STS Lesson Content M1L3
STS Lesson Content M1L3
STS Lesson Content M1L3
In the study of the history of science and technology, another important area of interest
involves the various intellectual revolutions across time. In this area, interest lies in how
intellectual revolutions emerged as a result of the interaction of science and technology and of
society. It covers how intellectual revolutions altered the way modern science was understood
and approached.
For this discussion, intellectual revolutions should not be confused with the Greek’s pre-
Socratic speculations about the behavior of the universe. In science and technology, intellectual
revolutions refer to the series of events that led to the emergence of modern science and the
progress of scientific thinking across critical periods in history. Although there are many
intellectual revolutions, this section focuses three of the most important ones that altered the
way humans view science and its impact on society: the Copernican, Darwinian, and Freudian
revolutions. In the words of French astronomer, mathematician, and freemason, Jean Sylvain
Bailley (1976in Cohen, 1976), these scientific revolutions involved a two-stage process of
sweeping away the old and establishing the new.
Copernican Revolution
The Copernican Revolution refers to the 16 th-century paradigm shift named after the
Polish mathematician and astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus. Copernicus formulated the
heliocentric model of the universe. At the time, the belief was that the Earth was the center of
the Solar System based on the geocentric model of Ptolemy (i.e., Ptolemaic model).
Moreover, although far more sensible than the Ptolemaic model, which as early as the
13th century had been criticized for its shortcomings, the Copernican model also had multiple
inadequacies that later filled in by astronomers who participated in the revolution. Nonetheless,
despite problems with the model and the persecution of the Church, the heliocentric model was
soon accepted by other scientists of the time, most profoundly by Galileo Galilei.
Darwinian Revolution
The English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, Charles Darwin, is credited for stirring
another important intellectual revolution in the mid-19 th century. His treatise on the science of
revolution, On the Origin of Species, was published in 1859 and began a revolution that brought
humanity to a new era of intellectual discovery.
Freudian Revolution