Galileo,+Descartes,+and+Newton

** Prompt: **Analyze how Galileo, Descartes, and Newton altered traditional interpretations of nature and challenged traditional sources of knowledge.
 * Vivek Jani **

Thesis: By use of new scientific observations, Galileo, Newton, and Descartes all challenged the traditional views of the Catholic Church of a perfect universe containing perfect heavenly spheres and the importance of humans as the center of the universe with new ideas on how properties like gravity and inertia affected the universe in addition to new philosophies on human thought.

I. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

A. Catholic Views on Nature -geocentric theory of Ptolemy -perfect heavenly spheres -planets moved in perfect circles -Aristotelian views on motion -an object remained in motion until a force was applied against it -an object remained at a constant speed if a constant force was applied to it

B. Galileo's New Views on Nature -accepts Copernicus's heliocentric theory in // The Starry Messenger // and the // Dialogue // -viewed imperfections in the moon as well as discovered moons of Jupiter,sun spots, phases of Venus, and etc. -// The Starry Messenger // proved Kepler's theory that planets moved in elliptical orbits -uniform motion is a state of rest -an object will continue to move unless acted upon by another force -property of inertia

II. Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

A. Newton's View of the World -invented calculus (rates of change) -universal law of gravity - implications on light -wrote // Principia //, which contained reasoning on philosophy, math proving gravity, proved the theories of Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler -three laws on motion: law of gravity, every action has an equal an opposite reaction, and etc. -resulted in the idea of deism: God's work was found everywhere in nature, God made a very mechanical universe and let it run on its own

III. Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

A. Descartes' view on human philosophy -// Discourse on Method //: deduction and mathematical logic -helped Bacon in discovering the Scientific Method, -// cogito ergo sum //: I think therefore I am -proved his own existence by saying that he existed due to his own thought -as a result, God exists as humans cannot think of something that doesn't exist -the mind is like the devil and plays illusions on everyone -nothing, therefore, can be considered real -using the human mind and reason can help people mathematically induce the importance of the universe -Cartesian Dualism: the split between the mind and the body