By definition, the Scientific Revolution refers to historical changes in thought & belief, to changes in social & institutional organization, that unfolded in Europe between roughly 1550-1700; beginning with Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543). who asserted a heliocentric (sun-centered) cosmos, it ended with Isaac Newton (1642-1727), who proposed universal laws and a Mechanical Universe. A traditional description of the Scientific Revolution would go much further than our opening mini-definition allowed. A good basic description would include some of the following information (and inevitably) interpretive claims. Most specialists would agree on the following basic interpretations traditionally associated with the Scientific Revolution. As we have said, in European history the term "Scientific Revolution" refers to the period between Copernicus and Newton. But the chronological period has varied dramatically over the last 50 years. The broadest period acknowledged usually runs from Nicholas Copernicus and his De Revolutionibus to Isaac Newton. Some historians have cut back, claiming that it properly extends only to the publication of Newton 's principia (1687) or to his Opticks (1704) or to Newton 's death (1727). More radical proposals have suggested that the Scientific Revolution might apply to the so-called Enlightenment "Newtonians" thus extending to roughly 1750. Some historians have cut back the earlier period but some have all but removed …show more content…
As I have said, a strong traditional claim is that the Scientific Revolution stands for a series of changes that stemmed from Copernicus ' bold claim that the earth moves. This claim clearly ran contrary to tradition, to the authority of the Ancients and to established views in the universities and most church officials. Copernicus claimed that the earth is not fixed and stationary in the center of the cosmos (geocentric and geostatic) but instead argued that it rotates on it 's axis each day and revolves around the sun each