13 DEC 2011 by ideonexus
Men of Sciences as Experimentors or Dogmatists
Those who have handled sciences have been either men of experiment or men of dogmas. The men of experiment are like the ant; they only collect and use; the reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But the bee takes a middle course; it gathers its material from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own. Not unlike this is the true business of philosophy; for it neither relies solely or chiefly on the powers o...Folksonomies: science scientists
Folksonomies: science scientists
Francis Bacon describes them as ants and spiders and lays out a third way using the metaphor of the bee.
25 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Parable of the Scientist as Insect
Those who have handled sciences have been either men of experiment or men of dogmas. The men of experiment are like the ant, they only collect and use; the reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But the bee takes a middle course: it gathers its material from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own. Not unlike this is the true business of philosophy; for it neither relies solely or chiefly on the powers o...Scientists work like ants, spiders, and bees.
25 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Experiments of Light Versus Those of Fruit
Again, even in the great plenty of mechanical experiments, there is yet a great scarcity of those which are of most use for the information of the understanding. For the mechanic, not troubling himself with the investigation of truth, confines his attention to those things which bear upon his particular work, and will not either raise his mind or stretch out his hand for anything else. But then only will there be good ground of hope for the further advance of knowledge when there shall be rec...The experiment of light has the admirable property of never missing or failing, always shining light on the natural world.