Historical context: The Scientific Revolution
The history of science, like the history of religion, is ultimately a story about the history of ideas. For much of Western history, both science and religion were considered legitimate approaches to understanding the world, and the two approaches were closely intertwined. Science emerged as a distinct mode of inquiry in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries during a period known as the Scientific Revolution. Henry Bellingham's Book includes numerous excerpts from scientific treatises published during the mid-seventeenth century, in the thick of this revolution of ideas.
The emergence of science as a distinct paradigm
In medieval England, like the rest of western Europe, intellectuals deduced knowledge from authoritative texts, such as the Bible. Medieval Europe was dominated by a Christian worldview, which accepted the divine origin of humans and the world they inhabit. Inquiry into the natural world often started with understanding its divine creator. Thus, theology (the study of god) was influential in all areas of medieval inquiry, including those that we refer to today as "sciences." Theologians studied religious texts — believed to be divine revelation — to learn about the nature of god and his relationship with his creation. Therefore, the study of the planets and stars, the study of climate and weather, and the study of plants and animals often started with the study of god and religious texts, such as the Bible.
During the Renaissance, the intellectual world of medieval Europe began to transform. The first major shift away from medieval modes of thinking was humanism, which was a movement that emphasized the potential of human investigation, as opposed to divine or ancient revelation, to further understanding. Humanists sought to recover the learning of the ancient Greeks and Romans, leading to renewed interest in philosophy and science.
Another major shift happened in 1517. In that year, Martin Luther mounted a successful challenge to the Roman Church's dominance in Europe. Luther launched the Protestant Reformation, which marked the beginning of the decline of the Church's power. The Reformation loosened the Church's control over European intellectual life and is an important milestone in the secularization of European science.
Although there were many steps in the development of the scientific revolution over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Copernicus represents the first decisive break with medieval science. In 1543 he published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, which outlined his theory of heliocentrism. This treatise discounted the Ptolemaic theory that the earth was the center of the universe, a popular view that was reinforced by Christian scriptures. While Copernicus was not the first person to have promoted the theory that the Earth revolves around the sun, he was the first European to do so using careful observations of natural phenomena to develop a theory that challenged the established Christian worldview. Heliocentric theory also made a significant impact on European intellectuals because On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres found wide distribution due to the new, accurate, and cheap duplicating technology of the printing press.
During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, there was great concern to understand light and optics, driven by a desire to develop instruments that transcended the limitations of human vision. Advances in optics lead to the development of the microscope in 1595 and the telescope in 1608. Scientists were interested in such instruments because they could augment human observation, which was gradually becoming the hallmark of European science.
In the early seventeenth century, Galileo's work advanced the Copernican view of the universe, as well as optics, astronomy, and physics. He further challenged the Ptolemaic theory that all heavenly objects revolved around the earth with his discovery of three moons orbiting Jupiter. All of his theories were based on careful observations of starts and planets. Galileo, however, had the misfortune of flourishing when the Roman Church was battling theological challenges from Protestant Christians in Germany (Lutherans), France (Huguenots), and England (Anglicans). He came under intense pressure from the Church (via the Inquisition) to recant his work, which he eventually did. Galileo's life epitomizes the struggle during the first half of the seventeenth century between the traditional worldview and the emerging scientific findings that challenged it.
In Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Searching for Truth in the Sciences, (published in 1637), Rene Descartes argued that the Bible, theology, or ancient treatises could no longer serve as a point of departure for the study of the natural world. Rather, the only truths are those assertions that can be proven beyond a doubt through observation. Descartes' method was truly revolutionary: it required the abandonment of all preconceived notions so that they did not mislead the scientist in his pursuit of knowledge.
The revolution in science had gained much currency among English intellectuals; in the early seventeenth century, Sir Francis Bacon was the most prominent. He advocated empiricism and established a formal alternative to the ancient Aristotelian model for scientific inquiry. Francis Bacon's model (in addition to the work of Rene Descartes) contributed to the eventual development of the modern scientific method.
Henry Bellingham's Book and science
The mid-seventeenth century saw the exploration of many new ideas by intellectual elites. University-educated men were interested in the new developments in science, and they were also very interested in the implications of these new ideas in their daily lives. Sir Henry Bellingham was one of these English elites who was engaging with new scientific methods and theories. He copied numerous passages from the works of John Weemes, most from Natural Observations, into his commonplace book. To which paradigm of scientific inquiry does Henry Bellingham seem to have subscribed? The scribe contributing to the manuscript after Bellingham's death copied two influential works by John Wilkins, The Discovery of a New World and Discourse Concerning a New Planet . Do Wilkins' works fit the same paradigm as Weemes? What do you make of the inclusion of these texts alongside excerpts from treatises on political philosophy?