DOCSLIB.ORG

Roger Bacon and the Beginnings of Experimental Science in Britain

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Roger Bacon and the Beginnings of Experimental Science in Britain FROM THE JAMES LIND LIBRARY Roger Bacon and the beginnings of experimental science in Britain Eric Sidebottom Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford OX1 3RE, UK Correspondence to: Eric Sidebottom. Email: [email protected] DECLARATIONS Roger Bacon is something of an enigma. He has I am puzzled that RW Southern’s biography of been called many things – ‘Britain’s first scientist’, Grosseteste does not mention Roger Bacon,2 des- Competing interests ‘wonderful doctor’, ‘conjurer’ and ‘magician’. pite the Preface in AC Crombie’s Robert Grosseteste None declared Many of the details of his life are uncertain and and the origins of experimental science, published they have been discussed and argued about by half a century earlier, which states: ‘In the 13thC, Funding scholars for centuries. He is generally thought to the Oxford school, with Robert Grosseteste as its None declared have been born in Ilchester, Somerset, around founder, assumes a paramount importance: the 1214, although some authors have put his date work of this school in fact marks the beginning Ethical approval of birth as late as 1220. There is good evidence of the modern tradition of experimental science’.3 that he was in Paris in 1245 and 1251, but it is What is clear is that Roger Bacon was an Not applicable uncertain if he ever actually studied in Oxford. innovative thinker and a courageous scholar, not Contributorship If he did, he would have met Robert Grosseteste, afraid to challenge current beliefs about philoso- often described as Oxford University’s first phy, science and religion. His writings were exten- Sole author Chancellor (although his role is better described sive and have probably been more intensively Acknowledgements as ‘master of students’ (magister scholarium). studied than those of Grosseteste. I am indebted to Eva Bacon’s entry into the Franciscan order, plaus- It was possibly Bacon’s acquaintance with Guy Oledzka and Bruce ibly in 1257, is also conjectural; but it is clear that Foulquois, formerly a lawyer and military man Barker-Benfield, of his relationship with the Franciscan hierarchy who became a cardinal in 1261 and Pope was, at times, rather stormy.1 He was openly crit- Clement IV in 1264, which stimulated Bacon’s the Bodleian Library, ical of some of their values and beliefs and it was most famous writings. Indeed, as Pope Clement, for their invaluable not surprising that they sometimes tried to Foulquois commanded Bacon to send, ‘as quickly help in locating, muzzle him. Again the details of his alleged as possible and in a fair hand’ his written translating and ‘imprisonment’ are unclear. works on philosophy, science and religion. There commenting on It is likely that Bacon spent the last years of his must have been some misunderstanding because manuscripts for me; life in the Franciscan House in Oxford, where he Bacon was asking the Pope at that time to bless to Gillian Lewis for died and was buried in 1292. his intention to write a comprehensive ‘encyclo- talking to me about paedia of current knowledge’. The Pope’s medieval philosophy request provoked a flurry of activity on Bacon’s and science and Bacon’s writings part, which resulted in the completion of his directing my read- Opus maius in 1266. This was intended to be a ing; and to the Although Bacon is often celebrated as the first true summary (somewhat lengthy) of knowledge experimental scientist in Britain, this accolade about the natural world and was divided into Bodleian Library for may more properly be accorded to Robert seven parts: permission to use in Grosseteste (c 1170–1253). Grosseteste definitely the James Lind influenced Bacon and may well have taught (I) The causes of human ignorance Library images from him. Although much is now known about (II) The relation of the sciences to theology pages in the 15th Bacon’s extensive writings – and they are rightly (III) Grammar and the power of languages century manuscript admired for their scholarship and lucidity – it is (IV) Mathematics, including astronomy and of Bacon’s Opus not clear how far they are original or the extent astrology maius to which they were derived from contact with (V) Optics (perspectiva) contemporary scholars such as Grosseteste, (VI) Experimental science Adam Marsh, Thomas Wallensis and others. (VII) Moral philosophy Downloaded from jrs.sagepub.com Jat The RSoc Royal Society Med of2013: Medicine Library106: on 243–245.October 14, 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0141076813488482 243 Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine Part VI of Bacon’s Opus maius – Experimental After dispatching his Opus maius to Rome, Bacon Science – contains the passages for which he is apparently worried that it may not have reached principally remembered. The various abbrevi- the Pope, or that it might have been too long for a ations used by scribes make it hard for non-med- busy Pope to read, and that it was incomplete. ievalists to recognize the key passages.4 Accordingly he rapidly wrote his Opus minus,to P 389 of the 15th Century Digby manuscript in summarise and supplement the Opus maius. This the Bodleian Library in Oxford states: was despatched by ‘special courier’ – a favourite pupil of Bacon’s named John. Bacon then worked Positis radicibus sapientiae Latinorum on his Opus tertium, a much expanded volume. penes Linguas et Mathematicam et Perspectivam, Unfortunately, the Pope died in 1268 without nunc volo revolvere radices a parte Scientiae apparently ever communicating his opinions on Experimentalis, quia sine experiential nihil suf- Bacon’s works. ficientia sciri potest [my emphasis] Having laid down fundamental principles of the Oxford’s celebrations wisdom of the Latins so far as they are found in of Roger Bacon language, mathematics, and optics, I now wish to unfold the principles of experimental science, since There are several visible reminders of Roger without experiment nothing can be sufficiently Bacon’s link with Oxford in the 13th century. known. There are two ways of acquiring know- Around the corner from Roger Bacon Lane, there ledge, one through reason, the other by experiment. is a memorial plaque on the south wall of the Argument reaches a conclusion and compels us to Westgate Centre (nearly opposite the street-level admit it, but it neither makes us certain nor so entrance to the car park, and overlooking a litter- annihilates doubt that the mind rests calm in the strewn area of waste land). The plaque marks the intuition of truth, unless it finds this certitude site of Greyfriars Church, which stood there from by way of experience. Thus many have arguments about 1246 until 1538, when Franciscan houses toward attainable facts, but because they have were closed by Henry VIII. The inscription on not experienced them, they overlook them and nei- the plaque records in English and Latin the ther avoid a harmful nor follow a beneficial course. life of one of England’s most distinguished Even if a man that has never seen fire, proves Franciscans: by good reasoning that fire burns, and devours and destroys things, nevertheless the mind of one The great philosopher, Roger Bacon, known as the hearing his arguments would never be convinced, wonderful doctor who by the Experimental Method nor would he avoid fire until he puts his hand extended marvellously the realm of science, after a or some combustible thing into it in order to long life of untiring activity near this place, in the prove by experiment what the argument taught. home of his Franciscan brethren, fell asleep in But after the fact of combustion is experienced, Christ AD 1292. the mind is satisfied and lies calm in the cer- tainty of truth. Hence argument is not enough, Words from Bacon’s Opus maius are inscribed but experience is. above the entrance to the Daubeny Building of Oxford’s Botanic Garden: Bacon is making a point that brings to mind a passage in Ibn Sina’s Qanun, written two centuries Sine experientia nihil sufficienter sciri potest earlier, namely: [Without experiment nothing can be properly known] If it is said that some parts of medicine are theoret- ical and other parts are practical, this does not mean Finally, in the court of the University’s Museum of that one part teaches medicine and the other puts it Natural History, there is a statue of Roger Bacon into practice ...both parts of medicine are science, carved in Caen stone by Henry Hope Pinker. but one part is the science dealing with the prin- Bacon is depicted holding an astrolabe and calli- ciples of medicine, and the other with how to put pers – the former representing his scientific stu- those principles into practice.5 dies, the latter suggesting an aspiration to 244 J R Soc Med 2013: 106: 243–245. DOI:Downloaded 10.1177/0141076813488482 from jrs.sagepub.com at The Royal Society of Medicine Library on October 14, 2014 Roger Bacon and experimental science harmony. The statue was unveiled at a lavish cele- concentrate attention on things rather than bration in 1914, on the 700th anniversary of words. He led the way towards the conception of Bacon’s birth. The event was reported at length science as the inductive study of nature, based on in Nature.6 and tested by experiment. After the statue had been unveiled at the museum, eulogies were given (‘Bacon was the I wonder whether the 800th anniversary in 2014 most important phenomenon of the Middle will be celebrated in such style! Ages’ – Humboldt) and graciously accepted by the University Chancellor, Lord Curzon. A lunch References was then served at Merton College, at which Sir 1. Molland G. Bacon, Roger (c. 1214–1292), Oxford Dictionary of William Osler thanked visitors from the Vatican, National Biography.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Prolongation of Life in Early Modern English Literature and Culture, with Emphasis on Francis Bacon
    THE PROLONGATION OF LIFE IN EARLY MODERN ENGLISH LITERATURE AND CULTURE, WITH EMPHASIS ON FRANCIS BACON ROGER MARCUS JACKSON A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. Chapel Hill 2010 Approved by: Dr. Reid Barbour Dr. Mary Floyd-Wilson Dr. Darryl Gless Dr. James O‘Hara Dr. Jessica Wolfe ©2010 Roger Marcus Jackson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT ROGER MARCUS JACKSON: The Prolongation of Life in Early Modern English Literature and Culture (Under the direction of Reid Barbour) Drawing upon early modern texts of poetry, theology, and natural philosophy written in England and the continent, this dissertation explores the intellectual traditions inherent in Renaissance discourses addressing the prolongation of life. It is organized around two nodal questions: Can life be prolonged? Should it be prolonged? The project hinges upon Francis Bacon (1561-1626), for whom the prolongation of life in the sense of a longer human lifespan serves as the loftiest goal of modern experimental science. Addressing the first question, Part One illustrates the texture and diversity of early modern theories of senescence and medical treatments against the ―disease‖ of old age promoted by Galen, Avicenna, medieval theologians, Jean Fernel, Marsilio Ficino, and Paracelsus. Part Two then demonstrates that Bacon‘s theory of senescence and corresponding therapies nevertheless differ from those of his predecessors and contemporaries in three regards: their attempt to isolate senescence from disease, their postulation of senescence as a process based on universal structures and actions of matter, and their deferral to further experiment for elucidation.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Modern Philosophy of Technology: Bacon and Descartes
    Early Modern Philosophy of Technology: Bacon and Descartes By Robert Arnăutu Submitted to Central European University Department of Philosophy In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy Supervisor: Professor Hanoch Ben-Yami CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2013 Copyright notice I hereby declare that this dissertation contains no materials accepted for any other degrees in any other institutions of higher education. Also, I declare that this dissertation contains no material previously written and/or published by any other person, except where appropriate acknowledgement has been made in the form of bibliographic reference. Robert Arnăutu June 2013 CEU eTD Collection i Abstract The contemporary understanding of technology is indebted to Bacon and Descartes, who challenged the pre-modern conceptions regarding useful material production. Although the production of artefacts has been a constant activity of humans since the dawn of history, the Ancient world tended to disvalue it, considering it a lower endeavour that aims to satisfy ignoble material needs. Technology, according to Ancient Greek thinkers, cannot surpass nature but can only bring small improvements to it; moreover, there is a difference in kind between natural things and technological artefacts; the activity of inventing and producing useful objects is unsuited for the nobility and for free men; there is an irreducible gap between proper knowledge and the production of artefacts. This approach toward technology is completely
    [Show full text]
  • Descartes' Optics
    Descartes’ Optics Jeffrey K. McDonough Descartes’ work on optics spanned his entire career and represents a fascinating area of inquiry. His interest in the study of light is already on display in an intriguing study of refraction from his early notebook, known as the Cogitationes privatae, dating from 1619 to 1621 (AT X 242-3). Optics figures centrally in Descartes’ The World, or Treatise on Light, written between 1629 and 1633, as well as, of course, in his Dioptrics published in 1637. It also, however, plays important roles in the three essays published together with the Dioptrics, namely, the Discourse on Method, the Geometry, and the Meteorology, and many of Descartes’ conclusions concerning light from these earlier works persist with little substantive modification into the Principles of Philosophy published in 1644. In what follows, we will look in a brief and general way at Descartes’ understanding of light, his derivations of the two central laws of geometrical optics, and a sampling of the optical phenomena he sought to explain. We will conclude by noting a few of the many ways in which Descartes’ efforts in optics prompted – both through agreement and dissent – further developments in the history of optics. Descartes was a famously systematic philosopher and his thinking about optics is deeply enmeshed with his more general mechanistic physics and cosmology. In the sixth chapter of The Treatise on Light, he asks his readers to imagine a new world “very easy to know, but nevertheless similar to ours” consisting of an indefinite space filled everywhere with “real, perfectly solid” matter, divisible “into as many parts and shapes as we can imagine” (AT XI ix; G 21, fn 40) (AT XI 33-34; G 22-23).
    [Show full text]
  • The Oxford Greyfriars: a Centre of Learning
    THE OXFORD GREYFRIARS: A CENTRE OF LEARNING The Oxford Franciscans (Greyfriars) are significant in the history of the University of Oxford and the development of academic learning, especially scientific study. As a Studium Generale the Alchemy was the friary served as an important medieval forerunner of early “college”, within a chemistry. Alchemists network of similar Christian were famously colleges throughout Europe. concerned with the The friary had two libraries, a search for a way to scriptorium (where books were convert low grade copied out and translated), (base) metals, such many knowledgeable friars as iron and lead, into or masters, and a structured precious metals, such teaching programme. It was as gold and silver. They were also absorbed with trying to find the only rivalled in the later 13th elixir of life, which would bring the user youth and longevity and century by similar colleges perhaps immortality. in Paris and Cambridge. With such a good reputation To date, little physical evidence students came to Oxford for the practice of alchemy from across Europe, including has been identified through France, Italy, Spain, Portugal archaeological excavation. Statue to Roger Bacon in the Natural History However, in 2005 a group of Museum, Oxford and Germany. ceramic and glass alembics, The Oxford friars were inspired by great scholarly Arabic texts skillets and furnace fragments from the Islamic Golden Age during the 9th and 11th centuries. were found in an old pit (used They used these texts (translated into Latin) which enabled as a lavatory) belonging to a the ideas and knowledge from previous centuries of Islamic medieval hall buried below scholarship to be studied more widely in the emerging medieval Peckwater Quad, Christ Church, universities of Europe.
    [Show full text]
  • Roger Bacon: the Christian, the Alchemist, the Enigma
    University at Albany, State University of New York Scholars Archive History Honors Program History 2019 Roger Bacon: The Christian, the Alchemist, the Enigma Victoria Tobes University at Albany, State University of New York Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/history_honors Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Tobes, Victoria, "Roger Bacon: The Christian, the Alchemist, the Enigma" (2019). History Honors Program. 12. https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/history_honors/12 This Undergraduate Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the History at Scholars Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Honors Program by an authorized administrator of Scholars Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 Roger Bacon: The Christian, the Alchemist, the Enigma By: Victoria Tobes [email protected] An honors thesis presented to the Department of History, University at Albany, State University of New York in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with Honors in History. Advisors: Dr. Patrick Nold and Dr. Mitch Aso 5/12/2019 2 ABSTRACT: This paper explores the life and work of 13th century English Franciscan friar, Roger Bacon in light of the spiritual-religious practice of alchemy. Bacon’s works in pertinence to alchemy reflect his belonging to a school of intellectual thought known as Hermeticism; which encompasses the practice of alchemy. Bacon can be placed among other philosophic practitioners of alchemy throughout history; allowing for expanded insight into the life of this medieval scholar. Throughout history, Bacon’s most well-known work, the Opus Majus, has been interpreted in a variety of ways.
    [Show full text]
  • Roger Bacon (With Portraits). Paul Carus 449
    $1.00 per Year AUGUST, 1914 Price, 10 Cents ^be ©pen Court A MONTHLY MAGAZINE Devoted to tbe Science of IRellaton, tbe IReliQion ot Science, an& tbe Extension of tbe IReligious parliament fDea Founded by Edwabd C Hbgeleb ROGER BACON. 1214-1914. Xvbe ©pen Court publfsbing (Tompanie CHICAGO AND LONDON Per copy, lo cents (sixpence). Yearly, $i.oo (in the U.P.U., Ss. 6d.). Entered M Secoad-Clau Matter Much a6, 1897, at the Post OflSce at Chicago, IIL under Act ol Match j, 18/1^ Copyright by The Open Court PublisUng Company, 1914. $1.00 per Year AUGUST, 1914 Price, 10 Cents XTbe ©pen Court A MONTHLY MAGAZINE H)epotcD to tbc Science of IRelialon, tbe IReliafon of Science, an& tbc Bitension of tbe IReUaious parliament fOea Founded by Eowabd C Hbgelbb ROGER BACON. 1214-1914. ^be ©pen Court publfsbina Companie CHICAGO AND LONDON Per copy, lo cents (sixpence). Yearly, $i.oo (in the U.P.U., Ss. 6d.). Entered M Secood-Oass Matter March a6, 1897, M the Post Office at Chici«o, IIL andar Act ot Uaicb j, tS/^ Copyright by The Open Court Publishing Company, 19 14. VOL. XXVIII. (No. 8) AUGUST, 1914 NO. 699 CONTENTS: FAGR Frontispiece, Roger Bacon. Roger Bacon (With portraits). Paul Carus 449 Biography of Roger Bacon 452 The Two Bacons. Ernst Duhring 468 Roger Bacon the Philosopher. Alfred H. Lloyd 486 Roger Bacon as a Scientist. Karl E. Guthe % 494 Roger Bacon, Logician and Mathematician. Philip E. B. Jourdain 508 Book Reviezvs 511 REVUE CONSACREE A L'HISTOIRE ET A L'ORGANISATION DE la SCIENCE, ISIS PUBLIEE PAR GEORGE SARTON En resume /.sw est a la fois la revue philosophique des savants et la revue scientifique des philosophes ; la revue historique des savants et la revue scientifique des historiens ; la revue sociologique des savants et la revue scientifique des sociologues.
    [Show full text]
  • Scientific Methodology for Evaluation of Eriugena's Doctrine
    European Journal of Science and Theology, February 2018, Vol.14, No.1, 1-13 _______________________________________________________________________ SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY FOR EVALUATION OF ERIUGENA’S DOCTRINE Andrew Tolstenko* Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Vtoraja Krasnoarmejskaja ul. 4, St. Petersburg, 190005, Russia (Received 6 May 2017, revised 21 October 2017) Abstract This article considers the phenomenon of the philosophy of John Scottus Eriugena (c.800 – c.877) as a source of modern philosophical systems. The author has undertaken to determine the unique place of this medieval philosopher‟s ideas in the context of ontological semantics. Comparative, concrete historical, typological, and systematic textual analytic methods of research were applied to understand and provide a scientific evaluation of the events and facts that triggered Eriugena‟s philosophical choices in respect to medieval thought. It was found that the philosophical categories developed by Eriugena were later used in the pantheistic systems of Spinoza and Schelling. Eriugena‟s ideas were rooted in Neoplatonism, which prevailed in Byzantine theology, and in the language of Hermeneutics. They transformed Western philosophy and created a special kind of „natural‟ definition – logical and grammatical structures through which our language, engaged in the totality of all that exists, conveys a sense of things being. As a result, the „grammatism‟ of Eriugena became a constructive principle in his theological reasoning and in his teachings on the division of Nature, or God. As a consequence, medieval thinking became full of cogitative content, which was still relevant to modern and postmodern philosophers (Berkeley and the idealist tradition, Emerson‟s natural theology, Husserl‟s phenomenology as a transcendental idealism).
    [Show full text]
  • What the Middle Ages Knew IV
    Late Medieval Philosophy Piero Scaruffi Copyright 2018 http://www.scaruffi.com/know 1 What the Middle Ages knew • Before the Scholastics – The Bible is infallible, therefore there is no need for scientific investigation or for the laws of logic – Conflict between science and religion due to the Christian dogma that the Bible is the truth – 1.Dangerous to claim otherwise – 2.Pointless to search for additional truths – Tertullian (3rd c AD): curiosity no longer necessary because we know the meaning of the world and what is going to happen next ("Liber de Praescriptione Haereticorum") 2 What the Middle Ages knew • Before the Scholastics – Decline of scientific knowledge • Lactantius (4th c AD) ridicules the notion that the Earth could be a sphere ("Divinae Institutiones III De Falsa Sapientia Philosophorum") • Cosmas Indicopleustes' "Topographia Cristiana" (6th c AD): the Earth is a disc 3 What the Middle Ages knew • Before the Scholastics – Plato's creation by the demiurge in the Timaeus very similar to the biblical "Genesis" – Christian thinkers are raised by neoplatonists • Origen was a pupil of Ammonius Sacca (Plotinus' teacher) • Augustine studied Plotinus 4 What the Middle Ages knew • Preservation of classical knowledge – Boethius (6th c AD) translates part of Aristotle's "Organon" and his "Arithmetica" preserves knowledge of Greek mathematics – Cassiodorus (6th c AD) popularizes scientific studies among monks and formalizes education ("De Institutione Divinarum" and "De artibus ac disciplinis liberalium litterarum") with the division of disciplines into arts (grammar, rhetoric, dialectic) – and disiplines (arithmeitc,geometry, music, astronomy) – Isidore of Sevilla (7th c AD) preserves Graeco- Roman knowledge in "De Natura Rerum" and "Origines" 5 What the Middle Ages knew • Preservation of classical knowledge – Bede (8th c AD) compiles an encyclopedia, "De Natura Rerum" – St Peter's at Canterbury under Benedict Biscop (7th c AD) becomes a center of learning – Episcopal school of York: arithmetic, geometry, natural history, astronomy.
    [Show full text]
  • Atomic Evolution January 10 Environmental Problems in Our Lifetime
    3.01 Understanding Atoms The Events Leading to the Discovery of the Building Block of Matter Dr. Fred Omega Garces Chemistry 111 Miramar College 1 3.02 Atomic Evolution January 10 Environmental Problems in our Lifetime The sun and our atmosphere 2 3.02 Atomic Evolution January 10 Relationship between CO2 and Global Temperature Atmospheric CO2 and Global Temperature 3 3.02 Atomic Evolution January 10 Charles David Keeling, An Analytical Chemist • Charles David Keeling 4 3.02 Atomic Evolution January 10 Idea of the Atom How did man come up with the idea of the atom ? It took ~2400 years from when it was conceived to the time experimental evidence prove of the atom existence. 5 3.02 Atomic Evolution January 10 History of Chemistry and development of the atomic model History of Atomic Structure The timeline of the progression of the development of the Modern Atomic theory. Atomic Theory Timeline J. Dalton Empedocles J. Proust Aristotle A. Lavoisier R. Boyle Democritus Leucippus Zeno Aristotle Democritus Boyle Lavoisier Dalton R. Bacon -5 0 0 -2 5 0 0 2 5 0 5 0 0 7 5 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 5 0 1 5 0 0 1 7 5 0 2 0 0 0 6 3.02 Atomic Evolution January 10 Matter according to ... Greek Philosophers 492-375 BC: Empedocles (supported by Aristotle) Earth-Air-Fire-Water 400 BC: Zeno (also supported by Aristotle) Matter can be infinitely divided 400 BC: Leucippus 470-375 BC: Democritus (student of Leucippus) Proposed the idea of the atom Matter -indivisible particles called atoms “Atheistic Belief” 7 3.02 Atomic Evolution January 10 Next 2000 Years Alchemy (pseudo science) lead into gold experiments (black magic) took detailed notes (lab notebook conceived) Systematic metallurgy (extracted metals from ore) Roger Bacon (1214-1292) An English and alchemist, Bacon became known as the founder of experimental science.
    [Show full text]
  • The Impact of the Scientific Revolution: a Brief History of the Experimental Method in the 17Th Century∗
    Connexions module: m13245 1 The Impact of the Scientific Revolution: A Brief History of the Experimental Method in the 17th Century∗ Jo Kent This work is produced by The Connexions Project and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License y Lauren Ames, Jo Kent, Amneet Gulati, Adam Purtee Faculty Sponsor: Christopher Kelty, Rice University Department of Anthropology The Impact of the Scientic Revolution: A Brief History of the Experimental Method in the 17th Century The American statesman Adlai Stevenson once said, America can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present. 1This is clearly true in the eld of science and research. Today, as scientists experiment with nanotechnology and venture into a wide variety of new scientic disciplines, it remains important to take a look back to the origins of scientic discovery and understand some of the events that have shaped the world of science, and, more importantly, to realize how science behaves as an evolving process. 1 Introduction The beginning of the seventeenth century is known as the scientic revolution for the drastic changes evidenced in the European approach to science during that period. The word revolution connotes a period of turmoil and social upheaval where ideas about the world change severely and a completely new era of academic thought is ushered in. This term, therefore, describes quite accurately what took place in the scientic community following the sixteenth century. During the scientic revolution, medieval scientic philosophy was abandoned in favor of the new methods proposed by Bacon, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton; the importance of experimentation to the scientic method was rearmed; the importance of God to science was for the most part invalidated, and the pursuit of science itself (rather than philosophy) gained validity on its own terms.
    [Show full text]
  • Physical Color Theory Before Newton Author(S): Henry Guerlac Reviewed Work(S): Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol
    Can there Be Colors in the Dark? Physical Color Theory before Newton Author(s): Henry Guerlac Reviewed work(s): Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1986), pp. 3-20 Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2709592 . Accessed: 28/11/2011 22:42 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of Pennsylvania Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the History of Ideas. http://www.jstor.org CAN THERE BE COLORS IN THE DARK? PHYSICAL COLOR THEORY BEFORE NEWTON BY HENRY GUERLACt Isaac Newton's first scientific paper, setting forth his epoch-making theory of light and colors, appeared in the Philosophical Transactionsof the Royal Society of London in February 1672.1 Newton was barely thirty years old, a young don at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was destined to remain immured for the next quarter century. Yet several years before submitting his classic paper he had been investigating the problem of colors using what one scholar has called his "instrument of choice," the triangular glass prism.
    [Show full text]
  • Roger Bacon (C
    Roger Bacon (c. 1220–1292) and his System of Laws of Nature: Classification, Hierarchy and Significance Yael Kedar Tel Hai College Giora Hon University of Haifa Bacon discussed three different types of laws of nature: (1) particular laws governing one element or phenomenon (such as the law of the gravity of water); (2) the laws of the multiplication of species; and, (3) the universal law of nature. Each set of laws has its own explanatory function: (1) the particular laws account for the unique features of individuals and species; (2) the laws of multiplication explain the common features of matter and how individuals affect one another physically; and (3) the law of universal nature regulates these interactions and keep them in balance. Bacon’s laws share common fea- tures with early modern conception of laws. For example, they can be restated as if/then sentences and cover future events; some support counterfactuals; and all are endowed with explanatory power and free from space-time limitations. When considered together, they form a system, ordered in hierarchical relations. The different levels of laws cover three aspects of Aristotelian causality: formal, efficient, and final. The law of universal nature is a metaphysical axiom, necessary for upholding the very idea of a nature governed by laws. This indicates that Bacon conceived of nature as orderly and predictable; he presented a conception of a lawful nature and showed an understanding of what it takes to be lawful to a degree that had not been seen before. 1. Introduction The idea that nature is governed by laws and that the goal of science is to discover and formulate these laws, rose to prominence during the Scientific This research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (grant no.
    [Show full text]