19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Outline of the Natural Sciences Pt. I
The heavens are enriched for the man of science with new stars, and he applies his knowledge to determine and foretel with accuracy their positions and movements. Natural philosophy, gradually delivered from the vague explanations of Descartes, in the same manner as it before was disembarrassed from the absurdities of the schools, is now nothing more than the art of interrogating nature by experiment, for the parpose of afterwards deducing more general facts by computation.
The weight of the... 1 
notes
notesFrom Condorcet's Ninth Epoch. A survey of the world of science and a call for the need for the different sciences to find points where they touch in order to strengthen.
19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
The Death of Socrates
The burning of the Pythagorean school had already signalized the war, not less ancient, not less eager, of the oppressors of mankind against philosophy. The one and the other will continue to be waged as long as there shall exist priests or kings upon the earth; and these wars will occupy a conspicuous place in the picture that we have still to delineate.
Priests saw with grief the appearance of men, who, cultivating the powers of reason, ascending to first principles, could not but discover...Folksonomies: history philosophy
Folksonomies: history philosophy
1 notes
notesRetaliation from the priesthood.
18 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
Newton Was "Last of the Magicians"
Newton provides an example of how the idea of "science" had not yet fully emerged as something separate from religion in early Enlightenment thinking. In fact, during the seventeenth century, the word "scientist" was not commonly used to describe experimenters at all; they were called natural philosophers"^^ in an extension of the Puritan idea of the study of the Book of Nature. Science had also not fully emerged as a separate concept, but was sometimes thought of as a method or style of stud... 1 notes
notesThere was a great deal of belief in magic in Newton's writings.
27 AUG 2012 by ideonexus
On the Importance of Bacon
The most singular, as well as the most excellent, of all his works, is that which is now the least read, and which is at the same time the most useful; I mean his "Novum Scientiarum Organum." This is the scaffold by means of which the edifice of the new philosophy has been reared; so that when the building was completed, the scaffold was no longer of any use. Chancellor Bacon was still unacquainted with nature, but he perfectly knew, and pointed out extraordinarily well, all the paths which...Folksonomies: discovery natural philosophy
Folksonomies: discovery natural philosophy
1 notes
notesBarbarism discovered many useful inventions by accident, but Francis Bacon discovered natural philosophy according to Voltaire.
05 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Growth and Stages of Scientific Knowledge
In its earliest development knowledge is self-sown. Impressions force themselves upon men’s senses whether they will or not, and often against their will. The amount of interest in which these impressions awaken is determined by the coarser pains and pleasures which they carry in their train or by mere curiosity; and reason deals with the materials supplied to it as far as that interest carries it, and no further. Such common knowledge is rather brought than sought; and such ratiocination i... 1 notes
notesInto aesthetic pleasure to recognizing the continuous series of causes in nature.
28 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Chemistry Arose from Technologists, Philosophers, and Alc...
Historically [chemistry] arose from a constellation of interests: the empirically based technologies of early metallurgists, brewers, dyers, tanners, calciners and pharmacists; the speculative Greek philosphers' concern whether brute matter was invariant or transformable; the alchemists' real or symbolic attempts to achieve the transmutation of base metals into gold; and the iatrochemists' interst in the chemistry and pathology of animal and human functions. Partly because of the sheer comple... 1 notes
notesFor a variety of different motives.
13 DEC 2011 by ideonexus
Francis Bacon on Approaching Books
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; other to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a fu... 1 notes
notesThe different relationships we have with different kinds of books. A very eloquent passage.
09 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Look at the Total Form
If any person thinks the examination of the rest of the animal kingdom an unworthy task, he must hold in like disesteem the study of man. For no one can look at the elements of the human frame—blood, flesh, bones, vessels, and the like—without much repugnance. Moreover, when anyone of the parts or structures, be it which it may, is under discussion, it must not be supposed that it is its material composition to which attention is being directed or which is the object of the discussion, bu... 1 notes
notesAristotle from "Parts of Animals". Appears to be arguing that the parts of a biological being do not matter, but rather the animal in totality.
01 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
"Natural Philosophy" Renamed "Science"
We should remember that there was once a discipline called natural philosophy. Unfortunately, this discipline seems not to exist today. It has been renamed science, but science of today is in danger of losing much of the natural philosophy aspect. 1 notes
notesHannes Alfvén pointing out the increasing specialization of science during the century to explain the resistance to his ideas
25 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Fear of Science Toppling God
Lastly, you will find that by the simpleness of certain divines, access to any philosophy, however pure, is well-nigh closed. Some are weakly afraid lest a deeper search into nature should transgress the permitted limits of sober-mindedness, wrongfully wresting and transferring what is said in Holy Writ against those who pry into sacred mysteries, to the hidden things of nature, which are barred by no prohibition. Others with more subtlety surmise and reflect that if second causes are unknown... 1 notes
notesPeople fear scientific inquiry because they fear negating the scriptures with their discoveries. A very prescient observation by Francis Bacon.
