How Did The Scientific Revolution Affect European Society

During the sixteenth and seventeenth century’s, controversial and profound ideas were developed in what would become a time period of tremendous advances in the European approach to science during that period. This period of time is known as the Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution is regarded as the period in Western history that started the transition to the modern world. The Scientific Revolution can be characterized as century and a half of scientific innovation, where numerous advances were made in various fields of study. The Scientific Revolution represented a “replacement of Aristotelian and scholastic natural philosophy with a quantified and mechanistic understanding of nature.” During the Renaissance period, scientific

People began rely more on experimentation and reason, instead of age-old superstitions and religious beliefs. The Scientific Revolution also had a profound impact on the church and its role in society. Some of the great innovators of the Scientific Revolution went against the church in order to prove their experiments and theories. This led to religion taking a lesser role in society due to the fact that reason became more important than faith. Ultimately, the Scientific Revolution led to a cultural change that emphasized the importance of knowledge and science in daily life. Another facilitator that allowed the Scientific Revolution to spread was a common vocabulary and ideology that could be shared across Europe. If scientific work was to be expanded upon, a common vocabulary that could be universally understood was necessary. After a struggle between various philosophical practices and languages, an agreement was finally reached to establish “mechanical” science as the common vocabulary. The new form of communication included new learned academies, courts and print culture. At first, understanding these new terms was a male privilege, but by the mid eighteenth century women took part in learning the new science as