The Clockwork Universe - HCJ Week Five

This lecture covered a couple of hundred years and some of the most significant scientific developments in the field of astronomy, ever. So I guess what I'm saying is, I fear, this may not be a brief blog.

First off, FRANCIS BACON.
Put forward a direct challenge to the centuries old and widely accepted Aristotelian school of thought. Believed that all this previous accepted knowledge on astronomy was wrong, and that it needed to be scrapped and others start again developing these ideas. This point of view was put forward in his work, The New Organon. Bacon is credited with creating the scientific method, he was a great believer in experiment and claimed that no theory could be proved correct without repeated testing. This is now fundamental in all areas of science. Bacon also thought that there should be a clear separation of science and religion, rather than the two being intertwined, as it was at the time. Set the ball rolling on scientific development in the area of astronomy.

LOCKE (again)
Consistent with Bacon, saw the need for scientific experiment. Did not agree with the concept of 'innate ideas', felt that when born the mind was a blank slate, and is filled in through life with knowledge acquired through deduction, reasoning and experience. As religion goes beyond reasoning and experience, it cannot be dictated, it must develop through private revelation.

Despite these proposals from two great minds, science was still very under developed, with a lot of theories taken for granted as true that were fundamentally incorrect, including the belief that everything revolved around earth. Until...

THE HELIOCENTRIC MODEL
This is the model that states that the earth in fact rotates around the sun, as does everything else.

COPERNICUS - Through his attempts to reform the calendar in the 16th Century, came to the conclusion that it must be the Sun that is at the center of the Universe, not Earth. This idea did not make much headway until...

JOHANNES KEPLER - Also a believer in Bacon's scientific method, Kepler attempted to prove Copernicus' unproven theory. After gathering centuries worth of data together, he was able to make a case for the hypothesis based on evidence, however it was still not proven.

GALILEO - His life bridges the gap between the Renaissance and the Age of Science, being born the year Michelangelo died and dying the year Newton was born. Galileo was the first to look upon the heavens accurately, using a telescope he had acquired from Holland, and made personal improvements to, allowing him to see the universe in greater detail than anyone before him. Challenged the two major authorities of his day, Aristotle and the Bible. Galileo believed in provable facts, which emanated from nature, not from men. Claimed mathematics was the language of nature, and without the knowledge of mathematics, the human mind could not comprehend nature. Made the distinction between primary and secondary qualities in objects, primary being measurable assets of an object, and secondary depending on human interpretation.

NEWTON - Wrote 'Principia', a mathematical demonstration of the Copernican hypothesis on the Heliocentric model. Convinced people in general that the Universe was ordered and knowable. Newton began the enlightenment period, his work finally ending the reign of Aristotle, Newton's work fundamentally undermining and discrediting Aristotle's in the area of Physics.