STS112 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Whig History, Scientific Revolution, Numerology
8 Jun 2018
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Week 1: Intro to Scientific Revolution and Whig History
The Scientific Revolution
• 1500 – 1700: Seen as the period where Modern Science was born
• Views on Earth changed from being in the centre of the universe to just another planet revolving around the
sun
• Key individuals: Copernicus (1473-1543), Kepler (1571-1630), Galileo (1564-1642), Descartes (1596-
1650), Bacon (1561-1626), Newton (1642-1727)
• Galileo, Kepler and Newton were all deeply religious
• Newton was into Alchemy, Numerology, Theological speculation while Kepler was into mystical
mathematical speculation
• Historiography: the study of the topic of History EG ‘doing’, ‘writing’ and ‘interpreting’ History
Natural Philosophy
• Natural Philosophy: broad aim of creating unified understanding of nature far fewer boundaries between
philosophy, crafts, arts, music and theology than modern science
• Most of the key figures during the period we are studying would have described themselves as Natural
Philosophers
Whig History
• The term Whig history (19th century British politics) is sometimes used to refer to history which selectively
ignores context
• The ‘Whig’ politicians were accused of writing History which placed themselves at the pinnacle of some-
kind of inevitable process of historical development – praising people with similar views to their own and
criticizing those who differed
Week 1: Theory Loading
Naïve Empiricism
• The material world is a systematic collection of facts
• The Method Story:
o Nature: System of given fact → Observe → Report generalise (induction) → Hypothesis → Deduce
prediction → Test vs Nature
o Test ok, hypothesis → Law
o Test not ok, start over
• It is assumed that humans can accurately record/report observations without distortion and then build them
into theories
Critiques
• Observation is a much more complex process and that a lot more is involved in humans building knowledge
of the world than simply building up observations
Gestalt
• An organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts
• Seeing things as a whole – multiple inputs of information ignoring some inputs and filling in the gaps in
other cases
• If one can't see one or the other shape in the gestalt diagram then perhaps one can be ‘taught’ to see it
Facts
• Different languages = different facts, Different theories = different facts
• Are communicable, verbal or symbolic reports which may relate back to our perceptions
• Are variable, negotiable and revisable
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