Dr. Jacqueline Feke, UW Spring 2026 See also: PHIL 258 - Philosophy of science
Scientia: knowledge or understanding of truth in light of principles and causes problem of demarcation: differentiating sciences from one another or from pseudo-science
Scientific revolution: deep non-cumulative change in science, where there is some break between the previous science and the new science
- Emile Du Chatelet was the first to coin the term “scientific revolution” in the book The foundations of physics (1740). This book was written at a time when Cartesian philosophy was still popular, with a move towards Newtonian ways
“I will not write the history of the revolutions experienced by the physics here. A thick book would be needed to report them all”
Science is influenced by previous / traditional accounts and has a critical nature to respond to and critique past theories. This critical nature goes back to Antiquity (6th century BCE)
Historical studies of scientific revolutions from Antiquity to the 19th century:
- Copernican-Revolution
- Chemical-Revolution
- Emergence of Evolutionary Biology