Buch, Englisch, 290 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 447 g
Reihe: Studies in Intellectual History and the History of Philosophy
Early Modern Philosophy and the Invention of the Microscope
Buch, Englisch, 290 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 447 g
Reihe: Studies in Intellectual History and the History of Philosophy
ISBN: 978-0-691-01709-9
Verlag: Princeton University Press
In the seventeenth century the microscope opened up a new world of observation, and, according to Catherine Wilson, profoundly revised the thinking of scientists and philosophers alike. The interior of nature, once closed off to both sympathetic intuition and direct perception, was now accessible with the help of optical instruments. The microscope led to a conception of science as an objective, procedure-driven mode of inquiry and renewed interest in atomism and mechanism. Focusing on the earliest forays into microscopical research, from 1620 to 1720, this book provides us with both a compelling technological history and a lively assessment of the new knowledge that helped launch philosophy into the modern era.Wilson argues that the discovery of the microworld--and the apparent role of living animalcula in generation, contagion, and disease--presented metaphysicians with the task of reconciling the ubiquity of life with human-centered theological systems. It was also a source of problems for philosophers concerned with essences, qualities, and the limits of human knowledge, whose positions are echoed in current debates about realism and instrument-mediated knowledge. Covering the contributions of pioneering microscopists (Leeuwenhoek, Swammerdam, Malpighi, Grew, and Hooke) and the work of philosophers interested in the microworld (Bacon, Descartes, Leibniz, Malebranche, Locke, and Berkeley), she challenges historians who view the abstract sciences as the sole catalyst of the Scientific Revolution as she stresses the importance of observational and experimental science to the modern intellect.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
- Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
- Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Human- und Sozialwissenschaften
- Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
- Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Wissenschaften: Theorie, Epistemologie, Methodik
- Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsphilosophie
- Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie
- Naturwissenschaften Physik Elektromagnetismus Mikroskopie, Spektroskopie
- Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
Weitere Infos & Material
Preface1Science and Protoscience32The Subtlety of Nature393Instruments and Applications704Preexistent and Emergent Form1035Animalcula and the Theory of Animate Contagion1406The Philosophers and the Microscope1767The Microscope Superfluous and Uncertain2158Truths and Appearances251Bibliography257Index273
