Chapter 2: Intellectual Finally, there were the Renaissance

Revolutions that Defined Society. scholars who were uncovering other

Greek authors who
An intellectual revolution is a contradicted Aristotle. This was
period where paradigm shifts unsettling, since these scholars had
occurred and where scientific a reverence for all ancient
beliefs that have been widely knowledge as being nearly infallible.
embraced and accepted by the
people were challenged and A. Copernican Revolution
opposed. Historically, this
intellectual revolution can be Nicolas Copernicus was a Polish
summed up as the“replacement of scholar working at the University of
Aristotelian ethics and Christian Padua in northern Italy.
morality by a new type of decision
making which may be termed Copernicus' solution was basically
instrumental reasoning or cost geometric. By placing the sun at
­benefit analysis” (Wootton as cited the center of the universe and
by McCarthy, 2019). having the earth orbit it, he reduced
the unwieldy number of epicycles
The Birth of Modern Science from 80 to 34. His book,
Western science, like so many Concerning the Revolutions of the
other aspects of Western Civilization, Celestial Worlds,
was born with the ancient Greeks. published in 1543, laid the
They were the first to explain the foundations for a revolution in how
world in terms of natural laws Europeans would view the world and
rather than its place in the universe.
myths about gods and heroes. They
also passed on the idea of the value Johannes Kepler
of math and experiment in
science. At this time, Tycho Brahe, using
only the naked eye, tracked the
The most influential figure in entire orbits of various stars and
Western science until the 1600's, planets. Previously, astronomers
was the philosopher, Aristotle, who would only track part of an orbit at a
created a body of scientific theory time and assume that orbit was in a
that towered like a colossus over perfect circle. Brahe kept extensive
Western Civilization for some 2000 records of his observations, but did
years. not really know what to do with them.
That task was left to his successor,
However, there were several factors Johannes Kepler.
that worked both to overthrow
Aristotle's theories and to preserve it. Kepler was a brilliant mathematician
First of all, Aristotle's theories relied who had a mystical vision of the
very little on experiment, which left mathematical perfection of the
them vulnerable to anyone who universe that owed a great deal to
chose to perform such experiments. the ancient Greek
mathematician Pythagoras.
Despite these preoccupations,
Kepler was open minded enough to
realize that Brahe's data showed the
planetary orbits were not circular.
Finally, his calculations showed that B. The Darwinian Revolution
those orbits were elliptical.
The publication in 1859 of The
Galileo Origin of Species by Charles
Darwin ushered in a new era in the
However, it was the work of an intellectual history of humanity.
Italian astronomer, Galileo Galilei Darwin is deservedly given credit for
(1564-­1642), armed with a new the theory of biological evolution: he
invention, the telescope, which accumulated evidence
would further shatter the old theory demonstrating that organisms evolve
and lead the way to a new one. and discovered the process, natural
selection, by which they evolve.
Using his telescope, Galileo saw the
sun's perfection marred by The English theologian William
sunspots and the moon's perfection Paley in his Natural Theology
marred by craters. He also saw four (1802) elaborated the argument from
moons orbiting Jupiter. In his book, design as forceful demonstration of
The Starry Messenger (1611), he the existence of the Creator.
reported these disturbing findings
and spread the news across Europe. What is the meaning of natural
theology?
Starry Messenger (2022) is about a
way of looking at the world called the Natural theology is a program of
cosmic perspective. It's the view inquiry into the existence and
that opens up when we think about attributes of God without referring
human life in its largest possible or appealing to any divine
context – that of the universe itself. revelation.
This isn't an exercise in making our
worldly affairs seem small and trivial, C. Freudian Revolution
though.
Sigmund Freud was born in 1856,
Isaac Newton before the advent of telephones,
radios, automobiles, airplanes, and a
Newton had to invent a whole new host of other material and cultural
branch of math, calculus, for changes that had taken place by the
figuring out rates of motion and time of his death in 1939.
change. The genius of Newton in
physics, as well as William Harvey -Founding father of
in medicine and Mendeleev in Psychoanalysis, a method for
chemistry, was not so much in his treating the mental illness and also a
new discoveries, as in his ability to theory which explains human
take the isolated bits and pieces of behavior.
the puzzle collected by his
predecessors and fit them together.
 by the use of a rubber ball in the ball
game tlachtli, a game played by
Mesoamerican civilizations from
D. Scientific Revolution in earliest times.
Mesoamerica American people were gifted
horticulturalists and cultivated crop
The Mesoamerican civilization were plants from the earliest times.
isolated from the accumulated Among the plants that originated
scientific knowledge of Africa, Asia in MesoAmerica are corn (maize),
and Europe. papaya, avocado and cocoa.

This exchange of knowledge E. Asian Scientific Revolution

between these ancient civilizations
was critical in the development of Currently, Japan is probably the
their scientific knowledge. Because most notable country in Asia in
of this isolation, Mesoamerican terms of scientific and technological
civilization developed on their own achievement, particularly in terms of
and became much more self­reliant. its electronics and automobile
products. For instance, Japan,
The most advanced Mesoamerican Taiwan, South Korea, and China
civilization was the Maya together produce a staggering 90%
civilization that was well on its way of the world’s digital gadgets.
to develop true science. They knew
how to make paper and had pictorial F. Scientific Revolution in Middle
script called Maya hieroglyphs that East
allowed them to record all
knowledge on long strips of paper The Egyptians excelled in such
folded harmonica style into books. applied sciences as medicine,
engineering, and surveying; in
The Dresden Codex contains Mesopotamia greater progress was
predictions of solar eclipses for made in astronomy and
centuries and a table of predicted mathematics.
positions of Venus. Unlike the
European scientists who used Of all the accomplishments of the
astronomical instruments like ancient Middle East, the invention of
telescopes, the Maya made the alphabet is probably the
predictions by aligning stars with two greatest.
objects that were separated by a
large distance, a technique that In the early Hyksos period (17th
achieved great accuracy of angular century BC) the Northwestern
measurement. Semites living in Egypt adapted
hieroglyphic characters in at least
Several outstanding achievements two slightly differing forms of letters
can be reported in the area of to their own purposes.
technology and invention. The
manufacture of rubber was one of F. Scientific Revolution in Africa
the earliest inventions, documented
The history of the sciences in Africa
is rich and diverse. The applied H. Information Revolution
sciences of agronomy, metallurgy,
engineering and textile Information revolution might prove
production, as well as medicine, as significant to the lives of people.
dominated the field of activity across Computer technology is at the root
Africa. of this change, and continuing
advancements in that technology
We know also that a variety of seem to ensure that this
African plants were adopted in Asia, revolution would touch the lives of
including coffee, the oil palm, fonio people. Computers are unique
or acha (digitaria exilis), African machines; they help to extend the
rice (oryza glabberima), and brain power. Computerized robots
sorghum (sorghum bicolor). have been replacing blue collar
workers; they might soon be
In the field of Mathematics, Nubian replacing white collar workers as
builders calculated the volumes of well.
masonry and building materials, as
well as the slopes of pyramids, for The information revolution led us
construction purposes. to the age of the internet, where
optical communication networks
In the field of medicine, common play a key role in delivering massive
patterns and trends emerged across amounts of data. The world has
the continent. These included experienced phenomenal network
scientifically proven methods, as growth during the last decade, and
well as techniques and strategies further growth is imminent.
which were culturally specific and
psychologically significant. Impact of Information Revolution
Among the common principles and
procedures were hydrotherapy, The truly revolutionary impact of the
heat Information Revolution is just
therapy, spinal manipulation, beginning to be felt. But it is not
quarantine, bone setting and "information" that fuels this impact.
surgery. It is not "artificial intelligence." It is
not the effect of computers and
Various types of metal products data
have been used over time by processing on decision making,
Africans, ranging from gold, tin, policy making, or strategy. It is
silver, bronze, brass, and something that practically no one
iron/steel. foresaw or, indeed, even talked
about ten or fifteen years ago: e-­
The various metal products served a commerce—that is, the explosive
wide range of purposes, including: emergence of the Internet as a
armor (as in some northern major, perhaps eventually the
Nigerian city states), jewelry (of major, worldwide distribution
gold, silver, iron, copper and brass), channel for goods, for services,
cooking utensils, cloth dyeing, and, surprisingly, for managerial and
sculpture, and agricultural tools. professional jobs.
In particular, the assumption is that
the Information Revolution will be
like the Industrial Revolution of the
late 18th and early 19th centuries.
And that is indeed exactly how the
Information Revolution has been
during its first fifty years.