Geoffrey Cantor
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199276684
- eISBN:
- 9780191603389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199276684.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter seeks to analyse the involvement of Jews and Quakers in a range of scientific institutions. One is the Royal Society of London, the membership of which was open to non-Anglicans since no ...
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This chapter seeks to analyse the involvement of Jews and Quakers in a range of scientific institutions. One is the Royal Society of London, the membership of which was open to non-Anglicans since no corporeal oath was required. The membership patterns of both Jews and Quakers displayed networks of business and of patronage, as illustrated by the career of Emanuel Mendes da Costa among others. Quakers flocked to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA), which they found ideologically appealing. Quaker social and political interests were also reflected in the Aborigines’ Protection Society and the Ethnological Society, where they adopted a monogenist stance that was opposed by other ethnologists. Jewish concerns with assimilation and improvement were manifested in the Jews’ and General Scientific and Literary Institution (1844-59). Both communities were greatly attracted by the Great Exhibition (1851), but in different ways: for the Anglo-Jewry, it raised the question of whether Jews were intellectually able; the Quakers saw it as a harbinger of world peace.Less
This chapter seeks to analyse the involvement of Jews and Quakers in a range of scientific institutions. One is the Royal Society of London, the membership of which was open to non-Anglicans since no corporeal oath was required. The membership patterns of both Jews and Quakers displayed networks of business and of patronage, as illustrated by the career of Emanuel Mendes da Costa among others. Quakers flocked to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA), which they found ideologically appealing. Quaker social and political interests were also reflected in the Aborigines’ Protection Society and the Ethnological Society, where they adopted a monogenist stance that was opposed by other ethnologists. Jewish concerns with assimilation and improvement were manifested in the Jews’ and General Scientific and Literary Institution (1844-59). Both communities were greatly attracted by the Great Exhibition (1851), but in different ways: for the Anglo-Jewry, it raised the question of whether Jews were intellectually able; the Quakers saw it as a harbinger of world peace.
Ruth Barton
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226551616
- eISBN:
- 9780226551753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226551753.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Through examination of the activities of the X-men within scientific societies this chapter reveals much about the mundane operation of scientific societies, their characteristic organisational ...
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Through examination of the activities of the X-men within scientific societies this chapter reveals much about the mundane operation of scientific societies, their characteristic organisational structure, the roles of officers, and Victorian expectations as to the roles appropriate to persons of different social statuses. The concerns of the X-men were chiefly with the public image of science, that science be dignified and socially respected, judged by scientific criteria alone. Their specifically professionalizing concerns focused on building the infrastructure for scientific research. They devoted considerable effort to getting themselves elected to high positions in the Royal Society, and ensuring that high birth was no longer a criterion for the presidency. In the Ethnological Society of London, Lubbock, Busk and Huxley sought both scientific and social respectability for the science of man. They succeeded in reuniting the squabbling Ethnological and Anthropological Societies, and in holding the amalgamated Anthropological Institute together. By contrast, in the Linnean Society Hooker lost his long control, largely because Busk and Lubbock refused to act as his lieutenants. Through the British Association they shaped public opinion more widely, using public lectures and presidential addresses to interpret the tendencies and directions of modern science to large audiences.Less
Through examination of the activities of the X-men within scientific societies this chapter reveals much about the mundane operation of scientific societies, their characteristic organisational structure, the roles of officers, and Victorian expectations as to the roles appropriate to persons of different social statuses. The concerns of the X-men were chiefly with the public image of science, that science be dignified and socially respected, judged by scientific criteria alone. Their specifically professionalizing concerns focused on building the infrastructure for scientific research. They devoted considerable effort to getting themselves elected to high positions in the Royal Society, and ensuring that high birth was no longer a criterion for the presidency. In the Ethnological Society of London, Lubbock, Busk and Huxley sought both scientific and social respectability for the science of man. They succeeded in reuniting the squabbling Ethnological and Anthropological Societies, and in holding the amalgamated Anthropological Institute together. By contrast, in the Linnean Society Hooker lost his long control, largely because Busk and Lubbock refused to act as his lieutenants. Through the British Association they shaped public opinion more widely, using public lectures and presidential addresses to interpret the tendencies and directions of modern science to large audiences.
Mark Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199577736
- eISBN:
- 9780191595196
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577736.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
Chapter 2 shows how British practitioners, many from Dissenting backgrounds or trained at the University of Edinburgh, sought to apply the insights of Sydenham and Boerhaave to their work on disease ...
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Chapter 2 shows how British practitioners, many from Dissenting backgrounds or trained at the University of Edinburgh, sought to apply the insights of Sydenham and Boerhaave to their work on disease in the tropical colonies. Again, it stresses the centrality of place and climate to their understanding of disease and the vital part played by morbid anatomy. The chapter traces a number of important intellectual networks, spanning both the East and West Indies, and Britain and the American colonies. Some of these were Dissenting networks which linked surgeons in the Army, Navy, and East India Company to figures such as John Fothergill and Benjamin Rush in Britain and America; others were more formal, such as the Royal Society of London and ties to universities such as Edinburgh.Less
Chapter 2 shows how British practitioners, many from Dissenting backgrounds or trained at the University of Edinburgh, sought to apply the insights of Sydenham and Boerhaave to their work on disease in the tropical colonies. Again, it stresses the centrality of place and climate to their understanding of disease and the vital part played by morbid anatomy. The chapter traces a number of important intellectual networks, spanning both the East and West Indies, and Britain and the American colonies. Some of these were Dissenting networks which linked surgeons in the Army, Navy, and East India Company to figures such as John Fothergill and Benjamin Rush in Britain and America; others were more formal, such as the Royal Society of London and ties to universities such as Edinburgh.
Alex Csiszar
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226553238
- eISBN:
- 9780226553375
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226553375.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
In the late 1820s, British scientific practitioners joined political crusaders calling for the reform of institutions of governance. Among other things, scientific reformers wanted means of ...
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In the late 1820s, British scientific practitioners joined political crusaders calling for the reform of institutions of governance. Among other things, scientific reformers wanted means of identifying true scientific practitioners in the hopes that delimiting a core of professionals would prompt the state to take greater interest in natural philosophy. This chapter follows the rising fortunes of two key identities in the emergence of the scientific expert: the author and the referee. In Britain, periodical authorship was an ambiguous professional identity, but the idea that certain kinds of specialized authorship could be a privileged marker of scientific activity was gaining ground. Concurrently, several learned societies were experimenting with new systems of judgment for their publications. The system initiated by the Royal Society of London was inspired by the Paris Academy of Sciences which used a system of public reports to judge manuscripts and inventions. But transporting this system across the Channel led to its transformation into a system based instead on the anonymous reports of individuals. The persona of the referee that emerged by mid-century was an amalgam of various identities including the legal expert, the trustworthy gentleman, the state bureaucrat, and the anonymous book reviewer.Less
In the late 1820s, British scientific practitioners joined political crusaders calling for the reform of institutions of governance. Among other things, scientific reformers wanted means of identifying true scientific practitioners in the hopes that delimiting a core of professionals would prompt the state to take greater interest in natural philosophy. This chapter follows the rising fortunes of two key identities in the emergence of the scientific expert: the author and the referee. In Britain, periodical authorship was an ambiguous professional identity, but the idea that certain kinds of specialized authorship could be a privileged marker of scientific activity was gaining ground. Concurrently, several learned societies were experimenting with new systems of judgment for their publications. The system initiated by the Royal Society of London was inspired by the Paris Academy of Sciences which used a system of public reports to judge manuscripts and inventions. But transporting this system across the Channel led to its transformation into a system based instead on the anonymous reports of individuals. The persona of the referee that emerged by mid-century was an amalgam of various identities including the legal expert, the trustworthy gentleman, the state bureaucrat, and the anonymous book reviewer.
G. L’E Turner
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198515302
- eISBN:
- 9780191705694
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198515302.003.0002
- Subject:
- Physics, History of Physics
This chapter contains biographical sketches of the members, together with a record of attendance and non-attendance at the meetings, and brief commentary. The men who met at the Chapter Coffee House, ...
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This chapter contains biographical sketches of the members, together with a record of attendance and non-attendance at the meetings, and brief commentary. The men who met at the Chapter Coffee House, and later the Baptist Head Coffee House, regarded themselves as natural philosophers. Of the fifty two identified members, thirty three are included in the Dictionary of National Biography, thirty three were Fellows of the Royal Society of London, seven were Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London, twenty two had the degree of MD, and medical fellowships from London or Edinburgh were also common among the members. Not all those listed as members attended even one meeting. The author suggests that should one wish to make any claims regarding the intellectual or social character of the Society, one must look to those who actually came to meetings, rather than to the totality of the membership.Less
This chapter contains biographical sketches of the members, together with a record of attendance and non-attendance at the meetings, and brief commentary. The men who met at the Chapter Coffee House, and later the Baptist Head Coffee House, regarded themselves as natural philosophers. Of the fifty two identified members, thirty three are included in the Dictionary of National Biography, thirty three were Fellows of the Royal Society of London, seven were Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London, twenty two had the degree of MD, and medical fellowships from London or Edinburgh were also common among the members. Not all those listed as members attended even one meeting. The author suggests that should one wish to make any claims regarding the intellectual or social character of the Society, one must look to those who actually came to meetings, rather than to the totality of the membership.
Alastair Wood
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199231256
- eISBN:
- 9780191710803
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231256.003.0005
- Subject:
- Mathematics, History of Mathematics
This chapter focuses on the friendship between Sir G. G. Stokes and Kelvin. Kelvin was Stokes's principal correspondent over a period of fifty-six years. The correspondence between the two provide ...
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This chapter focuses on the friendship between Sir G. G. Stokes and Kelvin. Kelvin was Stokes's principal correspondent over a period of fifty-six years. The correspondence between the two provide valuable insight not only into the research and research methods of two giants of 19th-century British science, but also into the day-to-day running of Cambridge and Glasgow Universities and of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh at a critical time in their histories. The family backgrounds and formative influences of Kelvin and Stokes, their life in Cambridge, their early research correspondence, professorships, marriages, and political activities are discussed.Less
This chapter focuses on the friendship between Sir G. G. Stokes and Kelvin. Kelvin was Stokes's principal correspondent over a period of fifty-six years. The correspondence between the two provide valuable insight not only into the research and research methods of two giants of 19th-century British science, but also into the day-to-day running of Cambridge and Glasgow Universities and of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh at a critical time in their histories. The family backgrounds and formative influences of Kelvin and Stokes, their life in Cambridge, their early research correspondence, professorships, marriages, and political activities are discussed.
Matthew C. Hunter
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226017297
- eISBN:
- 9780226017327
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226017327.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter focuses on the Royal Society’s early museum at Gresham College in London where objects from the institution’s far-flung contacts were put on public display. Examining the ways in which ...
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This chapter focuses on the Royal Society’s early museum at Gresham College in London where objects from the institution’s far-flung contacts were put on public display. Examining the ways in which these valuable artifacts were physically disassembled, reconfigured and recoded with meaning (often many times over) in the Royal Society’s meetings, the chapter demonstrates how the museum collection came to serve as a powerful model for the faculties of cognition particularly for Robert Hooke, Keeper of the museum itself. Hooke’s writings on cognition from the early 1680s, I argue, articulate this epistemological geography. Distributed networks of informants became the senses of the experimental body which would deliver ontologically-fragile, unreliable objects to the centralized laboratory of the mind. There, the countervailing agency of what Hooke would call (through engagement with Elizabethan philosopher John Dee) “Archietonical Power” brings them to stable, rational order and feeds intelligence back out to the periphery. By shifting between the Royal Society’s constant bricolage of museum artifacts and Hooke’s conception of reason, the chapter sheds raking light on the darker textures of experimental intelligence.Less
This chapter focuses on the Royal Society’s early museum at Gresham College in London where objects from the institution’s far-flung contacts were put on public display. Examining the ways in which these valuable artifacts were physically disassembled, reconfigured and recoded with meaning (often many times over) in the Royal Society’s meetings, the chapter demonstrates how the museum collection came to serve as a powerful model for the faculties of cognition particularly for Robert Hooke, Keeper of the museum itself. Hooke’s writings on cognition from the early 1680s, I argue, articulate this epistemological geography. Distributed networks of informants became the senses of the experimental body which would deliver ontologically-fragile, unreliable objects to the centralized laboratory of the mind. There, the countervailing agency of what Hooke would call (through engagement with Elizabethan philosopher John Dee) “Archietonical Power” brings them to stable, rational order and feeds intelligence back out to the periphery. By shifting between the Royal Society’s constant bricolage of museum artifacts and Hooke’s conception of reason, the chapter sheds raking light on the darker textures of experimental intelligence.
Lynda Walsh
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199857098
- eISBN:
- 9780199345410
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199857098.003.0004
- Subject:
- Linguistics, English Language
This chapter discusses Francis Bacon's influence on the ethos of the fledgling Royal Society of London. Bacon was more than just an authorizing figurehead for the Society's founders. They imitated ...
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This chapter discusses Francis Bacon's influence on the ethos of the fledgling Royal Society of London. Bacon was more than just an authorizing figurehead for the Society's founders. They imitated many of the prophetic strategies he recommended and performed. They did so not just because Bacon had told them to but because they witnessed first-hand the power of prophetic ethos: in a tenuous political climate, it enabled the Society to transcend a host of political dilemmas—framed by antinomies such as public/private, experience/authority, and contemplation/action—to establish itself as a civic oracle in Restoration London.Less
This chapter discusses Francis Bacon's influence on the ethos of the fledgling Royal Society of London. Bacon was more than just an authorizing figurehead for the Society's founders. They imitated many of the prophetic strategies he recommended and performed. They did so not just because Bacon had told them to but because they witnessed first-hand the power of prophetic ethos: in a tenuous political climate, it enabled the Society to transcend a host of political dilemmas—framed by antinomies such as public/private, experience/authority, and contemplation/action—to establish itself as a civic oracle in Restoration London.
Stanley Finger and Marco Piccolino
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195366723
- eISBN:
- 9780199897087
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195366723.003.0014
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, History of Neuroscience
This chapter centers on what Edward Bancroft, a New Englander who became close to Franklin and who was elected a member of the Royal Society with his help, wrote about the South American eels. During ...
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This chapter centers on what Edward Bancroft, a New Englander who became close to Franklin and who was elected a member of the Royal Society with his help, wrote about the South American eels. During the 1760s, Bancroft had practiced medicine and surgery in Guiana, as had Ingram before him, where he too had the opportunity to study the eels feared by the natives. Franklin had no way of knowing at the time that Bancroft would serve as a double agent during the American War of Independence. But he was quick to appreciate the case made by Bancroft for animal electricity, and fully understood why scientists of the famed Royal Society should mobilize to pursue additional groundbreaking research in this field.Less
This chapter centers on what Edward Bancroft, a New Englander who became close to Franklin and who was elected a member of the Royal Society with his help, wrote about the South American eels. During the 1760s, Bancroft had practiced medicine and surgery in Guiana, as had Ingram before him, where he too had the opportunity to study the eels feared by the natives. Franklin had no way of knowing at the time that Bancroft would serve as a double agent during the American War of Independence. But he was quick to appreciate the case made by Bancroft for animal electricity, and fully understood why scientists of the famed Royal Society should mobilize to pursue additional groundbreaking research in this field.
Matthew C. Hunter
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226017297
- eISBN:
- 9780226017327
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226017327.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book offers an unprecedented exploration of the stunning visual strategies and stylized cognitive techniques deployed in the pursuit of knowledge by experimental philosophers associated with the ...
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This book offers an unprecedented exploration of the stunning visual strategies and stylized cognitive techniques deployed in the pursuit of knowledge by experimental philosophers associated with the Royal Society of London in the late seventeenth- and early eighteenth centuries. Organized around the nested actions of drawing, collecting and building ca. 1650-ca. 1720, it demonstrates how Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren and their collaborators synthesized sprawling domains of scientific visualization through a peculiar mode of intelligence—a ruthless cleverness embodied as much by the images and artifacts they thought with as by the baroque architectural monuments designed by Hooke and Wren themselves. Bringing to analysis this largely-forgotten archive of experimental-philosophical visualization and the deft cunning required to manage it, the book articulates an interpretive framework with which to rethink the parameters of visual art, experimental philosophy, and architecture on the cusp of England’s commercial efflorescence. But, the story I tell is no inexorable march from the founding of the Royal Society of London in 1660 to the opening of the Royal Academy of Art in 1768. Instead, the book argues that, just as the craft and craftiness materialized in experimental visual practice both promoted and liquidated the artistic traditions on which it drew, so the vexed, internally-divided project of Hooke, Wren and their colleagues would be cloven—defaced—in the eighteenth century.Less
This book offers an unprecedented exploration of the stunning visual strategies and stylized cognitive techniques deployed in the pursuit of knowledge by experimental philosophers associated with the Royal Society of London in the late seventeenth- and early eighteenth centuries. Organized around the nested actions of drawing, collecting and building ca. 1650-ca. 1720, it demonstrates how Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren and their collaborators synthesized sprawling domains of scientific visualization through a peculiar mode of intelligence—a ruthless cleverness embodied as much by the images and artifacts they thought with as by the baroque architectural monuments designed by Hooke and Wren themselves. Bringing to analysis this largely-forgotten archive of experimental-philosophical visualization and the deft cunning required to manage it, the book articulates an interpretive framework with which to rethink the parameters of visual art, experimental philosophy, and architecture on the cusp of England’s commercial efflorescence. But, the story I tell is no inexorable march from the founding of the Royal Society of London in 1660 to the opening of the Royal Academy of Art in 1768. Instead, the book argues that, just as the craft and craftiness materialized in experimental visual practice both promoted and liquidated the artistic traditions on which it drew, so the vexed, internally-divided project of Hooke, Wren and their colleagues would be cloven—defaced—in the eighteenth century.
Stanley Finger and Marco Piccolino
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195366723
- eISBN:
- 9780199897087
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195366723.003.0010
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, History of Neuroscience
The previous chapter showed how theories involving rapid muscle contractions replaced ancient ideas about cold vapors and venoms, and vague notions of occult (hidden) forces, when accounting for the ...
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The previous chapter showed how theories involving rapid muscle contractions replaced ancient ideas about cold vapors and venoms, and vague notions of occult (hidden) forces, when accounting for the effects of torporific fish. These mechanical theories emerged in the final decades of the 17th century, and with Réaumur in France, they continued to have substantial backing in the first half of the 18th century. The first suggestions that these fish just might function in another way, by electricity, would first appear around 1750. This significant change in thinking would emerge in the context of the tremendous attraction that electricity held for academic scientists and even amateurs in the 1740s and 1750s. In this Zeitgeist, a wide variety of phenomena, in both the animate and inanimate world, would be increasingly perceived as electrical. This chapter examines this phase in the history of electricity, and by so doing it sets the stage for the understanding of how torpedoes, a family of African catfish, and the South American eel, literally became electrical. It also introduces a number of technological innovations and introduces Benjamin Franklin, who would not only play a major role in understanding the nature of electricity, but would also be influential in showing that torpedoes are, in fact, electrical. The chapter also presents historical information about the Royal Society of London, emphasizing its commitment to overthrowing falsehoods with experiments, and its belief that even the smallest facts might lead to useful knowledge.Less
The previous chapter showed how theories involving rapid muscle contractions replaced ancient ideas about cold vapors and venoms, and vague notions of occult (hidden) forces, when accounting for the effects of torporific fish. These mechanical theories emerged in the final decades of the 17th century, and with Réaumur in France, they continued to have substantial backing in the first half of the 18th century. The first suggestions that these fish just might function in another way, by electricity, would first appear around 1750. This significant change in thinking would emerge in the context of the tremendous attraction that electricity held for academic scientists and even amateurs in the 1740s and 1750s. In this Zeitgeist, a wide variety of phenomena, in both the animate and inanimate world, would be increasingly perceived as electrical. This chapter examines this phase in the history of electricity, and by so doing it sets the stage for the understanding of how torpedoes, a family of African catfish, and the South American eel, literally became electrical. It also introduces a number of technological innovations and introduces Benjamin Franklin, who would not only play a major role in understanding the nature of electricity, but would also be influential in showing that torpedoes are, in fact, electrical. The chapter also presents historical information about the Royal Society of London, emphasizing its commitment to overthrowing falsehoods with experiments, and its belief that even the smallest facts might lead to useful knowledge.
T. H. Levere
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198515302
- eISBN:
- 9780191705694
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198515302.003.0001
- Subject:
- Physics, History of Physics
This chapter discusses the origins of the Coffee House Philosophical Society, a group of chemists, medical practitioners, political radicals, philosophical clergymen, industrialists, and instrument ...
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This chapter discusses the origins of the Coffee House Philosophical Society, a group of chemists, medical practitioners, political radicals, philosophical clergymen, industrialists, and instrument makers who met from 1780-1787. As a group, the members of the Society were decidedly impressive in natural philosophy and medicine, roughly sixty per cent of them becoming Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The purpose of the Society was defined in a resolution agreed to at the first meeting: ‘That the Conversation of this Society shall be confined to Natural Philosophy, in its most extensive signification; and, that it shall commence at every meeting by an enquiry, on the part of the Chairman, whether the members have anything new to communicate.’ The members of the Coffee House Philosophical Society exchanged scientific information, discussed experiments, and contemplated industrial improvements.Less
This chapter discusses the origins of the Coffee House Philosophical Society, a group of chemists, medical practitioners, political radicals, philosophical clergymen, industrialists, and instrument makers who met from 1780-1787. As a group, the members of the Society were decidedly impressive in natural philosophy and medicine, roughly sixty per cent of them becoming Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The purpose of the Society was defined in a resolution agreed to at the first meeting: ‘That the Conversation of this Society shall be confined to Natural Philosophy, in its most extensive signification; and, that it shall commence at every meeting by an enquiry, on the part of the Chairman, whether the members have anything new to communicate.’ The members of the Coffee House Philosophical Society exchanged scientific information, discussed experiments, and contemplated industrial improvements.
Denis J. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199207145
- eISBN:
- 9780191708893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199207145.003.0014
- Subject:
- Biology, Plant Sciences and Forestry
The Renaissance provided some stimulus to European agriculture but a far more profound phenomenon after 1550 CE was a ‘neonaissance’ involving the creation and publishing de novo of reliable ...
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The Renaissance provided some stimulus to European agriculture but a far more profound phenomenon after 1550 CE was a ‘neonaissance’ involving the creation and publishing de novo of reliable knowledge based on systematic observation. This was paralleled by the emergence of an entrepreneurial culture, especially in the maritime nations of England and the Netherlands, that encouraged exploration and agrarian innovation for private profit. In England, land enclosure began as a way to establish farming as a profitable business venture rather than as a socially based subsistence activity. Practical scientific breeding began to emerge in the 17th century with a newly united Britain and the independent Netherlands as major centres. This process was assisted by improved literacy and the establishment of agricultural and scientific societies, such as the Royal Society in London.Less
The Renaissance provided some stimulus to European agriculture but a far more profound phenomenon after 1550 CE was a ‘neonaissance’ involving the creation and publishing de novo of reliable knowledge based on systematic observation. This was paralleled by the emergence of an entrepreneurial culture, especially in the maritime nations of England and the Netherlands, that encouraged exploration and agrarian innovation for private profit. In England, land enclosure began as a way to establish farming as a profitable business venture rather than as a socially based subsistence activity. Practical scientific breeding began to emerge in the 17th century with a newly united Britain and the independent Netherlands as major centres. This process was assisted by improved literacy and the establishment of agricultural and scientific societies, such as the Royal Society in London.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226709321
- eISBN:
- 9780226709338
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226709338.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
This chapter traces England's initial commitment to the study of the littoral environment. After an initial surge of interest in tidal theory following the founding of the Royal Society of London, ...
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This chapter traces England's initial commitment to the study of the littoral environment. After an initial surge of interest in tidal theory following the founding of the Royal Society of London, Isaac Newton formulated a general theory of the tides based on his law of universal gravitation. Edmond Halley then searched out the tides, beginning in the Thames estuary and extending his study to the Atlantic Ocean as master and commander of the Paramore. The study of the sea shifted to the Continent, especially France, where Pierre-Simon Laplace and others made significant advances on Newton's achievements, formulating a hydrodynamic theory that still serves as the basis of tidal analysis. Newton's general theory marshaled several sets of tidal observations for support, but as explorers spread across the globe, his theory rarely held, or was held up, as an explanation. Naval captains such as Henry More and James Cook gathered observations of tides that contradicted Newton's theory, while others such as Charles Vallancey, a colonial engineer, and John Abram, a teacher of navigation, offered theories that were explicitly anti-Newtonian.Less
This chapter traces England's initial commitment to the study of the littoral environment. After an initial surge of interest in tidal theory following the founding of the Royal Society of London, Isaac Newton formulated a general theory of the tides based on his law of universal gravitation. Edmond Halley then searched out the tides, beginning in the Thames estuary and extending his study to the Atlantic Ocean as master and commander of the Paramore. The study of the sea shifted to the Continent, especially France, where Pierre-Simon Laplace and others made significant advances on Newton's achievements, formulating a hydrodynamic theory that still serves as the basis of tidal analysis. Newton's general theory marshaled several sets of tidal observations for support, but as explorers spread across the globe, his theory rarely held, or was held up, as an explanation. Naval captains such as Henry More and James Cook gathered observations of tides that contradicted Newton's theory, while others such as Charles Vallancey, a colonial engineer, and John Abram, a teacher of navigation, offered theories that were explicitly anti-Newtonian.
Tamara Plakins Thornton
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469626932
- eISBN:
- 9781469628110
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469626932.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter examines Bowditch’s attempts to join the international Republic of Letters through scholarly publication, culminating in 1818 with his honorary membership in London’s Royal Society, the ...
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This chapter examines Bowditch’s attempts to join the international Republic of Letters through scholarly publication, culminating in 1818 with his honorary membership in London’s Royal Society, the result of his friends’ behind-the-scenes lobbying, and an occasion of nationalist celebration in America. Bowditch turned down a Harvard professorship in favor of combining a business career with mathematical and astronomical labors. Newspaper duels with mathematical inferiors enhanced his American reputation, but European authorities generally deemed his work as outdated though capable. His as-yet unpublished annotated translation of Pierre-Simon Laplace’s Mécanique Céleste required Bowditch to master advanced mathematical techniques unknown to Americans and eventually prompted him to study the latest in German scientific developments. Though Federalists smelled ideological danger in Laplace’s work, Bowditch rejected partisan approaches to scholarship and instead found lifelong inspiration in the Laplacean vision of order and regularity in the solar system.Less
This chapter examines Bowditch’s attempts to join the international Republic of Letters through scholarly publication, culminating in 1818 with his honorary membership in London’s Royal Society, the result of his friends’ behind-the-scenes lobbying, and an occasion of nationalist celebration in America. Bowditch turned down a Harvard professorship in favor of combining a business career with mathematical and astronomical labors. Newspaper duels with mathematical inferiors enhanced his American reputation, but European authorities generally deemed his work as outdated though capable. His as-yet unpublished annotated translation of Pierre-Simon Laplace’s Mécanique Céleste required Bowditch to master advanced mathematical techniques unknown to Americans and eventually prompted him to study the latest in German scientific developments. Though Federalists smelled ideological danger in Laplace’s work, Bowditch rejected partisan approaches to scholarship and instead found lifelong inspiration in the Laplacean vision of order and regularity in the solar system.
Alistair Sponsel
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226523118
- eISBN:
- 9780226523255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226523255.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter shows how, with Lyell’s collaboration, Darwin navigated the social world of British science in the late 1830s. Lyell’s interventions were a mixed blessing. Although he groomed Darwin as ...
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This chapter shows how, with Lyell’s collaboration, Darwin navigated the social world of British science in the late 1830s. Lyell’s interventions were a mixed blessing. Although he groomed Darwin as a spokesman for uniformitarian geology, he complicated Darwin’s relationship with his Captain Robert FitzRoy and made Darwin feel intense pressure to publish his geological ideas rapidly and boldly. While Darwin struggled to make progress on his book of Beagle geology, Lyell incorporated the younger man’s unpublished findings and ideas into his own new book, Elements of Geology, and into revised editions of Principles of Geology. By mid-1838 Darwin was in a tense position: he had begun to regret that his geological work under Lyell’s guidance was earning him a scientific reputation for overzealous theorizing (or “speculation”) even as he was in avid private pursuit of a theory of the origin of species. Darwin tried to manage the situation by requesting that Lyell “quote [him] with caution” and studying books by John Herschel and William Whewell on scientific method. Darwin’s 1839 paper on the geology of Glen Roy, Scotland was boldly speculative, but he couched his theorizing in philosophical terms intended to demonstrate his matured judgment.Less
This chapter shows how, with Lyell’s collaboration, Darwin navigated the social world of British science in the late 1830s. Lyell’s interventions were a mixed blessing. Although he groomed Darwin as a spokesman for uniformitarian geology, he complicated Darwin’s relationship with his Captain Robert FitzRoy and made Darwin feel intense pressure to publish his geological ideas rapidly and boldly. While Darwin struggled to make progress on his book of Beagle geology, Lyell incorporated the younger man’s unpublished findings and ideas into his own new book, Elements of Geology, and into revised editions of Principles of Geology. By mid-1838 Darwin was in a tense position: he had begun to regret that his geological work under Lyell’s guidance was earning him a scientific reputation for overzealous theorizing (or “speculation”) even as he was in avid private pursuit of a theory of the origin of species. Darwin tried to manage the situation by requesting that Lyell “quote [him] with caution” and studying books by John Herschel and William Whewell on scientific method. Darwin’s 1839 paper on the geology of Glen Roy, Scotland was boldly speculative, but he couched his theorizing in philosophical terms intended to demonstrate his matured judgment.
Lynda Walsh
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199857098
- eISBN:
- 9780199345410
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199857098.003.0005
- Subject:
- Linguistics, English Language
This chapter reviews the major factors influencing the construction of late-modern scientific ethos in light of the findings on the persistent meme of prophetic ethos. It examines the rhetorical ...
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This chapter reviews the major factors influencing the construction of late-modern scientific ethos in light of the findings on the persistent meme of prophetic ethos. It examines the rhetorical tension that developed between the progressive model of scientific ethos as practiced by the early Royal Society and a philosophical model of scientific ethos (is/ought model) derived from Hume's Guillotine. The progressive model posited that since scientists best understood the world, they were best positioned to set policy. The is/ought model tends to be activated either by conservative administrations suspicious of centralized regulation or in response to perceived abuses of power by scientists. But neither model ever goes away entirely, and the latent competition between them creates an ethical catch-22 for science advisers in the following way: in policy crises, the old progressive model triggers calls to scientists for advice.Less
This chapter reviews the major factors influencing the construction of late-modern scientific ethos in light of the findings on the persistent meme of prophetic ethos. It examines the rhetorical tension that developed between the progressive model of scientific ethos as practiced by the early Royal Society and a philosophical model of scientific ethos (is/ought model) derived from Hume's Guillotine. The progressive model posited that since scientists best understood the world, they were best positioned to set policy. The is/ought model tends to be activated either by conservative administrations suspicious of centralized regulation or in response to perceived abuses of power by scientists. But neither model ever goes away entirely, and the latent competition between them creates an ethical catch-22 for science advisers in the following way: in policy crises, the old progressive model triggers calls to scientists for advice.
