- Galileo (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was a hero of astronomy. Knowing that the Catholic Church did not uphold the views of Copernicus, he still pursued what he believed to be wholly factual science. After the Copernican revolution was rejected on the grounds that Aristotelianism was the product of the Divine, Galileo challenged those claims by providing observable evidence supporting heliocentrism. For this, he is named the father of observable astronomy and hailed as a champion of science. Interestingly, even with this conflict with The Church he still practiced Christianity devoutly.
3.a 1613- House Romanov was established in Russia. This was the ruling class that lead Russia through a tough history of comparatively lacking industry and development and out of the Times of Trouble; however, this primed them for a revolution after its collapse in 1917.
1600- The East India Trading Company was given a royal charter by Queen Elizabeth I. This trading super power dominated both militarily and economically over the Indian subcontinent especially over their French and Portuguese competition.
3.b René Descartes– 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650. This mathematician and philosopher was considered to be highly contentious and radical. Proclaiming that he would write and think as if no one had ever considered what he was studying. He is famous critically analyzing the way that mankind thought and departed chiefly from the authority of The Church on the premise that absolute certainty stems from mankind and not God assuming that mankind is totally autonomous.
- It is fascinating to link the ideologies of Descartes and Galileo. Both believed in a particular flavor of truth that the Catholic Church was not willing to depart from. This methodology also manifested the need for practical evidence that could be repeatedly observed and verified. Logical deduction and then experimentation was the basis for every scientific pursuit that these two pioneers of thought investigated.
Peyton Brown's ASTR 2110 blog 