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Was The Scientific Revolution Truly Revolutionary

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Was the scientific revolution truly revolutionary? The Scientific Revolution to many signifies the emergence of modern science and human understanding. For historian Edward Grant, the revolution was a radical turning point in our history, uniting the gap between antiquity and modernity, through works such as Newton's Principia and Copernicus’s heliocentric model. However, more recently, historians and scholars are beginning to reject these earlier claims that the scientific revolution should be periodized as a turning point in our history. Instead, these historians such as that of Steven Shapin, believe that the scientific developments were a conglomeration of varying views, undeserving of the dictum the “Scientific Revolution.” Overall, …show more content…
In his book, he explores the foundation of the revolution, narrowing the causes to three specific events during that of the late middle ages. The three events that Grant cites as the causes of the scientific revolution were: the translation of the Graeco-Arabic science and natural philosophy into latin during 12-13th centuries, the formation of the medieval university, and the emergence of theologian-natural philosophers. The creation of the medieval university was influential because it led to the dissemination of ideas as well as the introduction and emphasis of free rational thinking. Free rational thought was particularly important as it allowed universities to break away from the Church with the division of the art faculty from the theology faculty. This division was highly essential to natural philosophy as well as led to the establishment of a liberal education which promoted and improved, science, logic, and philosophy. The emergence of theologian-natural philosophers was influential to the scientific revolution as it provided the basis for the thinking of philosophers such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. For example, during the late Middle …show more content…
The seventeenth century writers viewed themselves instead as as restores and purifiers of an old regime. Throughout his book, Shapin, similar to Grant draws on the continuities between that of the late middle ages and the scientific developments of the seventeenth century, specifically in that of natural philosophy. However the two historians differ in that where Grant illustrates discontinuity between the two ages, Shapin exemplifies steadfastly the non-uniqueness of scientific developments of the scientific

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