The Origins of Modern Science

''The people who say 'I believe in my body because I can see it clearly, but I cannot see God' were turning a popularized Descartes to the purpose exactly the reverse of what had been intended. In the system of Descartes God was another of those clear ideas that are clearer and more precise in the mind than anything seen by the actual eye.'' (124)This is the best explanation of Descartes I have found. Descartes thinking reversed! Butterfield continues . . .''Furthermore, everything hung on this existence of a perfect and righteous God. Without him a man could not trust in anything, could not believe in a geometrical proposition, for He was the guarantee that everything was not an illusion, the senses not a complete hoax, and life not a mere nightmare.'' (124)'He was the guarantee'. If God disappears - reason, even geometry, disappears. As good as any explanation of the modern antipathy to rationality!Butterfield is easy to apprehend, speaks with humility - without avoiding profound ideas. This work reads like a talk, because it was. It was delivered in Cambridge in 1948. He explains the lectures ''were produced in the hope that they would stimulate in the historian a little interest in science, and in the scientist a little interest in history.'' (7)Why 'origin of science'?''Since that 'scientific revolution' overturned the authority in science not only of the Middle Ages but of the ancient world - since it ended not only in the eclipse of scholastic philosophy but in the destruction of Aristotelian physics - it outshines everything since the rise of Christianity and reduces the Renaissance and the Reformation to the rank of mere episodes.'' (7)Butterfield renowned for this striking conclusion. Most, if not all, have adopted this opinion since. Huge change in evaluating, understanding and explaining history. Why is this so significant, so important? . . .''Since it changed the character of men's habitual mental operations even in the conduct of the non-material sciences, while transforming the whole diagram of the physical universe and the very texture of human life itself, it looms so large as the real origin both of the modern world and of the modern mentality that our customary periodisation of European history has become an anachronism and an encumbrance.'' (8)Wow. This emphasis on the role of science and scientists places them in the drivers seat to modernity. Fascinating!1 The historical importance of a theory of Impetus2 The conservativism of Copernicus3 The study of the heart down to William Harvey4 The downfall of Aristotle and Ptolemy5 The experimental method in the seventeenth century6 Bacon and Descartes7 The effect of the scientific method on the non-mechanical sciences8 The history of the modern theory of gravitation9 The transition to the philosophe movement10 The place of the scientific revolution in the history of western civilization11 The postponed scientific revolution in chemistry12 Ideas of progress and ideas of evolutionButterfield also recognizes the role of religion in the beginnings of science. He explains . . .''One thing is clear: not only was there in some of the intellectual leaders a great aspiration to demonstrate that the universe ran like a piece of clockwork, but this was itself initially a religious aspiration.'' (131)Kepler was the exampler of this motive.''Kepler, inaugurating the scientist's quest for a mechanistic universe in the seventeenth century, is significant here - his mysticism, his music of the spheres, his rational deity, demand a system which has the beauty of a piece of mathematics.'' (131)Butterfield highlights the role of Fontenelle in introducing scientific/mathematical thinking into the broader culture, especially politics. Notes his essay - ''The Utility of Mathematics''. . .''The geometrical spirit is not so tied to geometry that it cannot be detached from it and transported to other branches of knowledge. A work of morals or politics or criticism, would be better if it were done in the style of a geometer. The order, clarity, precision and exactitude which have been apparent in good books for some time might well have their source in this geometric spirit.'' (185)This worship of mathematics leads to believing that only things measurable are important, or even real. Atoms, bodies, money, cars are measurable. Love, faith, hope, conscience are not.The last chapter analyzes the preconceived assumptions that prepared the way for Darwin. These preceded Darwin by centuries. The 'great chain of being', Buffon, Lamarck and even the key role of Malthus is explained.Butterfield and his insights changed the understanding of history. Anyone wanting a grasp of where modernity come from will be happy with this work.Includes suggestions for further reading and a detailed index. No photographs.(See also: "Modernity and the Holocaust'' by Zygmunt Bauman. Adds depth and breadth to Butterfield. Great!)

A great overview of the interacting development of the different branches of early modern science. Efficiently presented. There were very few pages on which I didn't learn something new and significant.

Must read for those who wish to understand the evolution of western science

The Scientific Revolution:As spelled out in the introduction, to the book based on his lectures in 1948 the Scientific Revolution, popularly associated with the 16th and 17th century, has started much earlier than the Renaissance. Butterfield advanced the notion of its eruption was caused by the 'destruction of Aristotaslian physics,' that was crucial to the development of science that was the basis of western civilization. This is the best praise for an Alexandrian scientist he never mentioned, the sixth century dean of the academy in Alexandria, John Philoponus.Butterfield's Historiography:Thomas Kuhn was a milestone in the historiography of science by studying in depth how science evolved with new established concepts and ideas and how these catalyzed displacing the old ways of thinking with brisk new methods. What one of Kuhn's obituaries noted, "We all live in a post-Kuhnian age," so more applies with Butterfield treatment, especially when it concerns origins of modern science, which was not one of his favorite subjects. In the words of a history of science reviewer, Butterfield's observations that better described the underlying reality of the fields of science he considered lacked a scientific analysis that weakened his historiographic conclusions.The Impetus Theory:Although he started logically with the historical importance of 'Impetus Theory,'as the point of breakthrough, on obsolesence of the body of Aristotalian physics, he failed to identify, while Kuhn did, to dig out who effectively attacked it into rubble in the sixth century. On the same year, he revised the 'Origins' in 1957 Kuhn in,'The Copernican Revolution', wrote on page 119 that, "John Philoponus, the sixth-century Christian commentator who records the earliest extant rejection of aristotle's theory, attribute his ... to Hippacrius."Early on, in his Origins, he discusses Buridan (14th century), who elaborated on projectile dynamics, and quoted Philoponus, before Copernicus who read him, when he studied in the university of Padua, under or with Galileo who paid respect to John's pioneering thought in dynamics and astronomy. (Essays on Galileo & the History and Philosophy of Science, S. Drake)He missed the point again when he discussed the 'Downfall of Aristotle and Ptolemy,' which in both cases the Alexandrian Genius was the major catalyst many centuries before. This being said, the volume of books that were published in the last years, in the UK after his death, made the flaw even more obvious.Basic reading?'The Origins of Modern Science' is basic reading, keeping in mind it was an original work on the history and philosophy of science. Butterfield's lectures described the prevailing milieu of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries but did not give enough attention to their origins in the great city of science: Alexandria, which made the book core idea not supported.An in depth modern treatment of the subject, in the Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology is; "Science and Technology in World History : An Introduction"Herbert Butterfield:Butterfield, a British historian and philosopher of history, mainly remembered for his work on Interpretation of History. He taught at Princeton University (1924/5) and at Cambridge from 1928 to 1979. Butterfield's main interests were diplomatic history and historiography, and was highly concerned with religious issues, but he did not believe that historians could uncover the hand of God in history.

How did we get from the ancient Greek view of the universe and how it works to the view we have now? If you don't understand this, you will never understand any discovery or invention. I have been reading this since I was in 6th grade in the sixties. When I took a university course in the history of science, this was the text. This is unparalleled in what it addresses.

I had to read "The Origins of Modern Science" for my history teacher in college in 1970. I started college at age 29 and was out of place at that time. This book inspired me to think about the hurdles and frustrations and disappointments that many of the scientists had to live through in their age of history! Imagine trying to think that the earth was round! Or that the sun revolved around the earth. And people thinking that since you did not agree with the current mode of thought, that you were indeed crazy!I think this book had a lot of bearing on my growing more into not being afraid to think along different lines. This book should be read by everyone, especially young people.When years later, I saw my teacher and told him how much this book had influenced me, he couldn't even remember it! It is one book that I have kept and treasured. Thank you, Herbert Butterfield.

very dry book

Professor Butterfield's history is easy to read and refreshing. Especially interesting are his chapters on pre-Newtonian mechanics and the transfer from Ptolemaic to Copernican models of the universe.