HLST200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Micrographia, Fengu People, De Humani Corporis Fabrica
2 Jun 2018
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1. Why are the dates 1543 and 1689 used to bookmark the Scientific Revolution?
Because some of the giants of science lived, contemplated the natural world, and produced the
underpinnings of modern science.Given the accomplishment of the periode, it is no wonder that
historians have agonized about idea of a area of scientific revolution. Indeed, the twentieth
century discipline of the history of science began by focusing on the problem of the origin of
modern science.
1. 2. Where were Bacon’s four “Idols” and how did they factor into a new method of thinking
about nature?
The Idols were the prejudices and preconceived ideas through which human being observed the
world. Bacon felt that the only way for natural philosophers to disabuse themselves of these
Idols was to look at small , discret bits of nature. The only way to be certain one understood
these small bits was to study them in a controlled setting, isolated from the larger( uncontrolled
) environment. Using this assumption he introduced what has come to be called the inductive
method.
1. 3.What idea was Descartes getting across with the statement “Cogito ergo sum”?
That as a thinking, doubting being, he must exist in order to think the doubting thought,
1. 4. What is the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning?
Bacon is best known for developing inductive reasoning and Descartes for deductive reasoning.
As Cormack points out, both terms share the same Latin root, “duco,” meaning “to lead.” Induco
means to lead into and deduco to lead from. Bacon contended that one had to collect all the facts
and lead into the theory. Descartes believed that one had to start with the theory and lead out to
the facts. Of course, there is much more to the matter than that but, taken together, Bacon and
Descartes do present a new and different way of approaching the study of nature. I think Bacon
and Descartes are equally important. Descartes was important because he decided that he
existed and related thought to the universe and how relative thoughts are in a bigger picture.
Bacon depicted information and conclusions as obvious and unnecessary: conclusions should
only be based on fact and experience. Descartes also was very religious and that was important
because it was science and the belief in God that influenced his experiments and reason. And
inductive method...this is based again on truth and experience... and I think that that was what
Bacon was trying to get across from the beginning.
1. 4.Who was Isaac Newton and why is he an important figure in the history of science?
Isaac Newton was born on Christmas day,1642, the same day that galileo died.He was a
potential heretic, since he would not take the required oath of uniformity to the church
ofengland, which was normallyrequired for any high academi or government position.Although
it is unlikely that an apple really fell on his head, during the following year, his annus mirabilis (
,iraculous year), he worked out theories about gravitation, physics and astronomy, he also
created the calculus and began his investigations into optics and theories of light.
1. 5.What were Newton’s most important discoveries and when did he make them?
Urged on and funded by astronomer Edmond Halley, who was also at Cambridge observing the
path of a now-famous comet, Newton dove into the study of gravitational force in the 1670s and
'80s.The result of Newton's research was his seminal work published in 1687, the Principia,
considered by many as the greatest science book ever written. Across the pages of the Principia,
Newton breaks down the workings of the solar system into "'simple"' equations, explaining away
the nature of planetary orbits and the pull between heavenly bodies. In describing why the Moon
orbits the Earth and not vice-versa (it's because the Earth is so much heavier), the book literally
changed the way people saw the universe.
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1. 6. What were Newton’s three laws of motion and what significance do they have for the
history of science?
Newton's laws pertain to the motion of massive bodies in an inertial reference frame, sometimes called a
Newtonian reference frame, although Newton himself never described such a reference frame. An inertial
reference frame can be described as a 3-dimensional coordinate system that is either stationary or in
uniform linear motion., i.e., it is not accelerating or rotating. He found that motion within such an inertial
reference frame could be described by three simple laws. The First Law of Motion states, "A body at rest
will remain at rest, and a body in motion will remain in motion unless it is acted upon by an external
force." This simply means that things cannot start, stop, or change direction all by themselves. It takes
some force acting on them from the outside to cause such a change. This property of massive bodies to
resist changes in their state of motion is sometimes called inertia. The Second Law of Motion describes
what happens to a massive body when it is acted upon by an external force. It states, "The force acting on
an object is equal to the mass of that object times its acceleration." This is written in mathematical form as
F = ma, where F is force, m is mass, and a is acceleration. The bold letters indicate that force and
acceleration are vector quantities, which means they have both magnitude and direction. The force can be
a single force, or it can be the vector sum of more than one force, which is the net force after all the forces
are combined. When a constant force acts on a massive body, it causes it to accelerate, i.e., to change its
velocity, at a constant rate. In the simplest case, a force applied to an object at rest causes it to accelerate
in the direction of the force. However, if the object is already in motion, or if this situation is viewed from
a moving reference frame, that body might appear to speed up, slow down, or change direction depending
on the direction of the force and the directions that the object and reference frame are moving relative to
each other. The Third Law of Motion states, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."
This law describes what happens to a body when it exerts a force on another body. Forces always occur in
pairs, so when one body pushes against another, the second body pushes back just as hard. For example,
when you push a cart, the cart pushes back against you; when you pull on a rope, the rope pulls back
against you; when gravity pulls you down against the ground, the ground pushes up against your feet; and
when a rocket ignites its fuel behind it, the expanding exhaust gas pushes on the rocket causing it to
accelerate.
1. 8. What did Newton mean when he said Hypotheses Non fingo (I feign no hypotheses)?
I have not as yet been able to discover the reason for these properties of gravity from phenomena, and I do
not feign hypotheses. For whatever is not deduced from the phenomena must be called a hypothesis; and
hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, or based on occult qualities, or mechanical, have no place
in experimental philosophy. In this philosophy particular propositions are inferred from the phenomena,
and afterwards rendered general by induction.[1]
1. 9.What did the work of William Harvey, Robert Boyle, and Robert Hooke add to the
development of scientific method and scientific thought?
William Harvey was born in 1578 in Folkestone, Kent. Harvey studied at Caius College, Cambridge before
he enrolled at the University of Padua in 1598. At the time when Harvey was a student at Padua, Galileo
was a tutor there and there is little doubt that he was highly influenced by the Galilean way of thinking
that enthused the university as a whole. Harvey learned about the human body by dissection and
anatomical observation. William Harvey made the momentous medical discovery that the flow of blood
must be continuous and that its flow must be in one direction only. This discovery sealed his place in the
history of medicine. Harvey explained how blood flowed in one direction throughout the body and that it
was in the lungs where the transformation of venous blood to arterial blood took place. In 1651, Harvey’s
second major piece of work, ‘De Generatione Animalium’, was published. This work concentrated on
embryology and its importance is based on the fact that it contained the theory of ‘epigenesis’ – that the
organism does not exist as a minute, preformed entity within the ovum but develops from it by a gradual
building up of its parts. Von Baer confirmed this belief in the Nineteenth Century. However, he had the
advantage of using the microscope. Harvey’s one major mistake concerned fertilisation, which he believed
to be something akin to mysticism and metaphysical. Harvey likened fertilisation to the magnetism
transferred from one piece of metal to another. However, there can be little doubt that if Harvey had had
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Document Summary
Indeed, the twentieth century discipline of the history of science began by focusing on the problem of the origin of modern science: 2. The idols were the prejudices and preconceived ideas through which human being observed the world. Bacon felt that the only way for natural philosophers to disabuse themselves of these. Idols was to look at small , discret bits of nature. The only way to be certain one understood these small bits was to study them in a controlled setting, isolated from the larger( uncontrolled. That as a thinking, doubting being, he must exist in order to think the doubting thought: 4. Bacon is best known for developing inductive reasoning and descartes for deductive reasoning. As cormack points out, both terms share the same latin root, duco, meaning to lead. induco means to lead into and deduco to lead from. Bacon contended that one had to collect all the facts and lead into the theory.
