HISTORY 5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Indep, Magical Thinking, History Of Longitude
Document Summary
Ren revival - unmodern kinda science, in dialogue w/ ancient wisdom. Not till 18c do we get more modern-looking science - self-consciously looking forward and rejecting the past. More analytical science - making fine distinxns . Not a course abt sci - need to discuss cultural/political impt. Not at first obvious how new way of thinking abt gravity, or discovery of microscopic organisms, relate to the rest of soc or even each other. Ex: newton"s principia mathematica - historians often say it changed the way we think. But such a complicated work, probably not more than 100 ppl in the world who could understand it when it was first published. Analytic techniques didn"t just provide new descriptions of the nat world; asserted new ways to control the natural world. One of the classic experiments of sci rev: robert boyle"s air pump, 1660. Proved for 1st time that air has pressure. New way of thinking about humanity"s rel to nature.
