James+Week+four

The Scientific Revolution DEFINITION - CONCEPT - HISTORY  ** One of the articles I read this week was probably my least favorite so far. In Professor Robert A. Hatch’s document on the scientific revolution, I was quite disappointed. It seemed like two-thirds of the article was explaining the debate over the accurate time frame for the revolution, instead of actually elaborating on what it entailed. He did open his article with a nice definition of what he thinks the Scientific Revolution is in terms of a historians perspective. What he states is that the Scientific Revolution, “ refers to historical changes in thought & belief, to changes in social & institutional organization, that unfolded in Europe between roughly 1550-1700  .” **

After Hatch’s ramble about the several theories about the correct dates for the Scientific Revolution, he starts to point out a good point about what we gained, //and lost//, during the revolution. “ But in the bargain, so the argument goes, not only was the world of Nature entirely re-conceptualized, so was the nature of Human Knowledge. This in turn raised questions about the traditional Human Eternal Verities -- how humans understood themselves in relation to 'God, Nature, and Man'. ” The Scientific Revolution put the seed of doubt in many peoples’ minds about the integrity and credibility of the Church. I guess the general public found scientific fact more convincing than holy faith. But is God’s word not enough? By the end of his argument, Hatch ties the word “science” into it all. He argues that historians, “ found it difficult to talk meaningfully about their world without 'Science' -- the defining characteristics of Modern and Western, they seemed to suggest, were inconceivable without 'Science'. Further, they saw Science as the defining element of the early modern period, more important than the wars or forgotten treaties. ” I agree with part of this statement. First of all science was the defining element of the early modern period. And as a modest attempt to explain this, we’ll say technology and a better understanding of how the universe goes ‘round helped humans become better at ‘living.’ The closing remarks Professor Hatch makes were enlightening and well executed, but the majority of it was quite uninteresting about the exact moments the revolution commenced and came to a close.