scietific revolution in europe
When comparing the views presented by both Aristotle and Copernicus, one must consider the circumstances under which these men lived to understand the differences. The most obvious of these is the time in history. Aristotle came almost 2000 years earlier in the astronomy field. While Copernicus had set out to glorify the great religion of his time, Aristotle's views came 200 years before Christ was even born! Although the book gives the impression nothing of significance in astronomy happened in the time between Aristotle and Copernicus, professional astronomy was a developing institution during that time. For nearly 2000 years astronomers had been tracking and organizing and refining the prevailing thoughts in astronomy so that Copernicus could look at them and make his judgment. This touches on perhaps the largest difference between Copernicus and Aristotle; while Aristotle was a pioneer in his field and was bringing a whole new theory about to explain the world to the people, Copernicus was merely evaluating and analyzing other people's theories. In fact, some would say there is no such thing as the Copernican theory, but merely a theory Copernicus believed. The major point where Copernicus
With a clear hindsight view from the 21st century, we can see that the basic ideas of Christianity were not altered by this new science to the point of extinction. Rather it was the institution of the Church which had to undergo a radical change. The church had long taken the liberties of interpreting the scriptures and deciding which theories were correct, based on these interpretations. With each new discovery, not only was the very powerful church forced to admit these specific errors, but faced the possibility the people would lose faith altogether. For these reasons many early church leaders were very outspoken against certain theories, such as Copernicus' view, which contradicted them. One interesting thing to note is the reversal of the position of the Catholic Church. At first the Catholics were more tolerant, reserving judgement of Copernicus while the Protestants and Jews immediately condemned his theory. But history was much kinder to the Protestants who, overall, took a milder approach than the Catholics and were even occasionally credited with furthering science. The most famous example of the how the Catholics turned against science may be when Galileo was threatened with execution and forced apparently against his will to "denounce" his own theories. However, the book disputes this popular view saying that until the turning point of Galileo's trial the Catholics had been tolerant and allowed science in Italy to flourish. Also according to the text, this trial symbolized the inherent struggle of science vs. church in the minds of many. However, the church wasn't always or inherently against scientific exploration. On the contrary, science was seen as a branch of theology and most of the scientists discussed believed their purpose was to further religion by trying to glorify the "handiwork of God." Galileo Galilei made great contributions to several areas of science. The few remaining components of Aristotelian physics remaining after Kepler's confirmation of the Copernican theory were thoroughly extinguished by Galileo Galilei. Galileo also contributed another major component of the scientific/experimental method: controlled experiments. By his experim
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Approximate Word count = 1482
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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