Modern science came into being in the sixteenth century under the auspices of three contemporaries, Kepler, Galilei and Descartes. Descartes differentiated between mind and matter, Galilei discovered a method for dealing with matter and Kepler proposed his three laws of planetary motion. Their work as scientists was based on the distinction between truth and hypothesis that had first been introduced by the Church as part of its calendar reform.
Newton was able to unify Kepler’s and Galilei’s findings into a first scientific theory and paid tribute to his predecessors by saying, “If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants”.
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