Paths of Knowledge

By V. R. S.
  • Period: 25,000 BCE to 4500 BCE

    Prehistory

    • Humans were nomads, so they made stone tools for surviving.
    • Discovery of fire: That improved their techniques.
    • Development of agriculture and the first houses were built.
  • Period: 4500 BCE to 450

    Antiquity

    • Humans weren't nomads anymore, they established cities.
    • Trade of things and knowledge.
    • Roman society established a defined social class structure.
  • 624 BCE

    Thales of Miletus (624-546 BC)

    Is considered the first philosopher of the physis, in other words, he is the pioneer in searching rational explanations of reality. He thought that there was an arché or principle of all things, and decided that the arché is water.
  • 495 BCE

    Empedocles of Agrigento (495-444 BC)

    Nothing can originate from nothing and that what exists cannot disappear. He returned to the 4 material principles to affirm that the four are in constant movement by mixing and repulsing them continually.
  • 460 BCE

    Democritus (460-370 BC)

    He was sure that there should be an essential and eternal element for everything, no matter how different their appearances or behaviors may seem, so he proposed the existence of an indivisible particle: the atom.
    Also, he changed the perceptive of the interior of the human body more as a machine instead of a magic container.
  • 384 BCE

    Aristotle (384-322 BC)

    Made the first classification of living things and being according to logical thinking, and created the geocentric theory to explain the placce of the Earth in the Universe.
  • 310 BCE

    Aristarchus (310-230 BC)

    Was the first philosopher to formulate a different system, the heliocentric theory. His ideas didn't succeed and he was accused of heresy by contravening the geocentric theory.
  • 100

    Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100 - c. 170)

    Improved the Aristotelian system to make observations to better understand the distance between the spheres of the celestial bodies. Affirmed that all the celestial bodies describe perfectly circular orbits around the Earth at different distances.
    Its geocentric system as the basis of the planetary movement lasted for more than 1400 years.
  • Period: 476 to 1453

    Middle Ages

    • Europe: *Religious power. *Death, starvation and chaos. *Lack of development of technology. *Writing ancient and classic knowledge.
    • Asian development in science and ways to improve their lives.
  • Period: 1453 to

    Renaissance

    • New trading routes → Discovery of America.
    • New materials and products from the New World.
    • Knowledge obtained through the Church (Copernicus refuted that).
    • Protestantism.
    • Development of printing press.
    • New social class: Merchants and artisans (bourgeoisie).
  • 1473

    Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)

    Rebooted Aristarchus' heliocentrical theory and destroyed Ptolemy's geocentrical theory which lasted for more than 1400 years.
  • 1561

    Francis Bacon (1561-1626) *

    The true work of philosophy does not rely on the forces of the mind alone or above all, nor does it store in its memory the material that natural history and mechanical experiments have offered, but the philosopher deposits it in his understanding after transforming it and elaborating it.
  • 1564

    Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

    Pioneer of the experimental scientific method. Backed up Copernicus' theory with his observations using a telescope. His observations were later used by Isaac Newton to create the Law of Universal Gravitation.
    • Law of accelerated motion.
    • Laws of the pendulum.
  • Period: to

    Rationalism °

    The foundation of knowledge are reason and human thought.

  • Rene Descartes (1596-1650) °

    Everything that helps the rationality of the subject is the foundation of any knowledge. Among these foundations, is the logical reasoning.

  • Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) °

    Gave weight to emotions, which he called "reasons of the heart", with this he referred to 'knowledge of intuitions' as a type of intellectual reason.

  • Robert Boyle (1627-1691)

    1st modern chemist. Just as Galilei, he is also considered as a pioneer of the scientific method because he was able to easily reproduce his epxeriments on his laboratory. He erradicated another Aristotelian idea by proving that the matter is not only made of the four elements.
    • Boyle's Law of Gases
  • Period: to

    Empiricism #

    The source of knowledge is experience

  • John Locke (1632-1704) #

    Reason by itslef is empty and any idea must come from experience or must be linked to it to be reliable. Everything we think and know is the result of our experience.

  • Isaac Newton (1643-1727) #

    Based all his research on empirical experimentation to obtain universal laws. Reality exists in itself, it does not need us to perceive it. Greatest influencer of the Modern Science. His methods are still valid today and they sustain topics as Physics and Mechanic.
    • Law of Universal Gravitation

  • George Berkeley (1685-1753) #

    Denied that anything existed if it is not possible for the individual to have an experience of it. That is, if you cannot perceive it with any of your senses, then the thing is not true, or even, it might not exist.
  • Period: to

    Modern Age

    • Invention of the steam machine.
    • Women were allowed to work.
    • 1st Industrial Revolution: Industry and manufacturing.
    • New sources of energy and international business.

  • David Hume (1711-1776) #

    Although we can only accept ideas that are based on previous experience, this experience is very particular and doues not account for all reality, but only for a part of it.
  • Period: to

    Intermediate *

    Between Rationalism and Empiricism, Materialism.

  • Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) *

    Human knowledge is only possible through the interaction between experience and reason.

  • John Dalton

    Proposed that all things are made up of small particles called atoms that combine among them to create molecules.

  • Karl Marx (1818-1883) *

    Materialism tell us that reality is mental and material, knowledge is obtained through reason and experience when analyzing the changes that occur in the social and natural world. There is no supernatural source of reality.
  • Period: to

    Contemporary Age

    • Taylorism: Specialization of labor, elimination of downtime, "useless" worker movements to maximize their productivity.
    • Capitalism: Made the labor conditions worse.
    • Low wage but high working hours.

  • Charles Darwin

    Published "The Origin of Species", where he presented his theory of biological evolution by natural selection.

  • Louis Pasteur

    Conclusively refuted the theory of spontaneous generation.

  • Gregor Mendel

    Began the study of the laws of genetic inheritance.

  • Marie Curie

    Discovered the radioactive elements, radium and polonium, that would help in the medical progress.

  • Albert Einstein

    Published his theory of special relativity; the same year, he explained quantumly the photoelectric effect.

  • Niels Bohr

    Presented his model of the atom.
  • Period: to

    XX and XXI Centuries

    • Improvement in business management, health, education and social services.
    • Military technology progress.
    • Development of transport and tele-communications.
    • Internet.
    • Use and discard culture.

  • Rosalind Franklin, James Watson and Francis Crick

    Discovered the double helix structure of DNA.

  • Katie Bouman

    Took the fisrt photo of a black hole.