The Very Idea of Modern Science: Francis Bacon and Robert Boyle

327 Pages·2013·2.27 MB·English

by  Joseph Agassi (auth.)

The Very Idea of Modern Science
BOSTON STUDIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY
AND HISTORY OF SCIENCE
Editors
ROBERT S. COHEN, Boston University
JÜRGEN RENN, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
KOSTAS GAVROGLU, University of Athens
Managing Editor
LINDY DIVARCI, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Editorial Board
THEODORE ARABATZIS, University of Athens
ALISA BOKULICH, Boston University
HEATHER E. DOUGLAS, University of Pittsburgh
JEAN GAYON, Université Paris 1
THOMAS F. GLICK, Boston University
HUBERT GOENNER, University of Goettingen
JOHN HEILBRON, University of California, Berkeley
DIANA KORMOS-BUCHWALD, California Institute of Technology
CHRISTOPH LEHNER, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
PETER McLAUGHLIN, Universität Heidelberg
AGUSTÍ NIETO-GALAN, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
NUCCIO ORDINE, Universitá della Calabria
ANA SIMÕES, Universidade de Lisboa
JOHN J. STACHEL, Boston University
SYLVAN S. SCHWEBER, Harvard University
BAICHUN ZHANG, Chinese Academy of Science
VOLUME 298
For further volumes:
http://www.springer.com/series/5710
Joseph Agassi
The Very Idea of Modern
Science
Francis Bacon and Robert Boyle
Joseph Agassi
Tel Aviv University and York University Toronto
Herzliyah, Israel
ISSN 0068-0346
ISBN 978-94-007-5350-1 ISBN 978-94-007-5351-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-5351-8
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012954273
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
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In memory of
Alexandre Koyré and
I. Bernard Cohen
two gentle souls and
the two great lights of the history of science.

Nor, however, can it be allowed for the intellect to
leap and fl y from particulars to remote and … most
general axioms … and by means of their (supposed)
immovable truth to prove and make intermediate
axioms …. We must add not wings but weights
and lead to the intellect, so as to hinder all leaping
and fl ying.
Bacon
… a fateful “fear of metaphysics” arose which has
come to be a malady of contemporary empiricist
philosophizing.
Einstein
It has been asserted that metaphysical speculation is
a thing of the past, and that physical science has
extirpated it. The discussion …, however, does not
appear to be in danger of coming to an end in our
time, and the exercise of speculation continues as
fascinating to every fresh mind as it was in the days
of Thales.
Maxwell
It is not to be supposed for a moment that specu-
lations are useless …. They are wonderful aids in the
hands of the experimenters and the mathematicians….
Let the imagination go, guarding it by judgment and
principle, but holding it and directing it by
experiment.
Faraday

Abstract
This book is a study of the scienti fi c revolution as a movement of scienti fi c researchers,
mostly amateurs, organized in scienti fi c societies that functioned as clubs. It presents
the philosophy of the Enlightenment Movement as their ideology, and describes
their philosophy, their magni fi cent institutions and the admirable way in which they
fashioned modern science. This book also presents what was missing in the organi-
zation of science as the cause of its having given way in stages to the professional
science that has replaced it ( fi rst in industry and then in the academy). In particular,
the book studies the contributions of Sir Francis Bacon and of the Hon. Robert
Boyle to the process of the rise of modern science.
The philosophy of induction is notoriously problematic, yet its great asset is that
it expressed the view of the Enlightenment Movement about science. This explains
the ambivalence that we still exhibit towards Sir Francis Bacon whose radicalism and
his vision of pure and applied science still play a major role in popular philosophy
and comprise a major factor in the fabric of contemporary society.
Finally, the book discusses Boyle’s philosophy, his agreement with and dissent
from Bacon and the way he single-handedly turned a few barely educated aristo-
crats into an army of able amateur researchers.
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