The Scientific Revolution

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There were three major revolutions at work during the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, the scientific revolution, the enlightenment revolution and the political revolution. All of these revolutions have shaped western thought and ideals to this day and continue even in this age to shape western thoughts and ideals. What brought us to our thinking of today? Which, if any of the three, were the most important in shaping our thoughts on science, politics, and our social structures? Or were each an independent revolution without consequences on the others? The scientific revolution and the change in thought that it produced was the foundation for the enlightenment revolution, and in turn the enlightenment revolution was the foundation for the political revolution. The scientific revolution was started in the fifteenth century with Copernicus (1473-1543). Copernicus theorized that the earth, stars, and known planets revolved around a fixed sun. He worked on this theory for 24 years before publishing it the year he died for fear of ridicule. His theory was the first real departure from medieval thought on the universe. Up until that point the accepted theory was that of Aristotle. Aristotle’s theory stated many things and placed the earth at the center of the universe. Copernicus’ theory was widely criticized by religious leaders and was slow to penetrate the traditionally held belief. Many others helped progress the scientific revelation, Kepler (1571-1630) with his three laws of planetary motion, which he figured out based off of the meticulous data recorded by Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) on the stars and planets. Galileo furthered the experimental method; meaning instead of guessing what might or will happen, he c... ... middle of paper ... ...inst the powers that they blindly followed based on the rights believed to be given to their monarchs by God. The people began to question the validity of their religious beliefs and consequently they began to question the laws and taxes imposed upon them from monarchs based on these religious beliefs. Applying reason and experiments to the understanding of the universe produced new and rational ideas. It only makes sense to apply the same reason and experiments to social and political understanding which did indeed produce new and rational ideas, such as more human rights, to a point, and new political ideology, such as a democratic United States and a Republican France, before Napoleon. We continue to fight for democracy, human rights and more scientific discovery in the United States and throughout the world today. Works Cited History of World Civilizations

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