centuries have had as great an impact

on society as those of the Scientific Revolution?

IN ADDITION TOthe political, economic, social,

and international crises of the seventeenth century,

we need to add an intellectual one. The Scientific

Revolution questioned and ultimately challenged

conceptions and beliefs about the nature of the

external world and reality that had crystallized into

a rather strict orthodoxy by the later Middle Ages.

Derived from the works of ancient Greeks and

Romans and grounded in Christian thought, the

medieval worldview had become formidable. But the

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