Lecture 2 – The Scientific Revolution (the rise of science is society)
Timeline:
1. Fall of Rome
2. Dark Ages (Middle Ages)
3. Scientific Revolution (starts in Italy)
Chronological order of key figures:
1. Augustine of Hippo
2. Ibn al-Haytham
3. Copernicus
4. Kepler
5. Galilei
6. Descartes
7. Bacon
Middle Ages Recap
The fall of Rome results in decreased access to Greek works, mainly due to the language barrier,
as Latin became the main language of the Empire and people increasingly set aside Greek. This
caused the loss of most of the Ancient Greece knowledge.
The Church preserved some texts (i.e. Plato’s) in accordance with its views, and made these
widely available, becoming the authority on knowledge.
Some Church views:
o Earth is 6000 years old
o Man ain’t no animal
o Sun around Earth
o Memento mori (heaven & hell)
o Thinking in the immaterial mind (soul)
During the Middle Ages, the plague halved the European population, hindering scientific
progress as a lot of people died (including ‘geniuses’ who came close to groundbreaking
scientific discoveries).
, Light in the Dark Ages: Outside of Europe
Augustine of Hippo
He gives a first learning theory for children: when parents point at something, you (child)
connect object to whatever it is said by parents (concept). He is talking about himself here, as
psychology started out as introspective.
He discovers the unconscious: when we ‘forget’ something, we usually think it’s lost and don’t
keep looking in the same places. However, with memory eventually we find it if we keep
searching long enough, meaning that the info was there all along, we just didn’t notice it. The
fact that we remembered it at some point is an indication of the unconscious (we are not
conscious of that memory at the moment, but our mind has it somewhere).
He identifies the problem of other minds: how do we know if other people also have
consciousness? The field of philosophy of mind is attributed to Augustine.
He answers this with the argument from analogy: because people behave the same as we do,
we can project our properties onto them.
This argument still pops up to this day, the problem isn’t solved yet (e.g., can computers have
consciousness?). Debate between rationalists and empiricists (must observe in order to talk about
the mind).
Ibn al-Haytham
Contributes to math and physics.
He explains sight. We see things because our eyes capture the light that is projected onto objects.
17th Century Europe
Etymology
‘Psychology’ was first used in 1500.
‘Science’ comes from the Aristotelic scientia, referring to theoretical knowledge.
‘Scientist’ coined by Whewell in 1833 (before referred to as ‘natural philosopher’).
Core insights associated with the scientific revolution:
o Earth is not the centre of the universe
o Earth revolves around the Sun
o Universe analogous to machine
o Laws of physics
o Experiments and ‘scientific method’
Timeline:
1. Fall of Rome
2. Dark Ages (Middle Ages)
3. Scientific Revolution (starts in Italy)
Chronological order of key figures:
1. Augustine of Hippo
2. Ibn al-Haytham
3. Copernicus
4. Kepler
5. Galilei
6. Descartes
7. Bacon
Middle Ages Recap
The fall of Rome results in decreased access to Greek works, mainly due to the language barrier,
as Latin became the main language of the Empire and people increasingly set aside Greek. This
caused the loss of most of the Ancient Greece knowledge.
The Church preserved some texts (i.e. Plato’s) in accordance with its views, and made these
widely available, becoming the authority on knowledge.
Some Church views:
o Earth is 6000 years old
o Man ain’t no animal
o Sun around Earth
o Memento mori (heaven & hell)
o Thinking in the immaterial mind (soul)
During the Middle Ages, the plague halved the European population, hindering scientific
progress as a lot of people died (including ‘geniuses’ who came close to groundbreaking
scientific discoveries).
, Light in the Dark Ages: Outside of Europe
Augustine of Hippo
He gives a first learning theory for children: when parents point at something, you (child)
connect object to whatever it is said by parents (concept). He is talking about himself here, as
psychology started out as introspective.
He discovers the unconscious: when we ‘forget’ something, we usually think it’s lost and don’t
keep looking in the same places. However, with memory eventually we find it if we keep
searching long enough, meaning that the info was there all along, we just didn’t notice it. The
fact that we remembered it at some point is an indication of the unconscious (we are not
conscious of that memory at the moment, but our mind has it somewhere).
He identifies the problem of other minds: how do we know if other people also have
consciousness? The field of philosophy of mind is attributed to Augustine.
He answers this with the argument from analogy: because people behave the same as we do,
we can project our properties onto them.
This argument still pops up to this day, the problem isn’t solved yet (e.g., can computers have
consciousness?). Debate between rationalists and empiricists (must observe in order to talk about
the mind).
Ibn al-Haytham
Contributes to math and physics.
He explains sight. We see things because our eyes capture the light that is projected onto objects.
17th Century Europe
Etymology
‘Psychology’ was first used in 1500.
‘Science’ comes from the Aristotelic scientia, referring to theoretical knowledge.
‘Scientist’ coined by Whewell in 1833 (before referred to as ‘natural philosopher’).
Core insights associated with the scientific revolution:
o Earth is not the centre of the universe
o Earth revolves around the Sun
o Universe analogous to machine
o Laws of physics
o Experiments and ‘scientific method’
