<< Chapter < Page Chapter >> Page >

Science and philosophy before the revolution

In immediate contrast to modern times, only a few of Europe’s academics at the beginning of the scientificrevolution and the end of the sixteenth century considered themselves to be “scientists.” The words “natural philosopher”carried much more academic clout and so the majority of the research on scientific theory was conducted not in the scientificrealm per se, but in philosophy, where “scientific methods” like empiricism and teleology were promoted widely. In the 17th century,empiricism and teleology existed as remnants of medieval thought that were utilized by philosophers such as William of Ockham, anempiricist (d. 1349), Robert Boyle (Hall, p 172), a 17th century chemist, teleologist and mechanist, and by the proponents of Platoand Aristotle (1st century teleologists and abstractionists). Both empiricism, as the theory that reality consists solely of what onephysically experiences, and teleology, as the idea that phenomena exist only because they have a purpose (i.e. because God wills themto be so), generally negated the necessity of fact-gathering, hypothesis writing, and controlled experimentation that became suchan integral part of modern chemistry and biology at the beginning of the 17th century. In other words, the study of science beforethe scientific revolution was so concentrated on philosophy (such as Aristotle’s conception of “ideas” as ultimate truths) as topreclude the development of a scientific method that would necessitate the creation of an informed hypothesis to be tested.Certain medieval philosophers, however, such as Roger Bacon (1214-1294; no relation to Francis), did emphasize the necessity ofcontrolled experimentation in coming to a theoretical conclusion, but they were few and far between, and generally failed tocorrectly use the experimental method in practice. For example, author Hall wrote that “Bacon [and other advocates were]guilty of misstatements of fact which the most trifling experiment would havecorrected” (Hall, p 163).

The advent of the scientific revolution – 17th century

A. R. Hall, in his book The Scientific Revolution 1500-1800, made the observation that a main pointdividing scientific thought in the seventeenth century from that of the ancient Greeks and medieval Europeans was the choice ofquestions each group sought to answer through their methods of research or observation.

2Hall, p 164
He argued that the first group, that of Copernicus and da Vinci (15th and 16th centuries),focused more on questions of “how can we demonstrate that…” or “how may it be proved that…” that aimed to prove a defined hypothesistrue or false, while the second group (that of 17th century chemists and physiologists) emphasized questions phrased as “whatis the relationship between…” or “what are the facts bearing upon…” that necessitated fact-finding before a concrete hypothesis couldbe formulated. The most important point to remember here is that both the questions posed in the 15th century and those of the 17thcentury form part of the definition of a complete modern “experimental method” – the first type of question cannot standalone. A concrete hypothesis (question 1) must be accompanied by sufficient, independently verifiable observations (question 2) inorder for the scientist to make a vague inference (a form of hypothesis) that canthen be tested with a controlled experiment. The way the scientist/philosopher comes by this “vague inference”that will form a concrete hypothesis differs, and these differences can be described as the scientists’ different approaches toward an“experimental method.” The following portion of the module will give an idea of the types of experimental methods promoted by 17thcentury scientists as well as their impact on the standard experimental method utilized and accepted by chemists, biologists,and physicists today.

Get Jobilize Job Search Mobile App in your pocket Now!

Get it on Google Play Download on the App Store Now




Source:  OpenStax, Nanotechnology: content and context. OpenStax CNX. May 09, 2007 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10418/1.1
Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google Inc.

Notification Switch

Would you like to follow the 'Nanotechnology: content and context' conversation and receive update notifications?

Ask