The Scientific Revolution
The Scientific Revolution took place during the 16th and 17th centuries. Many cultures influenced the beginning of the Scientific Revolution,
including Greek Jewish, Christian, and Muslim cultures.
In the ancient world. Greek was the language of science. Greek sharply decreased in usage as the Roman Empire expanded and the use of Latin
became more widespread. During the Renaissance, scholars became increasingly interested in classical ideas and philosophy. They studied Greek
again and were able to translate texts that had been otherwise lost.
Also, due to the Medieval Crusades, Europeans began to have more contact with the Middle East. As a result, the Western
world benefited greatly
from contact with Islamic cultures. Knowledge of science, medicine, and even architecture were shared between the two cultures.
In addition to the sharing of ideas between Europe and the Middle East, the humanism movement of the Renaissance furthered the Scientific
Revolution. This European humanist movement focused on human potential. The movement valued logical reasoning and observation over the
Christian values of humility and passivity. This movement developed from the rediscovery of Greek and Latin texts.
Finally, global exploration also served as a springboard for the Scientific Revolution. As explorers came back from the New World and Asia, they
shared new information and new goods. People became curious about the knowledge and the practices of other cultures. People wanted to know
even more about the world and how it worked.
Determine which four events form a clear summary of the passage and place them in the correct order.
The Scientific Revolution took place
during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Foreign exploration opened new
channels of learning.
There were critical exchanges in ideas
between the East and West.
Understanding how to read Greek was
key to scientific study
Only scholars with knowledge of
classical languages made progress.
