"The Intellectual Revolutions in North America, Asia, Middle East and Africa".
1. What is the intellectual revolution all about?². Who are the key figures in the revolution?³. How did the revolution advance modern science and scientific thinking at that time?4. What controversies met the revolution?

In our world today there seems to be a constant tension between tradition and innovation when it comes to knowledge-based disciplines like science, technology engineering and mathematics (STEM).

What is the intellectual revolution all about?

The intellectual revolution was a series of revolutions that occurred in North America, Asia, Middle East and Africa. The revolutions were significant because they changed how people thought about themselves as well as how ideas spread. These changes also helped to usher in modern science and scientific thinking at that time.
How did the revolution advance modern science and scientific thinking?
Some of the development from this revolution included an increased reliance on scientific evidence. We see this in the inability to address the thorny issue of teaching STEM subjects in class rooms. We see it in the inability to control the changes brought by disruptive innovations like nanotech and bio-tech. Innovation seems a way of life these days. However, there is another force that is propelling modern science forward which is a development that occured around 1900 and which was described by two British authors Paul Hardy and H G Wells as an "Intellectual Revolution" [see reference below].

The Intelligent Revolution has led to many new developments and achievements. This trend is typically traced to the scientific revolution of 16th century Europe.

According to Stephen J. Gould, a leading American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, prior to the 16th century scientific knowledge was a realm that belonged to priests and theologians. These religious authorities believed in theories such as creationism and teleological principles of harmony.
According to Gould, "there was not one science, but two" (A History of Science (1992)). The scholastic physics that was taught in medieval Catholic monasteries promoted Aristotelian principles over empirical findings. This disparity between scholastic physics and empirical observations contributed to the slow progression of science during the medieval age.
The scientific revolution, which began in the mid-16th century, was led by scientists such as Copernicus, Kepler and Newton. The scientific method gave way to empirical research and observation. This new way of thinking culminated in the birth of modern science.

Today people think of the Scientific Revolution as a monolithic event that occurred at a specific point in time. Instead of the history being written by the victors of a single scientific revolution, it is now known that there were multiple intellectual revolutions throughout history (Gould 2000) that didn't all happen at once.

However, some historians are beginning to realize that perhaps several different revolutions had been happening at different times throughout human history (Watkins 2008).
The scholastic method was supported by religious authorities, who believed that all aspects of the universe were explained by a purposeful design. The natural world was designed to reflect the divine order. To question the design of nature was to question the wisdom of God. Thus, investigation into physical causes of natural events had long been considered an inappropriate and even dangerous activity by religious authorities.

A second major idea to emerge from this revolution was the popularizing and spreading of scientific knowledge to the general public through newspapers, books and lectures. Before this revolution people did not have any access to knowledge about theories or experiments in science or engineering; they had no input in scientific matters and thus were excluded from science.

Who are the key figures in the revolution?
Francis Bacon, René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibnitz, John Locke, Baruch Spinoza, Thomas Paine and George Berkeley were all important figures in the scientific revolution. Some make lists of scientists that are representative of the different revolutions that occurred throughout history. These individuals were some of these revolutionaries.
The Scientific Revolution is seen as a subset of earlier intellectual revolutions that preceded it.

The third major idea to emerge from this revolution was the idea that science is a way of thinking and not just an instrument of knowledge. This meant that rather than merely following the commands of God, science should be used to determine truth and not just support religious dogmas.

Finally, the scientific method was expanded to include experimentation and observation. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) is often credited as being one of the key figures in bringing scientific thought into the public sphere during this time period. He proved that though there are several methods for calculating orbits, a mathematical formula could successfully describe them all. This meant that people no longer needed to look to mathematicians for answers as they could do so themselves without a mathematical equation.

The revolution was made possible by three developments:

The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1455 had a major impact on the spread of knowledge. Before the printing press, almost all books were copied by hand, which was very time-consuming and expensive. Print shops made it possible to produce multiple copies of texts quickly and cheaply, and gave rise to new book-based industries such as publishing, bookselling and journalism. The increased availability of books helped to disseminate new ideas across Europe. The increased availability of texts sparked an interest in learning among the general population.
The early 16th century saw an increasing number of translations of Greek, Arabic and Indian texts from Latin into the vernacular European languages.

The roots of the Scientific Revolution is often traced to the English and later Dutch Revolutions: the English in 1640, when Parliament suspended payments to the Catholic James I of England, and the Dutch in 1650, when a Holland army captured Antwerp. In each case, dissenters succeeded in overthrowing the local monarchs. What followed was an agrarian period of political turmoil that lasted until 1660. During this time, religious tolerance increased as a result of a lack of strong national leaders with strong religious affiliations or ties.
The scientific revolution during this time was not driven by a single group of people or political agenda, but due to several different forces which came together at various parts throughout European history. New methods of learning such as the scientific method and Aristotelian natural philosophy, spread.
The Renaissance brought forth a revival of interest in the language, literature and culture of classical antiquity.
The invention of the telescope allowed looking deeper into space which led to discoveries and theories (such as the nebular hypothesis and the laws of planetary motion) about law-governed behavior or structures.
This allowed for better predictive accuracy in science. The concept that our universe is governed by laws, rather than by divine intervention or arbitrary whim, was a cornerstone for future discoveries in astronomy, physics, biology and psychology.

The scientific revolution had several notable influences on the development of modern science,
The Scientific Revolution in Europe was not a monolithic event but a period of intellectual development and explosion that took place spreading across the European continent from the early 16th century to the mid 18th century. Each stage in this period is defined by a specific time-period, scientist and events that occurred at that point in time. This revolution is still taking place today, although it is now known that there were two separate revolutions happening at different times throughout history (Watkins 2008). Some of the key factors that influenced the development of science are as follows:

According to Robert K. Merton, there was a shift from scientific inquiry being used for personal reasons, for example curiosity and interest in natural phenomena, to one where scientific inquiry was done "often in technical secrecy and with a view to impersonal goals, such as the extension of knowledge or power." A key event that caused this shift was Galileo's condemnation by an academic tribunal. While this event can be seen as an initiating factor in the separation of science and religion during this time period, it is not considered to be the sole cause. During the Late Middle Ages, a period of relative ignorance, some natural philosophers began to make advances in the understanding of mechanics and optics. These scientists were not able to create a unified body of knowledge until the 16th century, when there began to be more competition between scientists and through this greater competition eventually scientists began to communicate their findings with one another. In this time period it was also responsible for the invention of the telescope which allowed for astronomy research to become very sophisticated in Europe. This particular instrument allowed for progress in astronomy research (especially transits), because now astronomers could study other planets that were farther away and therefore appear as smaller circles than observed planets before which were closer and thus appeared larger by comparison.

The Scientific Revolution saw the separation of science and religion.
Galileo's trial is often blamed for the onset of this separation, but the science-religion conflict, as it is called, can be traced in much earlier times and at different points across history. In particular, the British philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) was a major defender of the view that religion and morals were predominately the result of human reason rather than divine revelation or revelation in general. Prior to this point in time, between 1200–1500 A.D.