To begin, it can be said that Astromomy can be related to the study of heavens. Relating to the rise of science, in the 16th century, with its absorption in theology, the 16th century itself was far more medieval than the world of Machiavelli.
The above image was taken from Flickr, by Kojotomoto.
Frances Bacon (1561-1621)Bacon was a founder of the modern inductive method and the pioneer in the attempt at logical systematization of scientific procedure. He was violent towards Aristotle and the scholatic approach, and believed it was a mistake of mixing religion and natural philosophy. His most important book is named 'The advancement of Learning' and in many ways as stated in Russel's History of Western Philosophy, is extremely modern. Bacon is regarded as the originator of the saying 'Knowledge is power'. The basis of his philosophy was practical and he believed that philosophy should be kept seperate from theology.
Bacon wished to discover the nature of heat, which he rightly believed consisted of rapid irregular motions of the small part of bodies.
Locke
Although we have previously gone over Locke, and he is also mentioned a fair bit in previous blogs, it is important to go over a few main points about him. Locke believed in human understanding, and most importantly, believed that understanding comes from experience. He was against any innate ideas, relating to when we are born, our minds are a blank slate. He stated that god gave us a reason and ability to look at something and understand it. Therefore if this is true, the innate theory is not needed. Locke believed similarly to Bacon that most things are down to experience. Heliocentric Model
In the 16 th century polish astronomer copernicus stated that he believed that the sun is at the centre of the universe and that the earth has a twofold motion;
1. a diurnal rotation
2. an annual revolution about the sun
Copernicus main work was named - De Revolutionibus Orbiun Coelestium, and was published in the year of his death (1543), with a preface completed by his friend Osiander, saying that the heliocentric theory was only put forward as a hypothesis. This book was dedicated to the pope, during the time of Copernicus the church was more liberal than it become after the council of trent, the Jesuits and the revived inquisition had done their work. Copernicus allows himself to be influenced by aesthetic motives, the fact that the sun is not exactly in the centre, complicated the simplicity of his theory. One of the many difficulties in his theory was the absence of stellar parallax. Ultimately, if the earth at any one point of its 186,000,000 miles from the point at which it will be in six months, this ought to cause a shift in the apparent positions of the stars. However none of this was observed by Copernicus.
Galileo (1564-1642)Galileo, Galileo. Galileo, Galileo. Galileo, figaro, magnifico. Just a few lyrics from Queen which instantly pop in my head whenever the name Galileo is mentioned (for obvious reasons).
On a serious note, Galileo is the greatest of the founders of modern science, apart from maybe Newton. He was born on the day when Michelangelo died, and he died in the year in which Newton was born, Galileo first discovered the importance of acceleration in dynamics. 'Acceleration' means change in velocity, whether that means in magnitude or direction. It had been thought 'natural' for heavently bodies to move in circles, and terrestrial bodies to move in straight lines. Galileo held , as against this view, that every body, if left alone, will continue to move in a straight line with uniform velocity. This principle was the enunciated by Newton as the 'first law of motion' and is also named 'intertia'
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