Scientists throughout history have dedicated their time and livelihoods to discovering, asking, testing, working, and eventually answering questions of the world around them. Without them the world we know and love, complete with IPhones and super computers, could not exist. These men and woman did what they did for progress, no matter what age they were alive in. That being said, the atmosphere in the world of a scientist can direct them to, or from, progress. The scientific revolution, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was one of the periods of time where science flourished, and was supported and hindered by the atmosphere surrounding it. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, scientists’ work was greatly influenced
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The age came off the back of absolute monarchism and centuries of monarchies being in power. For this reason, kings had some of the most power in influencing scientific discoveries and their importance. The drawing to commemorate King Louis’ visit to the French Royal Academy (#7) effectively demonstrates this relationship between scientific advancement and royalty. The visit of a king was so significant to an academy, that they had an expensive painting made up to document the occasion. It validated the academy, in a sense. They knew that generations after would see the painting and know that the King himself had viewed the teachings of the academy as worthy. Jean Colbert wrote in a letter of the “State” and its influence economically and politically in funding works of science and literature. It was done with, “…an abundance of wealth and in causing the arts and sciences to flourish,” (#6). Political powers of the 16th and 17th century validated and funded scientific excellence, while religious powers mainly slowed it …show more content…
In hindsight, a lot of the “heretics” persecuted by the church were visionaries that ended up being right. The great scientist and author Copernicus, made his proofs of a heliocentric theory in a time when the Church was perpetuating with deadly force the geocentric universe. In his book, On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres, Copernicus goes directly against the church, but writes a small dissertation to appeal to the Pope, “It is to your Holiness rather than to anyone else that I have chosen to dedicate these studies of mine,”(#1). He is essentially appealing to the Church to accept the radical ideas the book presents, in the name of God and mathematics/science. Of course, the Church did not do this in the end. Another case of religious influence on science in this time period is the acceptance of astronomy as a valid science in relation to “God’s creation”. The Church tended to be against anything that even gave question to God being the great designer of everything, so astronomy was controversial by nature, in the way it showed other planets and other stars similar to our own. John Calvin said it, “This science should not be prohibited…because some frantic persons boldly reject whatever is unknown to them,” (#2). Religion, in some cases provided inspiration and funding for scientific research, but it also slowed the progress of
The age came off the back of absolute monarchism and centuries of monarchies being in power. For this reason, kings had some of the most power in influencing scientific discoveries and their importance. The drawing to commemorate King Louis’ visit to the French Royal Academy (#7) effectively demonstrates this relationship between scientific advancement and royalty. The visit of a king was so significant to an academy, that they had an expensive painting made up to document the occasion. It validated the academy, in a sense. They knew that generations after would see the painting and know that the King himself had viewed the teachings of the academy as worthy. Jean Colbert wrote in a letter of the “State” and its influence economically and politically in funding works of science and literature. It was done with, “…an abundance of wealth and in causing the arts and sciences to flourish,” (#6). Political powers of the 16th and 17th century validated and funded scientific excellence, while religious powers mainly slowed it …show more content…
In hindsight, a lot of the “heretics” persecuted by the church were visionaries that ended up being right. The great scientist and author Copernicus, made his proofs of a heliocentric theory in a time when the Church was perpetuating with deadly force the geocentric universe. In his book, On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres, Copernicus goes directly against the church, but writes a small dissertation to appeal to the Pope, “It is to your Holiness rather than to anyone else that I have chosen to dedicate these studies of mine,”(#1). He is essentially appealing to the Church to accept the radical ideas the book presents, in the name of God and mathematics/science. Of course, the Church did not do this in the end. Another case of religious influence on science in this time period is the acceptance of astronomy as a valid science in relation to “God’s creation”. The Church tended to be against anything that even gave question to God being the great designer of everything, so astronomy was controversial by nature, in the way it showed other planets and other stars similar to our own. John Calvin said it, “This science should not be prohibited…because some frantic persons boldly reject whatever is unknown to them,” (#2). Religion, in some cases provided inspiration and funding for scientific research, but it also slowed the progress of