The Philosophy of Science — Season 1, Episode 3: Scientific Thinkers
Documentary, Talk • 63 min • 1 season, 8 episodes
Episode synopsis
In lecture three, we study the scientific revolution through six figures: Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, Bacon, and Newton. We challenge the narrative that science progressed by breaking from religion, showing how these thinkers were motivated by theological beliefs. We examine their discoveries—heliocentrism, laws of motion, universal gravitation—and how they transformed natural philosophy. Dr. Orr demonstrates that these revolutionary thinkers viewed their work as natural philosophy aimed at understanding God's creation, suggesting the scientific revolution was a continuous evolution within a Christian intellectual universe rather than a radical rupture from it.
About The Philosophy of Science
In The Philosophy of Science, an eight-hour course, Dr. James Orr traces the development of science from ancient Greece through the Scientific Revolution to today. He examines how theological, institutional, and philosophical forces shaped science, while tackling key issues like the demarcation problem of science versus pseudoscience, Hume’s problem of induction, Kuhn’s theory of paradigm shifts, and the realism debate. The course also engages fascinating unresolved questions raised by cosmology, neuroscience, and quantum mechanics, ultimately arguing that scientific progress does not eliminate philosophical inquiry but rather deepens it, revealing new mysteries that demand philosophical analysis.