By tradition, the “Scientific Revolution” refers to historical changes in thought & belief, to changes in social & institutional organization, that unfolded in Europe between roughly 1550-1700; beginning with Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543), who asserted a heliocentric (sun-centered) cosmos, it ended with Isaac Newton (1642-1727), who proposed universal laws and a Mechanical Universe.

Was there such a thing as the ‘Scientific Revolution’ — and if the question makes sense, what is it, or what was it? Better still, what do historians mean when they speak of the ‘Scientific Revolution’?

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