Deck 16: Toward a New Heaven and a New Earth: the Scientific Revolution and the Emergence of Modern Science

Question 1

How was the new scientific knowledge spread in the seventeenth century?

Answer 1

Answers may vary.

Question 2

What were the contributions of Isaac Newton to a new vision of the universe? Does he deserve to be considered the most significant figure from the Scientific Revolution? Why or why not?

Answer 2

Answers may vary.

Question 3

Talk about:
the Empyrean Heaven

Answer 3

Answers may vary.

Question 4

What factors propelled the development of new scientific theories and methods in the seventeenth century?

Question 5

What relationships existed between scientists and religious authorities?

Question 6

Talk about:
Aristotle

Question 7

What impact did the new scientific conception of the universe and the natural world have on Western society and secular authorities?

Question 8

Talk about:
Scientific Revolution

Question 9

Talk about:
Ptolemaic universe

Question 10

Talk about:
"natural philosophers"

Question 11

What did Paracelsus, Vesalius, and Harvey contribute to a scientific view of medicine? Be specific and give examples.

Question 12

Talk about:
geocentric conception

Question 13

Talk about:
Nicolaus Copernicus

Question 14

To what extent did the Scientific Revolution represent a revolutionary break with the past, and to what extent was it a continuation of old modes of thinking, knowledge, and perspectives?

Question 15

Why were seventeenth-century European intellectuals so intent on developing methods of study for entire bodies and specific fields of human knowledge? What did it mean then to become a methodical (or systematic) thinker or researcher?

Question 16

Talk about:
alchemy and Hermetic magic

Question 17

How did women contribute to the beginnings of modern science? How did male scientists view women and female scientists?

Question 18

Compare and contrast the methods used by Bacon and Descartes. Would Pascal agree with the methods and interests of these men? Why or why not?

Question 19

Talk about:
epicycles

Question 20

Why is Descartes considered "the founder of modern rationalism," and how and why did rationalism influence the Western view of humankind?

Question 21

Talk about:
Galen

Question 22

Talk about:
Tycho Brahe

Question 23

Talk about:
"new drugs"

Question 24

Talk about:
four bodily humors

Question 25

Talk about:
Paracelsus

Question 26

Talk about:
Johannes Kepler

Question 27

Talk about:
three laws of planetary motion

Question 28

Talk about:
the Inquisition

Question 29

Talk about:
Isaac Newton

Question 30

Talk about:
Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems

Question 31

Talk about:
world-machine

Question 32

Talk about:
Galileo Galilei

Question 33

Talk about:
heliocentric conception

Question 34

Talk about:
On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

Question 35

Talk about:
Principia

Question 36

Talk about:
The Starry Messenger

Question 37

Talk about:
Andreas Vesalius

Question 38

Talk about:
William Harvey

Question 39

Talk about:
On the Fabric of the Human Body

Question 40

Talk about:
universal law of gravitation

Question 41

Talk about:
querelles des femmes

Question 42

Talk about:
Maria Winkelmann

Question 43

Talk about:
Ethics Demonstrated in the Geometrical Manner

Question 44

Talk about:
English Royal Society

Question 45

Talk about:
Robert Boyle

Question 46

Talk about:
"I think therefore I am"

Question 47

Talk about:
Antoine Lavoisier

Question 48

Talk about:
Cartesian dualism

Question 49

Talk about:
Maria Sibylla Merian

Question 50

Talk about:
Discourse on Method

Question 51

Talk about:
On the Motion of the Heart and Blood

Question 52

Talk about:
Margaret Cavendish

Question 53

Talk about:
rationalism

Question 54

Talk about:
René Descartes

Question 55

Talk about:
Blaise Pascal

Question 56

Talk about:
Scientific method

Question 57

Talk about:
Pensées

Question 58

Talk about:
Benedict de Spinoza's pantheism

Question 59

Talk about:
Francis Bacon's inductive method

Question 60

Talk about:
empiricism

Question 61

The cosmological views of the Later Middle Ages held that which of the following was the center of the universe?

A) The sun.
B) The earth.
C) Heaven.
D) The epicycles.
E) The moon.

Question 62

Talk about:
French Royal Academy of Sciences

Question 63

The greatest achievements in science during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries came in what three areas?

A) astronomy, medicine, and mechanics.
B) astronomy, botany, and chemistry
C) biology, mechanics, and ballistics
D) engineering, physics, and dentistry
E) biology, surgery, and astronomy

Question 64

Galileo wrote

A) Pensées .
B) a translation of the Bible in Italian.
C) The Starry Messenger .
D) On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres .
E) Principia .

Question 65

The Ptolemaic conception of the universe was also known as

A) God's master plan.
B) the geocentric conception.
C) the lunacentric conception.
D) the expanding universe.
E) the pantheistic theory.

Question 66

Which of the following is not true of the ideas of Copernicus?

A) they raised serious questions about Aristotle's astronomy and physics.
B) they revealed Copernicus to be basically conservative.
C) they seemed to create uncertainty about the role of humans in the universe.
D) they resulted in a system much less complicated than that of Ptolemy.
E) they cast into doubt God's location in the universe.

Question 67

Copernicus's major book was titled

A) On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres .
B) Novum Organum .
C) Principia .
D) On the Motion of the Heart and Blood .
E) The Great Instauration .

Question 68

Scholars devoted to Hermeticism

A) believed that the world was a very recent and still imperfect creation.
B) credited the devil with control over the dark secrets of nature.
C) saw the world as a living embodiment of divinity where humans could use mathematics and magic to dominate nature.
D) retreated from study of the natural world to concentrate on mastery of theories of magic.
E) all of the above.

Question 69

Which of the following created three laws of planetary motion that helped disprove the basic structure of the Ptolemaic system?

A) Johannes Kepler.
B) Tycho Brahe.
C) Nicolaus Copernicus.
D) Galileo.
E) Isaac Newton.

Question 70

Talk about:
Journal des Savants

Question 71

Talk about:
Philosophical Transactions

Question 72

The immediate reaction of the clerics to the theories of Copernicus was

A) condemnation, initially by Protestant leaders like Luther who condemned the discovery as contrary to their literal interpretation of the Bible.
B) broad approval motivated by their now higher educational achievements and interest in the sciences.
C) support in the form of a papal decree praising his innovative thinking.
D) the calling of the Council of Dort by Protestants and Catholics to question the astronomer closely prior to trial for blasphemy.
E) apathy because his calculations were revealed to contain numerous mathematical errors.

Question 73

The Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century

A) was stimulated by a revived interest in ancient authorities, whose works were unknown in the medieval period.
B) directly resulted from reaction and revolt against the social and historical conditions of the Middle Ages.
C) was largely due to a monastic revolution in education.
D) although an innovative phase in western thinking, was based upon the intellectual and scientific accomplishments of previous centuries.
E) represented a complete break with the past.

Question 74

Johannes Kepler was the first astronomer to show that

A) the planets are made of earth-like material.
B) planetary orbits are elliptical.
C) the stars are immensely far away.
D) everything is an illusion.
E) the moon orbits around the earth.

Question 75

Tycho Brahe contributed to the advance of astronomy by

A) working out the theory of inertia.
B) making accurate observations of the planets.
C) calculating the pull of gravity on the tides by the moon.
D) calculating the distance to the sun.
E) inventing the astrolabe.

Question 76

The first European to make systematic observations of the heavens by telescope was

A) Galileo.
B) Copernicus.
C) Brahe.
D) Kepler.
E) Newton.

Question 77

All of the following are considered possible influences and causes of the Scientific Revolution except

A) the practical knowledge and technical skills emphasized by sixteenth-century universities.
B) mathematical and naturalistic skills of Renaissance artists.
C) the Hermetic belief in magic and alchemy.
D) the humanists' rediscovery of Greek mathematicians and thinkers.
E) the inspired work of a few intellectuals.

Question 78

Renaissance humanists' mastery of Greek made new works of which of the following available?

A) Archimedes.
B) Galen.
C) Ptolemy.
D) Plato.
E) All of the above.

Question 79

According to Leonardo da Vinci, what subject was the key to understanding the nature of things?

A) Astronomy.
B) Art.
C) Biology.
D) The Bible.
E) Mathematics.

Question 80

Copernicus supported the heliocentric conception of the universe because

A) as a Protestant, he felt free to interpret Scripture in a non-literal fashion.
B) it earned him entrance into the Royal Academy of Science.
C) it offered a simpler and more accurate explanation for the observed motions of heavenly bodies.
D) he wanted to prove the theories of his patron, the prince of Parma
E) he argued that the sun is the source of all energy on earth.