Robert S. Westman
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520254817
- eISBN:
- 9780520948167
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520254817.003.0017
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
For the celestial modernizers of the early seventeenth century, the problems that had been emerging since the 1570s began to show signs of consensus: recurrent events (planets), the subject of the ...
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For the celestial modernizers of the early seventeenth century, the problems that had been emerging since the 1570s began to show signs of consensus: recurrent events (planets), the subject of the science of the stars, and non-recurrent events (comets and new stars) somehow seemed to belong together in the realm of ordinary rather than extraordinary phenomena. Galileo's discoveries at the end of the first decade would further reinforce the sense that the heavens contained recurrent phenomena, marvels that, even if hidden, were still part of the natural order. If prognosticators assumed the Copernican ordering in order to solve the problems of comets and novas, they were confronted with the further question of how that arrangement would be compatible with a heliostatic astrology—unless, yet again, the issue was ignored. This chapter looks at issues concerning celestial order. It discusses the emergent problematic of the via moderna, the social disunity of Copernican natural philosophy, the work of the polymath practitioner Simon Stevin, and Johannes Kepler's radical turn in planetary theory.Less
For the celestial modernizers of the early seventeenth century, the problems that had been emerging since the 1570s began to show signs of consensus: recurrent events (planets), the subject of the science of the stars, and non-recurrent events (comets and new stars) somehow seemed to belong together in the realm of ordinary rather than extraordinary phenomena. Galileo's discoveries at the end of the first decade would further reinforce the sense that the heavens contained recurrent phenomena, marvels that, even if hidden, were still part of the natural order. If prognosticators assumed the Copernican ordering in order to solve the problems of comets and novas, they were confronted with the further question of how that arrangement would be compatible with a heliostatic astrology—unless, yet again, the issue was ignored. This chapter looks at issues concerning celestial order. It discusses the emergent problematic of the via moderna, the social disunity of Copernican natural philosophy, the work of the polymath practitioner Simon Stevin, and Johannes Kepler's radical turn in planetary theory.
Elizabeth A. Sutton
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226254784
- eISBN:
- 9780226254814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226254814.003.0002
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cultural and Historical Geography
This chapter outlines consumer demand for maps in early seventeenth-century Amsterdam. Production of and demand for maps was reflected social demands and contemporary events. Maps helped form a ...
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This chapter outlines consumer demand for maps in early seventeenth-century Amsterdam. Production of and demand for maps was reflected social demands and contemporary events. Maps helped form a picture of a unified nation, as well as allowed individuals to distinguish themselves through display. The threads of agency within the system are explained by describing social organization, government and commercial company structures.Less
This chapter outlines consumer demand for maps in early seventeenth-century Amsterdam. Production of and demand for maps was reflected social demands and contemporary events. Maps helped form a picture of a unified nation, as well as allowed individuals to distinguish themselves through display. The threads of agency within the system are explained by describing social organization, government and commercial company structures.
Darrell P. Rowbottom
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199609192
- eISBN:
- 9780191758973
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609192.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This chapter presents and criticizes the two dominant accounts of thought experiments in science, due to James Robert Brown and John Norton; the mechanical thought experiment of Simon Stevin is used ...
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This chapter presents and criticizes the two dominant accounts of thought experiments in science, due to James Robert Brown and John Norton; the mechanical thought experiment of Simon Stevin is used as an exemplar. The chapter argues that scientific thought experiments are strongly analogous to their ‘real’, actual physical, counterparts. In each kind of experiment, theoretical context affects which arguments are generated and/or thought to be sustainable on the basis of the states of affairs involved. The difference is whether the states of affairs are hypothetical and/or counterfactual rather than actual. This view is consistent with empiricism concerning scientific thought experiments. On such empiricism, the (good) arguments that it is possible to pump from thought experiments have premises grounded in experience, rather than an additional faculty.Less
This chapter presents and criticizes the two dominant accounts of thought experiments in science, due to James Robert Brown and John Norton; the mechanical thought experiment of Simon Stevin is used as an exemplar. The chapter argues that scientific thought experiments are strongly analogous to their ‘real’, actual physical, counterparts. In each kind of experiment, theoretical context affects which arguments are generated and/or thought to be sustainable on the basis of the states of affairs involved. The difference is whether the states of affairs are hypothetical and/or counterfactual rather than actual. This view is consistent with empiricism concerning scientific thought experiments. On such empiricism, the (good) arguments that it is possible to pump from thought experiments have premises grounded in experience, rather than an additional faculty.
David D. Nolte
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- August 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198805847
- eISBN:
- 9780191843808
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198805847.003.0003
- Subject:
- Physics, History of Physics
This chapter describes the history of Galileo’s discovery of the law of fall and the parabolic trajectory, beginning with early work on the physics of motion by predecessors like the Oxford Scholars, ...
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This chapter describes the history of Galileo’s discovery of the law of fall and the parabolic trajectory, beginning with early work on the physics of motion by predecessors like the Oxford Scholars, Tartaglia and the polymath Simon Stevin who dropped lead weights from the leaning tower of Delft three years before Galileo dropped lead weights from the leaning tower of Pisa. The story of how Galileo developed his ideas of motion is described in the context of his studies of balls rolling on inclined plane and the surprising accuracy he achieved without access to modern timekeeping. Motion was always on Galileo’s mind. He saw motion in his father’s stringed instruments, vibrating in rational resonances. He saw motion in the lantern high above in the Duomo di Pisa, swinging with fixed regularity.Less
This chapter describes the history of Galileo’s discovery of the law of fall and the parabolic trajectory, beginning with early work on the physics of motion by predecessors like the Oxford Scholars, Tartaglia and the polymath Simon Stevin who dropped lead weights from the leaning tower of Delft three years before Galileo dropped lead weights from the leaning tower of Pisa. The story of how Galileo developed his ideas of motion is described in the context of his studies of balls rolling on inclined plane and the surprising accuracy he achieved without access to modern timekeeping. Motion was always on Galileo’s mind. He saw motion in his father’s stringed instruments, vibrating in rational resonances. He saw motion in the lantern high above in the Duomo di Pisa, swinging with fixed regularity.
