Carl Sagan, who was an American astronomer, once said, “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” Science is all about discovering new things and changing the way we think and understand the world. The Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries did just that. However, there are some people that argue that the Scientific Revolution was actually not all that scientific and others argue that it was not very revolutionary. Although it took place over the span of 200 years and there might have been flaws to some of the science that was done, in the end, the Scientific Revolution led to many new discoveries that are still relevant today and greatly impacted the world in a variety of different ways. Due to this, the Scientific Revolution should be considered extremely important and definitely revolutionary.
Science is constantly everywhere around us. We hear and learn about new experiments and discoveries every day, but there still isn’t one simple answer to what counts as scientific. It is a complex concept, which lead to people disagreeing about whether the Scientific Revolution can be defined as truly scientific or not. Professor Cohen stated that some important people from the Scientific Revolution, such as Nicholas Copernicus and Isaac Newton, might not be considered “true scientists.” One reason for this was because one of the reasons Copernicus believed the sun was in the center of the solar system was because “it is so noble.” This discovery was remarkable for multiple reasons. First of all, his belief that people should switch to a heliocentric view was accurate and necessary. His hypothesis was not based on just his opinion, but also lots of math and observations. And second of all, not only was his hypothesis correct, but by conducting research and sharing his results, he was going against the Bible, which was not something many people did at this time. People relied on the Bible and God to answer their questions or uncertainties, but scientists during the Scientific Revolution, such as Copernicus, completely changed the way we think about our solar system and many scientists after him used his discoveries for further research. Although not all of his research might meet the requirements for modern science and not all of it was accurate, it definitely impacted science and definitely contributed to making the Scientific Revolution revolutionary.
The Scientific Revolution differs from what we normally think of when we hear the term “revolution.” As Professor Cohen explained, it wasn’t extremely violent and it happened over the course of many years, but the fact that it is still discussed so much today and so many of the discoveries are still relevant today is truly revolutionary. The Scientific Revolution involved people questioning what everyone believed to be true and disproving it. This is such a huge part of science. Scientists from this time, such as Copernicus, influenced people to question what was known and completely changed the way people thought about the world. That is revolutionary.