Impact of science in Europe

The renewal of learning in Europe began with 12th century Scholasticism. The Northern Renaissance showed a decisive shift in focus from Aristotelian natural philosophy to chemistry and the biological sciences (botany, anatomy, and medicine). Thus modern science in Europe was resumed in a period of great upheaval: the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation; the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus; the Fall of Constantinople; but also the re-discovery of Aristotle during the Scholastic period presaged large social and political changes. Thus, a suitable environment was created in which it became possible to question scientific doctrine, in much the same way that Martin Luther and John Calvin questioned religious doctrine. The works of Ptolemy (astronomy) and Galen (medicine) were found not always to match everyday observations. Work by Vesalius on human cadavers found problems with the Galenic view of anatomy.

The willingness to question previously held truths and search for new answers resulted in a period of major scientific advancements, now known as the Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution is traditionally held by most historians to have begun in 1543, when the books De humani corporis fabrica (On the Workings of the Human Body) by Andreas Vesalius, and also De Revolutionibus, by the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, were first printed. The thesis of Copernicus' book was that the Earth moved around the Sun. The period culminated with the publication of the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687 by Isaac Newton, representative of the unprecedented growth of scientific publications throughout Europe.

Other significant scientific advances were made during this time by Galileo Galilei, Edmond Halley, Robert Hooke, Christiaan Huygens, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Gottfried Leibniz, and Blaise Pascal. In philosophy, major contributions were made by Francis Bacon, Sir Thomas Browne, René Descartes, Spinoza and Thomas Hobbes. The scientific method was also better developed as the modern way of thinking emphasized experimentation and reason over traditional considerations.

Age of Enlightenmentedit

The Age of Enlightenment was a European affair. The 17th century brought decisive steps towards modern science, which accelerated during the 18th century. A critical innovation was the creation of permanent scientific societies in the major , and their scholarly journals, which dramatically speeded the diffusion of new ideas. Typical was the founding of the Royal Society in London in 1660. Directly based on the works of Newton, Descartes, Pascal and Leibniz, the way was now clear to the development of modern mathematics, physics and technology by the generation of Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), Leonhard Euler (1707–1783), Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717–1783). Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie, published between 1751 and 1772 brought this new understanding to a wider audience. The impact of this process was not limited to science and technology, but affected philosophy (Immanuel Kant, David Hume), religion (the increasingly significant impact of science upon religion), and society and politics in general (Adam Smith, Voltaire). The early modern period is seen as a flowering of the European Renaissance, in what is often known as the Scientific Revolution, viewed as a foundation of modern science.

Romanticism in scienceedit

The Romantic Movement of the early 19th century reshaped science by opening up new pursuits unexpected in the classical approaches of the Enlightenment. Major breakthroughs came in biology, especially in Darwin's theory of evolution, as well as physics (electromagnetism), mathematics (non-Euclidean geometry, group theory) and chemistry (organic chemistry). The decline of Romanticism occurred because a new movement, Positivism, began to take hold of the ideals of the intellectuals after 1840 and lasted until about 1880.

Eurocentrism in scientific historyedit

Eurocentrism in scientific history are historical accounts written about the development of modern science that attribute all scholarly, technological, and philosophical gains to Europe and marginalize outside contributions. The Scientific Revolution in Europe during the 16th-18th centuries was the period of human advancement into modern science by disproving the Aristotelian view of natural sciences and philosophy through proofs of calculations. Until Joseph Needham's book series Science and Civilisation in China began in 1954, many historians would write about modern science solely as a European achievement with no significant contributions form civilizations other than the Greeks. Recent historical writings have argued that there was significant influence and contribution from Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Arabic, Indian, and Chinese astronomy and mathematics.

In contrast to the Eurocentric view, historians argue evidence of East Asian influence in the scientific revolution. The astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus is credited with having begun the Scientific Revolution with his work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, which used calculations of Islamic astronomers. His findings were focused on the earth's rotation on its axis every twenty-four hours and its orbit around the sun every 365¼ days. These findings led Copernicus to his heliocentric system, using knowledge known to Chinese astronomers based on their understanding of heavenly bodies moving against the path of the sun and the pole star, such as comets. His heliocentric planetary theory was published in 1543, the same year the Greek works of Archimedes were translated from Arabic into Latin. The change in philosophical mindset as well as astronomical improvements gained by the Jesuits research in China is used as evidence to argue for its influence in Copernican work as well as Arab calculations and translations of Greek texts.