<p>Two can quote Wikipedia:
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science</a>
What I'm saying is obviously there was such a thing as natural philosophy, and obviously people tried to find explanations for the world around them before five hundred years ago. However, up until the Scientific Revolution this philosophy was very different and did not really accomodate the rational thought and empericism associated with science today. There was no such thing as questioning if the motions of the stars could be accounted for more simply or even carrying out an experiment on falling bodies because no one bothered to question the accepted dogma. And it is this change of thought 500 years ago that changed science into what it really is today, and what allows us to learn and discover all we do.</p>