Table Of ContentBoston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science 331
Siegfried Bodenmann
Anne-Lise Rey Editors
What Does it
Mean to be
an Empiricist?
Empiricisms in Eighteenth Century
Sciences
Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History
of Science
Volume 331
Editors
Alisa Bokulich, Boston University
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
Heather E. Douglas, University of Waterloo
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
Agustı Nieto-Galan, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Nuccio Ordine, Universitá della Calabria
Sylvan S. Schweber, Harvard University
Ana Simões, Universidade de Lisboa
John J. Stachel, Boston University
Baichun Zhang, Chinese Academy of Science
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5710
Siegfried Bodenmann • Anne-Lise Rey
Editors
What Does it Mean to be an
Empiricist?
Empiricisms in Eighteenth Century Sciences
Editors
Siegfried Bodenmann Anne-Lise Rey
Department of History History and Philosophy of Science
University of Zurich Lille University/Marie Curie Individual
Zürich, Switzerland Fellowship Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Brussel, Belgium
ISSN 0068-0346 ISSN 2214-7942 (electronic)
Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science
ISBN 978-3-319-69858-8 ISBN 978-3-319-69860-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69860-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018930010
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Acknowledgments
Every book has its own history that we tend to idealize afterward as a linear success
story from the very first idea to the published artifact. In this teleological perception,
every stage of the production is an important step forward that leads to the inevitable
release.
As we all know, history and life in general are much more complicated—and are
thus much more interesting. The truth is that every step correlates with new elabo-
rating, redefining, contesting, deconstructing, and reconfiguring. It is a constant
negotiation with our own options, abilities, and skills. In this story of taking chances,
the only constants are the persons who contributed with their ongoing support and
commitment to shape this book. They are the true driving forces and have earned
our gratitude.
We can’t say for sure when the idea of this book emerged. But from a more
“empirical” point of view, it was born in the laboratory of a panel we were allowed
to present in Barcelona on the 20th of November 2010. We would like to express our
gratitude to the European Society for the History of Science and to the organizers of
its fourth international conference for enabling us to test our intuitions and working
hypotheses. Our thanks also go to our speakers, who agreed to edit their papers and
shape this book, but we also thank the ones who couldn’t accompany us till the end
of this publishing journey as well as the participants who all permitted us to engage
in a fruitful discussion.
An experience doesn’t offer conclusive results unless it is replicated. We there-
fore asked several colleagues from different disciplinary and institutional back-
grounds to challenge, refine, and corroborate our core of initial papers through
additional case studies. We are much indebted to André Charrak, Thierry Hoquet,
Christian Leduc, Catherine Wilson, and Charles Wolfe who all accepted the invita-
tion to embark on an already started journey.
The book profited enormously from the encouragement of several colleagues.
We owe special gratitude to Dan Garber and our wonderful publishing team at
Springer Netherlands: Lucy Fleet, Silvie Demandt, Leaticia Kossligk, Mireille le
Grand-van Kan, Stephen O’Reilly, and Tom Steendam.
v
vi Acknowledgments
We certainly could not have finished this book without the careful proofreading
of Abbott Chrisman, Patrick Eldridge, Sean Winkler, and Christa Wirth. Thanks are
also due to Karin Bodenmann, Veronika Heinz, and Karin Plouze who helped assure
the unity of the book by editing the notes and bibliographical references, as well as
the bibliography itself.
Finally, we must thank all the above-mentioned people for their patience and
faith as life, death, and all their friends interrupted the project. We still hope that the
quite long publishing process rather helped the book grow into its maturity than let
its results go to waste.
Contents
1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 1
Siegfried Bodenmann and Anne-Lise Rey
Part I The Plurality of Empiricisms
2 Four Methods of Empirical Inquiry in the Aftermath
of Newton’s Challenge ............................................................................ 15
Eric Schliesser
3 Fictitious Empiricism, Material Experiments. Conditions
for Thinking the Enlightenment “Issue of Empiricism” ..................... 31
Marc Ratcliff
Part II Newtonianism and Non-Newtonianism Empiricisms
4 Experimentum crucis: Newton’s Empiricism at the Crossroads ......... 47
Philippe Hamou
5 The Experiments of Willem Jacob ’s Gravesande:
A Validation of Leibnizian Dynamics Against Newton? ...................... 71
Anne-Lise Rey
6 Empiricism as a Rhetoric of Legitimation: Maupertuis
and the Shape of the Earth ..................................................................... 87
Siegfried Bodenmann
Part III Empiricism and Rationality
7 Philosophical and Scientific Empiricism and Rationalism
in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries....................................... 123
Catherine Wilson
vii
viii Contents
8 Buffon’s Natural History: The Catalogue of Facts
and the Temptation of System ................................................................ 139
Thierry Hoquet
9 What Does It Mean to Be an Empiricist in Medicine?
Baglivi’s De praxi medica (1696) ............................................................ 169
Raphaële Andrault
10 Empiricism and Certainty in Science: The Franco-Berlin
School of Empiricism .............................................................................. 189
André Charrak
Part IV Reevaluation of the Label ‘Empiricism’
11 Was Early Eighteenth-Century Chemistry
an Empirical Science? ............................................................................. 203
Bernard Joly
12 Conducting Observations and Tests: Lambert’s
Theory of Empirical Science .................................................................. 215
Christian Leduc
13 From Locke to Materialism: Empiricism, the Brain
and the Stirrings of Ontology................................................................. 235
Charles T. Wolfe
Bibliography .................................................................................................... 265
Index ................................................................................................................. 291
Contributors
Raphaële Andrault ENS Lyon, CNRS, Lyon, France
Siegfried Bodenmann Department of History, University of Zurich, Zürich,
Switzerland
André Charrak Department of Philosophy, University of Paris I, Paris, France
Philippe Hamou Department of Philosophy, Paris-Nanterre University, Nanterre,
France
Thierry Hoquet Department of Philosophy, University of Paris Ouest-Nanterre,
Nanterre, France
Bernard Joly Department of Philosophy, University of Lille, Villeneuve d’Ascq,
France
Christian Leduc Department of Philosophy, University of Montreal, Montreal,
Canada
Marc Ratcliff Department of Psychology, FPSE, University of Geneva, Genève,
Switzerland
Anne-Lise Rey History and Philosophy of Science, Lille University/Marie Curie
Individual FellowshipVrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
Eric Schliesser Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Catherine Wilson Department of Philosophy, University of York, York, UK
Charles T. Wolfe Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Sarton Centre
for History of Science, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
ix
