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Intellectual Revolution That Defined Society
Intellectual Revolution That Defined Society
Scientific Revolution
How can science be defined?
Intellectual Revolutions:
His book presented evidence on how species evolved over time and
presented traits and adaptation that differentiate species.
Contributions
Asia is the biggest continent in the world and the home of many
ancient civilizations. It is a host to many cultural, economic, scientific,
and political activities of all ages. In the field of science, technology,
and mathematics, great civilizations have stood out in India, China,
and the Middle East civilizations. These civilizations were
incomparable in terms of their contributions to the development of
knowledge during their time.
Contributions
1. They are known for manufacturing iron and in metallurgical works.
Their iron steel is considered to be the best and held with high regard
in the whole of Roman Empire.
2. India is famous in medicine. Ayurveda , a system of traditional
medicine that originated in ancient India before 2500 BC, is still
practiced as a form of alternative medicine.
3. Ancient India is also notable in the field of astronomy. They
developed theories and the configuration of the universe, the spherical
self -supporting Earth and the year of 360 days with 12 equal parts of
30 days each.
4. Ancient India is also known for their mathematics. The earliest
traces of mathematical knowledge in the Indian subcontinent
appeared in the Indus Valley Civilization. The people of this
civilization, tried to standardized measurement of length to a high
degree of accuracy and designed a ruler, the Mohenjo-Daro ruler.
5. Indian astronomer and mathematician Aryabhata, in his Aryabhatiya
introduced a number of trigonometric functions, tables and techniques
as well as algorithms of algebra.
China is one of the ancient civilizations with substantial contributions
in many areas of life like medicine, astronomy, science, mathematics,
arts, philosophy, and music, among others. Chinese civilizations have
greatly influenced many of its neighboring countries like Korea, Japan,
Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, and other
countries that belong to the old Silk Road.
Contributions
1. Chinese are known for traditional medicines, a product of centuries
of experiences and discovery of the Chinese people. They discovered
various medical properties and uses of different plants and animals to
cure human illness. An example is the practice of acupuncture.
2. In terms of technology, Chinese are known to develop many tools.
Among the famous discoveries and inventions of the Chinese
civilization were compass, paper making, gunpowder, and printing
tools that became known in the West only by the end of the Middle
Ages. They also invented other tools like iron plough, wheelbarrow
and propeller, among others. They also developed a design of
different models of bridges, invented the first seismological detector,
and developed a dry dock facility.
3. Chinese also made significant records and supernovas, lunar and
solar eclipses, and comets, which were carefully recorded and
preserved to better understand the heavenly bodies and their effects
on our world.
4. Chinese are also known in seismology. This made them more
prepared in times of natural calamities.
Middle East Countries are dominantly occupied by Muslims. With the
spread of Islam in the 7th and 8th centuries, a period of Muslim
scholarship or what is called the Golden Age of Islam lasted until the
13th century. The common language of Arabic, access to Greek texts
from the Byzantine Empire, and their proximity to India were
contributory to intellectualization of the Muslims and provided their
scholars knowledge to create innovations and develop new ideas. But
contrary to the Greeks, Muslim scientists placed greater value on
science experiments rather than plain-thought experiments. This led to
the development of the scientific method in the Muslim world and
made significant improvements by using experiments to distinguish
between competing scientific theories set within a generally empirical
orientation.
Contributions
1. Ibn al-Haytham is regarded as the Father of Optics, especially for
his empirical proof of the intromission theory of light.
2. Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi gave his name to concept the
algorithm while the term algebra is derived from al-jabr¸the beginning
of the title of one of his publications. What is now known as the Arabic
Numeral System originally came from India but Muslim
mathematicians did make several refinements to the number system,
such as the introduction of decimal point notation.
3. Jabir ibn Hayyan – considered to be the Father of Chemistry.
4. Ibn Sina – pioneered the science of experimental medicine and was
the first physician to conduct clinical trials. His most notable works in
medicine, the Book of Healing and the Canon of Medicine, were used
as standard medicinal texts in both the Muslim world and in Europe
during the 17th century. Among his many contributions are the
discovery of the contagious nature of infectious disease and the
introduction of clinical pharmacology.
Development of Science in Africa
Contributions