SEMAINE D'ÉTUDE SUR LE ROLE DY L’ANALYSE ECONOMETRIQUE ETC. 1085

2. THE SCIENTIFIC BASE OF THE ADVANCED COUNTRIES

2.1. The scientific base of the modern age can be appreciated
 by even a brief review of the recent history of the
advanced countries. Four hundred years ago the generally
accepted view was that the earth was at the centre of the
universe; the position of human beings was unique and
supreme; and the highest sanction of truth was either divine
revelation or abstract logical reasoning in the mind of man. In
the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, there was a complete
 revolution in the picture of the physical world; the earth
was seen as a small planet moving round the sun; and the
method of empirical observations and experimentation was
gradually established in both physical and life sciences.
2.2. Progress was at first slow in the sixteenth century. A
few selected names may be recalled to indicate the gradual
transformation of ideas. In astronomy, Nicholas Copernicus
(1473-1543) supported the view that the planets including the
earth itself were revolving in orbits round the sun; Tycho Brahe
1546-1601) supplied astronomical observations of unprecedanted
 accuracy to make the next steps possible; JoHANN KEPLER
1571-1630) formulated the descriptive laws of planetary
motion; and GALILEO GALILEI (1564-1642) made conscious
propaganda in favour of the new philosophy of the universe.
[n anatomy, ANDREAS VESALIUS (1514-1564) published his
observations on the human body in 1543; in physics, WILLIAM
GILBERT (1544-1603) gave an account of magnetism based on
trustworthy experiments in 1600; in physiology, WILLIAM
HARVEY (1578-1657) described the circulation of the blood in
(628; JoHN NAPIER (1550-1617) supplied a convenient tool for
computation by the use of logarithms; and RENE DESCARTES
(1596-1650), a philosopher, contributed the powerful concepts
of coordinates for geometrical representation and of mathematical
 functions. Francis BACON ( 1561-1626), firmly stated that

1 Mahalanobis I - pag. 15