The Scientific Revolution: The Nature Of Mind-Body Dualism

The mechanical philosophy of the Scientific Revolution was a contrasting philosophy of nature to Aristotelianism. This is due to the fact that mechanical philosophies held that nature acts like a machine rather than, as Aristotle believed, a living organism. However, mechanical philosophy did not wholly reject the ancient beliefs, due to the fact that seventeenth century philosophies were based off of an ancient mechanism. This ancient mechanism argued that there existed imperceptible particles. Mechanical philosophy’s product of atomic ideas formed the basis of many theories regarding the nature of the air pump, the corpuscular theories of Newton, and became the formation of the mind-body dualism of Descartes.

Robert Boyle was most known,

The three main instruments being discussed in this section are, Galileo’s telescope, Hooke’s microscope, and John Harrison’s Chronometer.

Galileo’s work as an astronomer is well known among historians of science. Galileo constructed his own telescope, which had a twice the focusing power of many of the other 16th century telescopes being made at the time. Using the telescope, Galileo was able to see many different celestial objects, such as the satellites of Jupiter and nebulae. One of his most monumental discoveries, which would eventually be one of the reasons he was put on trial by the Catholic Church, was his discovery of sunspots on the Sun. These discoveries by Galileo invigorated others to verify his results, as the objectivity of the telescope o was in question. Those who looked into Galileo’s telescope would at times see aberrations around the edges of the lens, which would distort the picture. The veracity of Galileo’s claims, created a whole of class of telescopes that were larger and more accurate. This era of telescope manufacturing attracted Isaac Newton to develop his own; however he relied on mirrors to increase his magnification rather than lenses. Galileo’s claims, derived from his findings from telescope had a distinct on Newton’s on conception of his telescope and therefore the larger scientific knowledge

She is most known for her work with worms and caterpillars, in which she developed the concept of metamorphosis. The classic understanding was that caterpillars and butterflies were distinct entities as observations of their morphology were largely centered on the idea that the two were distinct species. However, Merian discovers through prolonged observations of the caterpillar that it was morphing to distinct stages, eventually resulting in the butterfly. This discovery was monumental to classification because it showcases that the common classification of caterpillars and butterfly’s is wrong, and that the correct method is two consider the two seemingly distinct organisms as one