The Scientific Revolution and its Significance

Paper Summary:

This paper attempts to demonstrate why the Scientific Revolution in the 16th and 17th centuries was not just simple evolution and how science, as we know it, did not really emerge until this period. It examines how, once underway, it dispelled commonly held principles based on simple observation by predecessors, such as Aristotle and Ptolemy and how, in doing so, managed to cling to tradition and religious beliefs.

From the Paper:

"The man who is most given credit for starting the Scientific Revolution is Nocolai Copernicus, a Polish astronomer. Copernicus' heliocentric theory published in 1543 in the book On the Revolutions of Celestial Bodies led to the downfall of the Ptolemaic system. Instead of the universe revolving around the earth the heliocentric theory created a model of the universe that placed the sun at the center with the earth rotating daily and revolving yearly around it. Another important feature of the heliocentric theory is that it allowed a new ordering of the planets according to their periods of revolution."

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