Book 3: Chapter 6, The Rise of Science Summary and Analysis

Science in earlier centuries allowed for the success of the seventeenth century. The Italian Renaissance can be compared to the best achievements in Greece. Theology of the sixteenth century accounted for the medieval outlook, but new science influenced philosophy. Descartes was considered to be the founder of modern philosophy, creating science in the seventeenth century.

Copernicus was the first of the four men influencing this period, along with Kepler, Galileo, and Newton. Copernicus (1473-1543) was born in Poland, and became ecclesiastic. He traveled to Italy and in 1500 lectured mathematics in Rome. He concluded that the sun was the centre of the universe, while the earth had a two fold motion, such as a diurnal rotation, and an annual revolution about the sun. His views were included in his De Revolutionibus Orbium...