What Caused the Scientific Revolution?
The Scientific Revolution occurred between 1550 and 1700 A.D., thanks, in part, to Copernicus’ heliocentric cosmos theory. Newton’s Universal Laws and Mechanical Universe are considered the end of the Scientific Revolution.
While historians argue over the exact dates of the Scientific Revolution, most agree that the traditional interpretation of the period was based on a belief in the core transformation of cosmology and astronomy. These shifts effected physics and some historians claim the sciences of anatomy and physiology too.The main cause of this shift relied on Copernicus’ discovery of a heliocentric cosmos in “De Revolutionibus.”
Copernicus’ heliocentric cosmos theory required proofs and new developments were necessary. New astronomical observations were discovered with Tycho Brahe, and theoretical changes concerning the planets’ movements were associated with Johannes Kepler’s new theories in physics regarding motion, paving the way for the likes of Galileo Galilei, Rene Descartes, Isaac Newton and Christiaan Huygens.
The implications of the Scientific Revolution were huge with Newtonian Synthesis arguing for an infinite, quantitative homogeneous universe instead of a finite, closed, hierarchical, qualitative universe. This change essentially meant that all things were one. One set of laws to govern one kind of matter in one kind of space. These views also questioned dominant theological thought and changed the way people understood their relationship to “God, Nature and Man.”
