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Descartes Rationalism And The Scientific Revolution

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The Scientific Revolution was a progressive movement that took place in the 15th through the 18th century. Scientist and Philosophers would examined traditionally held values. This is best exemplified in the reshaping of the European view of the universe. Since the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church had followed the Ptolemaic model of the universe. A geocentrism solar system where the Earth is orbited by the various planets in regular and crystalline spheres. Nicholas Copernicus the Polish astronomer, however, presented the heliocentrism theory that the sun was in the center. Johannes Kepler the German astronomer followed Copernicanism by discovering that the path of the planets' orbits is more elliptical than circular, as was previously thought. Sir Isaac Newton,an English physicist would later uphold this theory by establishing his laws of gravity. The Scientific Revolution brought changes in the Christian concept of the world, for the previous generations the geocentral models were consistent with Christian beliefs. The establishment of a new scientific model of the universe in the face of moderate Catholic opposition demonstrates the break with …show more content…

Descartes belief in empiricism preparatory reasoning, rationalism is most clearly defined in its acceptance of a deductive method of reasoning. Descartes calls to doubt everything, except one's own reason and the existence of God. Foreign of thought in the material world, everything is ruled by the laws of mathematics, and therefore is predictable since it is part of a complete system. The acceptance in God is crucial to rationalism, since God serves as the only other constant excluding the human mind. Descartes like other figure was greatly influenced by Deism, which caused him to place God. The method of reasoning caused people who could read to preach to the common people(peasants) to question the church weakening the Catholic

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