Philosophical Impact of the Scientific Revolution

Philosophical Implications of the New Science

The Role of Mathematics

The consideration of mathematics represents the true and objective reality that provides the intelligible structure of reality. Mathematics is "the language in which the great book of the world is written," and everything that disturbs or hinders the reduction of reality to a mathematical or geometric pattern must be mentally deleted.

The Mechanistic Worldview

This mathematization changed the image that man had of the world and of himself. When analyzed in terms of bodies with shapes, sizes, positions, and movements, the world tended to be seen as a vast clockwork. We understand it perfectly when we know the pieces that form it and the laws of motion that make them move, passing motions through contact, pressure, shock, and so on. This leads to a mechanistic worldview. Descartes' image is the maximum representative of this new paradigm. Only the soul escapes his attempt at a mechanical explanation.

Copernicus (1473-1543) and Heliocentrism

Copernicus introduced the hypothesis that the Earth moves around the Sun, with the Sun being the center of the universe. It was a matter of mathematical economics that led Copernicus to establish his heliocentric theory. The Copernican theory was not accepted immediately. It aroused objections, such as:

• If the Earth moves, what is the force that moves it?
• If the movement of rotation is from west to east, why is the air not left behind?
• How is it that the Earth is not disintegrating bit by bit?

Copernicus answered these questions in terms that show that he was still a prisoner of the mentality and the Aristotelian concepts. To the first, he answered that the Earth moves because the characteristic of a sphere is to rotate. To the second, he answered that the air is mixed with earthy particles, accompanying the Earth in its turn. To the third, he answered that as the movement of rotation is a natural movement, it cannot lead to the disintegration of the Earth.

The concept of "nature" remained basically Aristotelian for Copernicus: he was still imprisoned in the conceptual framework of Aristotle. The theory did not meet the letter of the Scriptures.