LESSON 1.

INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTIONS AND SOCIETY OBJECTIVES

CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND
This lesson provides an overview of the different intellectual revolution and affect the
life’s perspective of the people and its impact to the society. This lesson focuses mainly on three
most influential intellectual revolution in history: Copernican, Darwinian and Freudian.

Copernican Revolution
Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) is Polish Mathematician who proposed the theory for
heliocentric universe. Prior to this theory ancient civilization believed that the Earth was the
center of the solar system according to the geocentric model of the Ptolemy (Cusick, 2007).

Figure 1. The Heliocentric model of the universe.

Aware of the imperfection in the Ptolemy’ system, Copernicus proposed an astronomical

model where the sun is the center of the universe while the Earth orbited it. This model is known
as the heliocentric model. Copernicus finalized his model and published the De revolutionibus
orbium cœlestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres). (Luminet, 2017). Copernicus
system of planetary organization was accepted by others but received a huge resistance from the
church. Heliocentric system was not fully proven until Newton’s theories were published in
1867.

Copernicus’ intellectual ideas revolutionize not only the field of astronomy but it also
causes a wide-ranging social impact in philosophy and religion. Copernicus book marked the
beginning of Copernican revolution which causes the start of new period of revolutionary science
(Gillies, 2019).

Darwinian Revolution
Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) was born in Shrewsbury, England. He is a well-
known English naturalist and biologist because of his contributions in science about evolution.
At the young age Darwin shows great interest in nature (Campbell et al., 2016). The book of
Natural theology by William Paisley influence Darwin to know how the organisms were created
or change. He studied medicine but he struggles in this field because he hated the sight of blood.
He entered Cambridge to study beetles and finished his Bachelor’s Degree in 1831. Darwin’s
soon joined a five-year voyage to South America with the HMS Beagle. The voyage gave
Darwin the opportunity to collect and compare fossils and access to hundreds of specimens from
similar looking species that lived close to each other but in slightly different environment.
Darwin travel until he reached the Galapagos Island.

Figure 2. Intellectual context of Darwin’s Idea

Darwin’s intellectual ideas about evolution was published in the book entitled On the
Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (commonly referred to as The Origin of Species)
in 1859. This book contains all of Darwin’s observation, involving many different organisms.
These observations together with other collected samples and fossils, convinced him that present
living organisms arose from the ancient species but with modification. (Klug et al., 2019).
Descent with modification by natural selection explains the adaptations of organisms in the
environment and the unity and diversity of life.

The Darwinian revolution challenged traditional views of a young Earth inhabited by

unchanging species known as fixity of organism. Darwin’s book convinced many scientists
during his time that the vast life diversity in organisms is the product of evolution. He succeeded
in proving his idea by presenting credible scientific mechanism with perfect logic and many
supporting evidences which previous evolutionist had failed to do. (Campbell et al., 2016). The
publication of Darwin’s theory of evolution cause great revolution in biology (Klug et al., 2019).

Freudian Revolution
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is known to his big contribution in modern psychology
particularly in the field of psychoanalysis. He pioneered different innovative techniques in
understanding human behaviour which resulted in theory of personality and psychotherapy ever
established. (Patel, 2013) At the very young age he had many interests but his career choice is
very limited due to his Jewish heritage and limited finances. Despite of this, his parents put effort
to foster his intellectual capacity. Freud entered the University of Vienna and registered in the
faculty of medicine. He attained his doctorate in medicine in 1881 and worked as research
assistant which mainly focus in neurology. He practiced clinical technique and started the
formulation of his theory on the mind.
 Sigmund Freud is now known as the father of psychoanalysis. He continues improving of
his theory that focuses on the unconscious aspect of personality (psychoanalysis). Freud believe
that human mind is like an iceberg, the tip of the iceberg represents the conscious level of mind
which could be seen and the unconscious part of mind was mysterious and hidden. The
unconscious also consists of part in personality which a person is unaware.

Figure 3. Sigmund Freud’s iceberg model of unconscious, subconscious and conscious level.

In 1923, Freud later developed the structural model of mind composed of the id, ego and
superego. It is considered as three essential parts of the human personality. It is located to the
unconscious level base on the pleasure principle. During infancy the ego develop from the id.
The ego's main purpose is to satisfy the demands of the id in a manner acceptable in the real
world. The ego functions within the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The superego
develops during early childhood and is responsible for ensuring moral standards and ideals are
followed. It is our guide in making judgment (McLeod, 2019).

Freud is a representative of scientific revolution because respond satisfactorily to the

challenge that all of the sciences facing. Freudianism, just like the Darwinism both can be
considered revolutionary that just it introduces new concepts but it also affects all of our
thinking, causing a general re-evaluation of the ideas. (Anderson, 2007).

SUMMARY
Intellectual revolution is the period of paradigm shifts occurred It is the period where a
widely accepted scientific belief where challenged or opposed with new intellectual ideas. This
revolution can cause great social changes. There are intellectuals who made an important
contribution in the revolution in the field of sciences. Nicholas Copernicus developed the
heliocentric model where the sun is the center of the universe and the planets orbiting around it.
His model opposes the well accepted geocentric model of the Ptolemy. His intellectual ideas not
only revolutionize the field of astronomy but it also causes a wide-ranging social impact in
philosophy and religion. Charles Darwin discovery of natural selection, adaptation and origin of
organisms cause a great revolution in the field of biology. His theory of evolution is useful in
many fields until this present time. Sigmund Freud is known to his big contribution in modern
psychology particularly in the field of psychoanalysis. He pioneered different innovative
techniques in understanding human behaviour which resulted in theory of personality and
psychotherapy ever established (Patel, 2013).

REFERENCES
Anderson, John (2007). The Freudian Revolution. Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.1080/00048405385200081

Campbell et al (2016). Biology. 11th Edition. Pearson Education Limited.

Cusick, James (2007). Copernicus and Scientific Revolution. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327862242

Gilles, Donald (2019). Why did the Copernican revolution take place in Europe rather than
China. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332320835.

Klug, William.et al. (2019). Concepts of Genetics, 11th Edition. Published by Pearson
Mcleod, Saul (2019). Id, Ego and Super ego. Retrieved from
https://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html

Patel, Ankit (2013). Person of Issue: Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). International Journal of Indian
Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266141594