Origin Of The Scientific Revolution In The 16th Century

Origin of the scientific revolution in the 16th century

For the 16th century, one of the characteristics of the time was the curiosity of man to discover the world;restlessness that originated the scientific and intellectual revolution. This revolution was born at the end of the Renaissance in Europe between the 16th and 17th centuries. This period marks a break with the concepts acquired during the Middle Ages, to give way to the development of modern science. This acquired great importance to the exploration of the physical and natural world for the men of the time. The curiosity of man represented a new notion through which a change in the birth of modern science would be developed. The scientific revolution served to explain the origin of science associated with the emergence of new knowledge in physics, astronomy, biology, geography, chemistry, among others, which innovated the past and medieval visions about nature and determined the basis of classical science.

One of the reasons led her various sages to explore the physical and natural world was the limitation that medieval science symbolized for the evolution of the same. The desire for the acquisition of new learning, created in the men of the time, the need to interpret the world with a new mentality, ideas and thoughts in general. Aristotle expressed that "by nature, all men have the desire to know" (Chacón, 2017). Given this situation, notable scientists, philosophers, mathematics and physical, among others, considered it necessary to contribute new knowledge to the various research already carried out in different areas.

However, medieval science, under any circumstances, admitted refuting or questioning the authority of the investigators of the moment. This, of course, generated an obstacle and stagnation in the development of science.

Galileo Galilei, Kepler, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Francis Bacon and Descartes, expressed that science could not only be limited to the existing studies of some sages without investigating beyond. For science to move forward, it was necessary to study it thoroughly and innovate it, otherwise, the evolution of the world and the human being would stop. The men of the time saw important replace old knowledge in the field of physics, astronomy, biology and chemistry to accommodate new ones, which would forever transform medieval approaches to nature and life.

The discoveries lacked theoretical rules, so that in modern science, practice was imposed on the theoretical, and observation, measure, verification were essential to demonstrate ideas and sciences. Being that the scientific revolution was founded on the basis of the learning of the science of ancient Greece and medieval Islamic, the nascent knowledge would symbolize the foundations for the emergence of science as we currently perceive it.

This originated the vision of today’s scientific revolution, which states: “A new vision of nature, replacing the Greek vision that science had dominated for almost 2000 years. Science became an autonomous discipline, different from philosophy and technology and became considered utilitarian objectives ”(Scientific Revolution, 2020). Science, hereinafter, would undergo reason and experimentation. Therefore, many men followed by innovation, delved into the elaboration of measurement and observation devices, thus entering the scope of technology that would progress even more in the next centuries.

The idea of progress, which was in hand with the development of science, not only encouraged scientists to delve into their studies, but they bet on the experimental method. This method would represent the main source of knowledge in the world by based on the discovery of its laws, which would finally represent an important advance for science.

Another reason that led scientists to explore the world was to want to look for other sources of information beyond what is established in the Bible. Religious wars, among Catholics and Protestants who devastated Europe, caused a stagnation in science. Given this situation, the scientists decided to break the religion;which allowed them to study and explore other sources of authority. Scientists questioned the religious aspects present in the sacred book because in nature they were not observed or represented;foundation that did not coincide with the need of scientists to observe and verify events and knowledge. According to Uriarte (2020), “Religion was replaced by science, reason and knowledge. This allowed the advance of modern sciences and also led to changes in the social order ”.

In conclusion, the need to explore the world, brought with it a change in man, whose capacity for understanding had expanded. An inclination to study nature, by empiricism, had been revealed by the need to observe, measure and demonstrate;For instruments, for astronomy, mathematics and for everything concerning technology. The need to innovate explains the importance of science and technology as support for the development and sustainability of humanity.