Discuss the causes of the Scientific Revolution in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

First, it should be noted that the portrait of a
Scientific Revolution which replaced the darkness and superstition of the Middle Ages
with a "scientific" world view in the Renaissance is one that most scholars now regard
as somewhere between oversimplified and misleading. Many of the innovations attributed
to the Renaissance scientific revolution actually had their roots in medieval
scholasticism, include early advances in optics and other forms of empirical
study. 

A key factor in the development of western science
was contact with the Islamic and Byzantine worlds, especially in Venice and Moorish
Spain. Islamic thinkers in particular were responsible for the development of algebra,
which formed the mathematical basis for much of the subsequent scientific developments.
 The Byzantine and Arabic transmission of classical Greek texts also led to major
advances in western astronomy and medicine. Due to these influences, the late medieval
thinkers Roger Bacon, Thomas Bradwardine, and William of Ockham all were responsible for
the development of what is now known as the "scientific
method". 

Next, the rise of Protestantism in the
Renaissance led to a greater freedom in scientific thought, particularly breaking the
Thomistic, neo-Aristotelian orthodoxy. The age of exploration caused Europeans to
encounter other cultures and ways of thinking, leading to new knowledge and new
ideas.