DS 8 Worksheet

Compare the guided summary and synthesis paragraph below, especially

the highlighted sections in the texts.
● What do the different colors in highlights stand for?

SAMPLE GUIDED SUMMARY

According to Delanty, in what major ways did the rise of experimental inquiry during the
Renaissance contribute to the development of Europe’s modern identity?

In “The Renaissance and the Rise of European Consciousness”, Delanty argues that the rise
of empirical inquiry during the Renaissance was part of a broader shift in consciousness in Europe
that ultimately paved the way for its modern identity by establishing new sources of authority free
from ‘ecclesiastical censorship’, within a context of broader cultural developments that further
facilitated the secularization of knowledge. Delanty explains that with the rise of empirical inquiry
came a new “self-questioning attitude”, which together contributed toward a new relationship to
authority. In the Middle Ages, people had looked toward religious doctrines or ‘received wisdom
from the past’, but the Renaissance, he says, was an age of ‘New Learning’ when major paradigms
were being challenged. By providing a new means of gaining knowledge free from the influence of
the church, he says, the rise of experimental inquiry made understanding more accessible to
everyone.
This secularization of science was further facilitated by several other important cultural
developments in Europe, especially with the invention of the printing press, described as “perhaps
the single event that opens the way for modernity and for global consciousness” by significantly
transforming the nature and scale of written communication. Delanty points to its role in the
Protestant Reformation in making the scriptures available for individual interpretation free from
ecclesiastical imposition, highlighting that it was only a matter of time before a transformation in
humanity’s relationship to knowledge changed as a result of this dramatic development in media. In
this way, Delanty states, by enabling the secularization of knowledge through the establishment of
empirical inquiry as a new authority, with the significant help of the printing press, the Scientific
Revolution played a key role in forming Europe’s modern identity during the Renaissance.
SAMPLE SYNTHESIS PAPER

Based on Delanty and Coathsworth et al, what conclusions can be drawn about how the
Scientific Revolution developed during the 16th century?

Based on Delanty and Coathsworth et al., it can be concluded that the Scientific Revolution
played a particularly influential role in shaping modern European identity during the Renaissance by
cultivating a more empirical mindset and ushering in an era of ‘New Learning’. As Delany (2019)
explains, the Renaissance marks a period defined as much by its apparent break with the past as by
the cultural developments it is known for, a shift he describes as "a fundamental transformation in
subjectivity” (110). During this period, he states, the new ideas that began to take hold, such as the
humanist ideal of individual freedom as well as the discoveries by such figures as Galileo, Bruno, and
Copernicus, influenced perceptions regarding the basis of truth, resulting in a shift away from
‘received wisdom from the past’ toward a preference for ‘that which is subject to observation
through experimentation’ (113). Coathsworth et al. (2015) similarly point to the influence of such
“observers of the heavens'' in achieving this break with medieval thinking, detailing their
contributions in challenging the teachings of the church over a period of nearly two hundred years
and emphasizing that this was a very gradual transformation (108-109). Ultimately, they state, this
transition reflected a shift toward “developing new ways of justifying knowledge” (109), prioritizing
direct observation and human reason over the deductive explanations given by the ancient
authorities (Coathsworth et al. 2015).
This increased emphasis on empirical inquiry reflected an evolving relationship to knowledge,
fostering the “spirit of the freedom of science” considered to be a ‘defining feature’ of modern
European identity and laying the foundation for its great university tradition (Delanty 2019, 114). In
this discussion, both authors distinguish the printing press in particular for its influential role in
facilitating such important cultural developments of the time. Coathsworth et al. (2015) emphasize
how printing was – alongside science and Protestantism – a major point of controversy during the
Renaissance period, and elaborates on its transformative impact by explaining that, as a broader
cultural development, rising literacy led to a higher demand for information (109). Delanty (2019)
adds further weight to this point, describing how the rise of printing fundamentally transformed
communication, resulting in a changed ‘relationship to knowledge itself’ (114) as expressed by
Barbier. Although as Delanty (2019, 114) points out, religious tensions persisted and the most
significant innovations would come much later, the secularization of science during the Renaissance
ultimately established the great intellectual tradition that stands as a hallmark both of Europe’s
university and its modern identity (114).

Reading Excerpts for Synthesis

● The Prompt: Based on Bulliet et al and Delanty, what conclusions can be drawn about how
the Scientific Revolution developed during the 16th century??

Text 1
Richard W. Bulliet et al., The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History (Boston, MA:
Wadsworth, 2011), 455.
Among the educated, the writings of Greco-Roman antiquity and the Bible were the most
trusted guides to the natural world. The Renaissance had recovered many manuscripts of ancient
writers, some of which were printed and widely circulated. The greatest authority on physics was
Aristotle, a Greek philosopher who taught that everything on earth was reducible to four elements.
The surface of the earth was composed of the two heavy elements, earth and water. The atmosphere
was made up of two lighter elements, air and fire, which floated above the ground. Higher still were
the sun, moon, planets, and stars, which, according to Aristotelian physics, were so light and pure
that they floated in crystalline spheres. This division between the ponderous, heavy earth and airy,
celestial bodies accorded perfectly with the commonsense perception that all heavenly bodies
revolved around the earth.
The prevailing conception of the universe was also influenced by the ancient Greek
mathematician Pythagoras, who proved the famous theorem that still bears his name; in a right
triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides (a2 +
b2 = c2). Pythagoreans attributed the ability of simple mathematical equations to describe physical
objects to mystical properties. They attached special significance to the simplest (to them perfect)
geometrical shapes the circle (a point rotated around another point) and the sphere (a circle rotated
on its axis). They believed that celestial objects were perfect spheres orbiting the earth in circular
orbits.
In the sixteenth century, however, the careful observations and mathematical calculations of
some daring and imaginative European investigators began to challenge these prevailing conceptions
of the physical world. These pioneers of the Scientific Revolution demonstrated that natural causes
could explain the workings of the universe.
Over the centuries, observers of the nighttime skies had plotted movements of the heavenly
bodies, and mathematicians had worked to fit these observations into the prevailing theories of
circular orbits. To make all the evidence fit, they had come up with eighty different spheres and
some ingenious theories to explain the many seemingly irregular movements.
Glossary
antiquity (n) – the period of history before the Middle Ages
manuscript (n) – a book or document written before the invention of printing
circulate (v) – to be distributed or sold, especially over a wide area
crystalline (adj) – related to the sky or visible heaven, or to the universe
beyond the earth’s atmosphere
daring (adj) – bold or courageous; fearless; adventurous
pioneer (n) – a person, group, or thing that is first or among the earliest in
any field of study, enterprise, or development
plot (v) – to mark on a plan, map, or chart, as a course of a star or a planet
ingenious (adj) – characterized by cleverness or originality of invention or
construction

Text 2
Gerard Delanty, “The Renaissance and the Rise of European Consciousness,” in
Formations of European Modernity (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 113.
The Renaissance was not about the disinterested study of antiquity. It was as much about the
needs of the present than of inquiry into the past for its own sake. This was the age of the New
Learning in both science and in humanism when new ideas about the social and natural world
emerged. The Renaissance world produced the Scientific Revolution that occurred at this time.
Modern science based on the empirical inquiry began to separate from theological doctrines. Galileo,
Bruno and Copernicus had de-centred humanity’s place in the universe. The revolution they brought
about established as the criterion on truth human experience and the related notion of experimental
inquiry to be the sole source of truth. Instead of ecclesiastical authority or the received wisdom of
the past, truth is now to be based on that which is subject to observation through experimentation.
This had a democratizing impact on human knowledge since it separated scientific knowledge from
other kinds of knowledge and made possible the freedom of science from ecclesiastical censorship.
Aside from the scientific discoveries of the period, the most important legacy could be said to be the
epistemic shift it inaugurated in establishing new foundations for authority. In principle, it meant
that anyone in possession of technical instruments could establish claims to knowledge. In this
period, science begins to free itself from subservience to non-scientific forms of knowledge.
Glossary
disinterested (adj) – unbiased by personal interest or advantage; not
influenced by selfish motives
inquiry (n) – a seeking or request for truth, information, or knowledge; an
investigation
empirical inquiry (phr) – evidence-based research
theological (adj) – study of divine things or religious truth
ecclesiastical (adj) – of or relating to the church or the clergy; not secular
censorship (n) – the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films,
news, etc. that are considered immoral, politically unacceptable, or a threat
to security
epistemic (adj) – relating to knowledge
inaugurate (v) – commence; begin
subservience (n) – the condition of being less important than something else
**Write down the ideas presented in both texts and find the similarities and differences
between them.

Key Ideas in Bulliet et al. Key Ideas in Delany

** Come up with a possible claim by filling out the blank space in the paragraph below.

Based on Bulliet et al and Delanty, what conclusions can be drawn about how the Scientific
Revolution developed during the 16th century?
First, ______________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________.
Bulliet et al state how before the 16th century, the dominant sources of information on the natural world
were centered in the ideas of Aristotle who proposed that all natural phenomena on Earth can be
understood in terms of the four elements – earth, water, air, and fire – and Pythagoras, who described the
universe in terms of mathematical equations but still attributed this to ‘mystical properties’. Delanty
expands on this by pointing out how there was an increasing divergence during the Renaissance between
religious explanations and those based on empirical observation. During the Renaissance, he explains, this
increased emphasis on ‘experimental inquiry’ further served to establish a basis of understanding
dissociated from religious dogmas, making knowledge more widely accessible outside the established
authorities that had dominated until that point (especially the church).