Posted: September 8th, 2022

Scientific Revolution

Explain how the Scientific Revolution impacted European political and philosophical theory. Your focus here is not on the great scientists, though you may bring some of them into your writing if you wish, but rather on their impact…on how the revolution in thought shifts from the hard sciences to the philosophical, and from there to the political.

Scientific Revolution
The scientific revolution took place during the 17th century and it came as a result of the emergence of modern science. Such a transformation was influenced by the developments made in astronomy, mathematics, biology, as well as chemistry as they redefined the societal perceptions concerning nature. Precisely, this revolution began towards the end of the Renaissance period across Europe through the further development by medieval Islamic science as well as the Byzantine or Roman science. Traditional systematic experimentation measures were slowly adopted while the artificial and natural circumstances were abandoned. In this regard, the philosophical approach of the inductive strategy that focused on neglecting the assumptions and attempts to promote observation with an open mind contradicted with the previously embraced Aristotelian approach that was structured around the analysis of present facts being deduced to enhance further understanding. Empiricism was highly adopted and promoted by Francis Bacon who promoted the inductive approaches for scientific enquiries; the Baconian method (Ferngren, 2017). On the other hand, Rene Descartes, a rationalist, managed to differentiate between the knowledge that was structured around experience and that which could only be attained by reason.
The foundations for the Enlightenment era were founded through the scientific revolution. This transformed the political approaches across Europe as reason would be adopted as the fundamental source of legitimacy and authority. Gradually, the scientific authority began to erode religious authority to a point where the latter lost credibility. The transformation was founded on the basis of a high regard for empiricism as well as rational thought which were integrated to the Enlightenment ideal of growth and development (Jackson, 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online). Overall, the scientific revolution is characterized by the reaffirmation of the importance of experimentation, the attribution of validity to the pursuit of science, and the invalidation of the importance of God to science.

References
Ferngren, G. B. (Ed.). (2017). Science and religion: a historical introduction. JHU Press.
Jackson, P. T. (2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online). The conduct of inquiry in international relations: Philosophy of science and its implications for the study of world politics. Routledge.

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