Read Online Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson - Free Book Online
Authors: Niall Ferguson
Tags: General History
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so neer us, under our feet, shews quite a new thing to us … We may perhaps be inabled to discern all the secret workings of Nature. What may not be therefore expected from it if thoroughly prosecuted?
Talking
and
contention of Arguments
would soon be turn’d into
labours
; all the fine
dreams
of Opinions, and
universal metaphysical natures
, which the luxury of subtil Brains has devis’d, would quickly vanish, and give place to
solid Histories
,
Experiments
and
Works.
And as at first, mankind
fell
by
tasting
of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge, so we, their Posterity, may be in part
restor’d
by the same way, not only by
beholding
and
contemplating
, but by
tasting
too those fruits of Natural knowledge, that were never yet forbidden. From hence the World may be assisted with
variety
of Inventions,
new
matter for Sciences may be
collected
, the
old improv’d
, and their
rust
rubb’d away …
Hooke’s use of the term ‘cell’ for a microscopic unit of organic matter was one of a host of conceptual breakthroughs, crowded together astonishingly in both time and space, that fundamentally redefined humanity’s understanding of the natural world.
The Scientific Revolution may be said to have begun with almost simultaneous advances in the study of planetary motion and blood circulation. But Hooke’s microscope took science to a new frontier by revealing what had hitherto been invisible to the human eye.
Micrographia
was a manifesto for the new empiricism, a world away from Faustus’ sorcery. However, the new science was about more than just accurate observation. Beginning with Galileo, it was about systematicexperimentation and the identification of mathematical relationships. The possibilities of mathematics were in turn expanded when Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz introduced, respectively, infinitesimal and differential calculus. Finally, the Scientific Revolution was also a revolution in philosophy as René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza overthrew traditional theories about both perception and reason. Without exaggeration, this cascade of intellectual innovation may be said to have given birth to modern anatomy, astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, geometry, mathematics, mechanics and physics. Its character is best illustrated by a list of just the most important twenty-nine breakthroughs of the period from 1530 to 1789. *
1530
Paracelsus pioneers the application of chemistry to physiology and pathology
1543
Nicolaus Copernicus’
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
states the heliocentric theory of the solar system
Andreas Vesalius’
De humani corporis fabrica
supplants Galen’s anatomical textbook
1546
Agricola’s
De natura fossilium
classifies minerals and introduces the term ‘fossil’
1572
Tycho Brahe records the first European observation of a supernova
1589
Galileo’s tests of falling bodies (published in
De motu
) revolutionize the experimental method
1600
William Gilbert’s
De magnete
,
magnetisque corporibus
describes the magnetic properties of the earth and electricity
1604
Galileo discovers that a free-falling body increases its distance as the square of the time
1608
Hans Lippershey and Zacharias Jansen independently invent the telescope
1609
1609 Galileo conducts the first telescopic observations of the night sky
1610
Galileo discovers four of Jupiter’s moons and infers that the earth is not at the centre of the universe
1614
John Napier’s
Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio
introduces logarithms
1628
William Harvey writes
Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus
, accurately describing the circulation of blood
1637
René Descartes’ ‘La Géométrie’, an appendix to his
Discours de la méthode
, founds analytic geometry
1638
Galileo’s
Discorsi e dimonstrazioni matematiche
founds modern mechanics
1640
Pierre de Fermat founds number theory
1654
Fermat and Blaise Pascal found probability theory
1661
Robert Boyle’s
Skeptical Chymist
defines
Talking
and
contention of Arguments
would soon be turn’d into
labours
; all the fine
dreams
of Opinions, and
universal metaphysical natures
, which the luxury of subtil Brains has devis’d, would quickly vanish, and give place to
solid Histories
,
Experiments
and
Works.
And as at first, mankind
fell
by
tasting
of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge, so we, their Posterity, may be in part
restor’d
by the same way, not only by
beholding
and
contemplating
, but by
tasting
too those fruits of Natural knowledge, that were never yet forbidden. From hence the World may be assisted with
variety
of Inventions,
new
matter for Sciences may be
collected
, the
old improv’d
, and their
rust
rubb’d away …
Hooke’s use of the term ‘cell’ for a microscopic unit of organic matter was one of a host of conceptual breakthroughs, crowded together astonishingly in both time and space, that fundamentally redefined humanity’s understanding of the natural world.
The Scientific Revolution may be said to have begun with almost simultaneous advances in the study of planetary motion and blood circulation. But Hooke’s microscope took science to a new frontier by revealing what had hitherto been invisible to the human eye.
Micrographia
was a manifesto for the new empiricism, a world away from Faustus’ sorcery. However, the new science was about more than just accurate observation. Beginning with Galileo, it was about systematicexperimentation and the identification of mathematical relationships. The possibilities of mathematics were in turn expanded when Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz introduced, respectively, infinitesimal and differential calculus. Finally, the Scientific Revolution was also a revolution in philosophy as René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza overthrew traditional theories about both perception and reason. Without exaggeration, this cascade of intellectual innovation may be said to have given birth to modern anatomy, astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, geometry, mathematics, mechanics and physics. Its character is best illustrated by a list of just the most important twenty-nine breakthroughs of the period from 1530 to 1789. *
1530
Paracelsus pioneers the application of chemistry to physiology and pathology
1543
Nicolaus Copernicus’
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
states the heliocentric theory of the solar system
Andreas Vesalius’
De humani corporis fabrica
supplants Galen’s anatomical textbook
1546
Agricola’s
De natura fossilium
classifies minerals and introduces the term ‘fossil’
1572
Tycho Brahe records the first European observation of a supernova
1589
Galileo’s tests of falling bodies (published in
De motu
) revolutionize the experimental method
1600
William Gilbert’s
De magnete
,
magnetisque corporibus
describes the magnetic properties of the earth and electricity
1604
Galileo discovers that a free-falling body increases its distance as the square of the time
1608
Hans Lippershey and Zacharias Jansen independently invent the telescope
1609
1609 Galileo conducts the first telescopic observations of the night sky
1610
Galileo discovers four of Jupiter’s moons and infers that the earth is not at the centre of the universe
1614
John Napier’s
Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio
introduces logarithms
1628
William Harvey writes
Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus
, accurately describing the circulation of blood
1637
René Descartes’ ‘La Géométrie’, an appendix to his
Discours de la méthode
, founds analytic geometry
1638
Galileo’s
Discorsi e dimonstrazioni matematiche
founds modern mechanics
1640
Pierre de Fermat founds number theory
1654
Fermat and Blaise Pascal found probability theory
1661
Robert Boyle’s
Skeptical Chymist
defines
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