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The seventeenth century marked a critical phase in the emergence of modern science. But we misunderstand this process, if we assume that seventeenth-century modes of natural inquiry were identical to the highly specialised, professionalised and ever proliferating family of modern sciences practised today.
In early modern Europe the central category for the study of nature was ‘natural philosophy’, or as Robert Hooke called it in his Micrographia, the Science of Nature. In this discipline general theories of matter, cause, cosmology and method were devised, debated and positioned in relation to superior disciplines, such as theology; cognate disciplines, such as mathematics and ethics; and subordinate disciplines, such as the ‘mixed mathematical sciences’ of astronomy, optics and mechanics.
Thus, the ‘Scientific Revolution’ of the Seventeenth Century did not witness the sudden birth of ‘modern science’ but rather conflict and change in the field of natural philosophy: Aristotelian natural philosophy was challenged and displaced, as thinkers competed to redefine natural philosophy and its relations to the superior, cognate and subordinate disciplines. From this process the more modern looking disciplines of natural science emerged, and the idea of a general Science of Nature suffered a slow demise.
The papers in this collection focus on patterns of change in natural philosophy in the seventeenth century, aiming to encourage the use and articulation of this category in the historiography of science. The volume is intended for scholars and advanced students of early modern history of science, history of philosophy and intellectual history. Philosophers of science and sociologists of scientific knowledge concerned with historical issues will also find the volume of relevance. Above all, the volume is addressed to anyone interested in current debates about the origin and nature of modern science.
E-Book Content
THE SCIENCE OF NATURE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
STUDIES IN HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE VOLUME 19
General Editor: S. GAUKROGER, University of Sydney Editorial Advisory Board: RACHEL ANKENY, University of Sydney STEVEN FRENCH, University of Leeds DAVID PAPINEAU, King’s College London NICHOLAS RASMUSSEN, University of New South Wales JOHN SCHUSTER, University of New South Wales RICHARD YEO, Griffith University
The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.
THE SCIENCE OF NATURE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY Patterns of Change in Early Modern Natural Philosophy
Edited by
PETER R. ANSTEY University of Sydney, NSW, Australia and
JOHN A. SCHUSTER University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN-10 ISBN-13 ISBN-10 ISBN-13
1-4020-3603-5 (HB) 978-1-4020-3603-3 (HB) 1-4020-3703-1 (e-book) 978-1-4020-3703-1 (e-book)
Published by Springer, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. www.springeronline.com
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All Rights Reserved © 2005 Springer No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed in the Netherlands.
‘Vain speculation undeceived by the senses’. Engraving from La Vana Speculazione Disingannata dal Senso by Agostino Scilla, Napoli, 1670, page opposite p. 168. Used with permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (Shelfmark Lister C 101).
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