Scientific Revolution Netherlands

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• Leerjaar 2

Scientific Revolution 

Dutch Golden Age 

Memo Chapter 2.4

The rise of universities 

Up to the sixteenth century, there were only a few universities in Europe. If you lived in the Low Countries and wanted to study at a university, you had to move to Paris, Cologne or Leuven. In the sixteenth century, many universities emerged in big cities. 

After the Dutch Revolt, it was nearly impossible for students in the northern provinces to study in Leuven because the Spanish controlled this city. For this reason, William of Orange founded the University of Leiden in 1575. It enabled students from the northern provinces to study different subjects, like maths and physics. William of Orange also argued that a university would supply well-educated men for the government of the country.

 

library of the Leiden University in 1610.

source A

The anatomical theatre of Leiden was an institution used in teaching anatomy. It was built in 1596. Engraving by Willem Swanenburg (1610).

Museum Boerhaave, Leiden - Anatomical Theatre during radio recording

Change in science 

Scholars in the Middle Ages had ignored the scientific knowledge of Greek and Roman philosophers for nearly a thousand years. Most medieval scholars believed everything was the work of God. 

From the fourteenth century, during the Renaissance, humanists gradually started to question this. They started to search for plausible explanations for natural phenomena. Their research was based on reasoning and logic, without experiments. This way of doing research is called rationalism. 

 

painting: The School of Athens (1509-1511) by the Renaissance artist Raphael, depicting famous classical Greek scientists and philosophers in an idealized setting inspired by ancient Greek architecture

The Scientific Method

In the seventeenth century, another way of doing research developed: scientists started doing research by observing and experimenting. Any scientist should be able to do the same experiment and get the same result; so they could trust the new knowledge backed by the experiment. 

They used their results to establish new scientific laws. This method of scientific research is called empirical thinking. 

These new ways of doing research led to the scientific revolution. New ideas about maths, physics, astronomy, and microbiology gradually replaced the classical-religious ideas about these subjects, creating an atmosphere of enormous optimism. 

The Netherlands were in comparison with other nations, because of their freedom of belief, more tolerant towards the empirical science. 

 

Otto von Guericke's experiments on electrostatics, 1672

Empirical thinking was already conducted in the Arab world before the Renaissance. Copernicus, for instance, relied partly on observations made by Muhammed al-Battani (858-929), who had figured out the year is 365 days (and a bit more) long. Chemist Robert Boyle cribbed heavily from work done by 13th-century Muslim chemist Al-Iraqi. Royal Society physicians learned about inoculation from doctors in Constantinople and Aleppo.

Spinoza: Rational Science

Freedom of Speech

The Bible is literature not the word of God

Descartes: Rational and Empirical science

I think, therefore I am

Always doubt on everthing

Hugo de Groot

Juridical 

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek: Empirical Science

Microscope

Constantijn Huygens

Empirical Science

PendulumClock

-Formula of Light

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Swammerdam 

Empirical Science

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