Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
Ebook289 pages7 hours
Discipline and Experience: The Mathematical Way in the Scientific Revolution
By Peter Dear
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this ebook
Although the Scientific Revolution has long been regarded as the beginning of modern science, there has been little consensus about its true character. While the application of mathematics to the study of the natural world has always been recognized as an important factor, the role of experiment has been less clearly understood.
Peter Dear investigates the nature of the change that occurred during this period, focusing particular attention on evolving notions of experience and how these developed into the experimental work that is at the center of modern science. He examines seventeenth-century mathematical sciences—astronomy, optics, and mechanics—not as abstract ideas, but as vital enterprises that involved practices related to both experience and experiment. Dear illuminates how mathematicians and natural philosophers of the period—Mersenne, Descartes, Pascal, Barrow, Newton, Boyle, and the Jesuits—used experience in their argumentation, and how and why these approaches changed over the course of a century. Drawing on mathematical texts and works of natural philosophy from all over Europe, he describes a process of change that was gradual, halting, sometimes contradictory—far from the sharp break with intellectual tradition implied by the term "revolution."
Peter Dear investigates the nature of the change that occurred during this period, focusing particular attention on evolving notions of experience and how these developed into the experimental work that is at the center of modern science. He examines seventeenth-century mathematical sciences—astronomy, optics, and mechanics—not as abstract ideas, but as vital enterprises that involved practices related to both experience and experiment. Dear illuminates how mathematicians and natural philosophers of the period—Mersenne, Descartes, Pascal, Barrow, Newton, Boyle, and the Jesuits—used experience in their argumentation, and how and why these approaches changed over the course of a century. Drawing on mathematical texts and works of natural philosophy from all over Europe, he describes a process of change that was gradual, halting, sometimes contradictory—far from the sharp break with intellectual tradition implied by the term "revolution."
Related to Discipline and Experience
Related ebooks
The Works of William Harvey M.D: Translated from the Latin with a life of the author The Plato Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Deadly Indifference: A Henry Spearman Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Good and Evil Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlato's "Letters": The Political Challenges of the Philosophic Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Athenian Constitution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Essays on Austrian Economics and Political Economy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Psychology of Revolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSynthetic data Third Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDependency and Development in Latin America Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Sleeper Awakes by H. G. Wells (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Philosophical Essay on Probabilities Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tyranny of Utility: Behavioral Social Science and the Rise of Paternalism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLombard Street: A Description of the Money Market Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capital: The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFranklin's Way to Wealth and Penn's Maxims Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Nature of Mathematics Given Physicalism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe New Society Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDelphi Pascal Programming: Efficient Code Editing, Visual Designing, And Integrated Debugging Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Vivek Chibber's Confronting Capitalism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Iliads of Homer: Translated according to the Greek Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGood Money, Part I: The New World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFailed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrejudices, Third Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What is Bitcoin ETF? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5First Principles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Platonic Political Art: A Study of Critical Reason and Democracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Science & Mathematics For You
Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Source: The Secrets of the Universe, the Science of the Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Book of Hacks: 264 Amazing DIY Tech Projects Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No-Drama Discipline: the bestselling parenting guide to nurturing your child's developing mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chaos: Making a New Science Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance---What Women Should Know Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Activate Your Brain: How Understanding Your Brain Can Improve Your Work - and Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wuhan Cover-Up: And the Terrifying Bioweapons Arms Race Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Systems Thinker: Essential Thinking Skills For Solving Problems, Managing Chaos, Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lies My Gov't Told Me: And the Better Future Coming Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Journey Through Anxiety Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Free Will Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Crack In Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rethinking Narcissism: The Bad---and Surprising Good---About Feeling Special Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mothers Who Can't Love: A Healing Guide for Daughters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related podcast episodes
Michael Pettis as a Political Theorist: Alex and Benjamin discuss the work of Michael Pet… 0% found this document usefulThe Sovereign Individual - with Su Zhu and Hasu 0% found this document usefulComplex systems & second-order effects: with Paul Orlando from Unintended Consequences 0% found this document usefulDemetri Kofinas on 'Financial Nihilism' 0% found this document useful54: Thucydides - The Cure for Plato 0% found this document useful53. Allen Farrington's adventures with Fiat Intellectuals 0% found this document useful#0 What is this podcast? 0% found this document usefulBruno Maçães: China, Russia and the Future of Eurasia – #26 0% found this document usefulThe Origins of the Austrian School of Economics With Rahim Taghizadegan 0% found this document usefulThe Bitcoin Standard Podcast Presents Saifedean Ammous Live in Vienna 0% found this document usefulChapter 10: Home Techne 0% found this document usefulNihilism with Nolen Gertz 0% found this document usefulMaking Sense of Chaos (with Doyne Farmer) 0% found this document useful139. Fossil Future with Alex Epstein 0% found this document useful195. Bitcoin AI with Aleks Svetski 0% found this document usefulEp. 230 - BlackRock, Aladdin AI, Monarch, eFront & Dark Globalism 0% found this document useful141. FTX: Beyond Ponzi 0% found this document useful
Related articles
Follow The Capital Cycle MoneyWeekUNLIMITED
Follow The Capital Cycle
Feb 4, 2022
Right now, it says oil firms are cheap The capital cycle is an extremely useful investment concept. The best read on it is probably Capital Account by Edward Chancellor and Marathon Asset Management. But the good news is that like lots of useful inv
2 min readA Cartoon's Black Star Prompts A Fight: What Did Roman Britain Look Like? NPRUNLIMITED
A Cartoon's Black Star Prompts A Fight: What Did Roman Britain Look Like?
Aug 7, 2017
2 min readBiden Heads To West Bank, With Little To Offer Palestinians The IndependentUNLIMITED
Biden Heads To West Bank, With Little To Offer Palestinians
Jul 15, 2022
5 min readThinking Like a Scientist Will Make You Happier NautilusUNLIMITED
Thinking Like a Scientist Will Make You Happier
Jun 15, 2022
11 min read10 Greatest Kingmakers All About HistoryUNLIMITED
10 Greatest Kingmakers
Oct 8, 2020
9 min readThe Awards and Rewards of Grasping Infinity The Christian Science MonitorUNLIMITED
The Awards and Rewards of Grasping Infinity
Sep 19, 2017
Two mathematicians who made a breakthrough in understanding infinity were recently given a medal. Their work itself reflects an unbounded progress in explanations of reality.
2 min readWhy the Laws of Physics Are Inevitable QuantaUNLIMITED
Why the Laws of Physics Are Inevitable
Dec 9, 2019
5 min readBiden’s Stretch on Intellectual Property Theft FactCheck.orgUNLIMITED
Biden’s Stretch on Intellectual Property Theft
Jul 10, 2019
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden says the Trump administration has not been fighting China on "stealing intellectual secrets," claiming that instead it has been "fighting in trade." But intellectual property issues have been part of ongoin
5 min readSwimming Always Against the Tide Manhattan InstituteUNLIMITED
Swimming Always Against the Tide
Jan 13, 2020
3 min readThe Deepest Uncertainty: When a hypothesis is neither true nor false. NautilusUNLIMITED
The Deepest Uncertainty: When a hypothesis is neither true nor false.
Jun 6, 2013
Georg Cantor died in 1918 in a sanatorium in Halle, Germany. A pre-eminent mathematician, he had laid the foundation for the theory of infinite numbers in the 1870s. At the time, his ideas received hostile opposition from prominent mathematicians in
4 min readHow Information Got Re-Invented NautilusUNLIMITED
How Information Got Re-Invented
Aug 10, 2017
With his marriage to Norma Levor over, Claude Shannon was a bachelor again, with no attachments, a small Greenwich Village apartment, and a demanding job. His evenings were mostly his own, and if there’s a moment in Shannon’s life when he was at his
31 min readQuestion Everything Forbes AfricaUNLIMITED
Question Everything
Mar 3, 2020
4 min readOpenAI Takes Its Mask Off The AtlanticUNLIMITED
OpenAI Takes Its Mask Off
Sep 26, 2024
4 min readThe Only Way Forward Foreign Policy MagazineUNLIMITED
The Only Way Forward
Dec 12, 2016
This year was in many ways one of great-power politics. The resurgence of Russia on the global stage, from Ukraine to Syria to China. The Saudi-Iranian power struggle in the Middle East. China’s assertion of its status as the Middle Kingdom once agai
6 min readTrump’s Denial Of Climate Change Represents Worse Threat To Humanity Than Hitler, Says Activist Noam Chomsky The IndependentUNLIMITED
Trump’s Denial Of Climate Change Represents Worse Threat To Humanity Than Hitler, Says Activist Noam Chomsky
Nov 3, 2020
6 min readWhat Its Like To Be a Rational Optimist in a Pandemic ReasonUNLIMITED
What Its Like To Be a Rational Optimist in a Pandemic
Apr 24, 2020
13 min readHow Our Reality May Be a Sum of All Possible Realities QuantaUNLIMITED
How Our Reality May Be a Sum of All Possible Realities
Feb 6, 2023
1 min readIn Bitcoin I trust TIMEUNLIMITED
In Bitcoin I trust
Mar 19, 2021
4 min readA Masquerade Of Rawlsian Liberalism The Critic MagazineUNLIMITED
A Masquerade Of Rawlsian Liberalism
Nov 30, 2023
4 min readIs There a Future for Fusionism? ReasonUNLIMITED
Is There a Future for Fusionism?
Jan 21, 2021
12 min readA Nobel Prize For A Revolution In Economics NPRUNLIMITED
A Nobel Prize For A Revolution In Economics
Oct 12, 2021
4 min readWho Said Nobody Read Isaac Newton? NautilusUNLIMITED
Who Said Nobody Read Isaac Newton?
Jan 20, 2021
The central university library at Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, is an imposing, towered building known affectionately for being called a “magnificent erection” by, before he became prime minister, Neville Chamberlain.1 When I was a graduate stude
7 min readThe New science Of History Guardian WeeklyUNLIMITED
The New science Of History
Mar 1, 2024
16 min readDo You Know These Scientific Pioneers? NautilusUNLIMITED
Do You Know These Scientific Pioneers?
Nov 25, 2020
It’s easy to name science and math geniuses. I can just flip open my old book from the 1960s, which lists “100 Great Scientists”; it contains all the names you’d find on most popular lists of scientific geniuses: Einstein, Newton, Maxwell, Gauss, Boh
5 min readGalileo And The Telescope TechfastlyUNLIMITED
Galileo And The Telescope
May 3, 2021
If you were to ever find yourself strolling through the Mueseo Galileo in the city of Florence, Italy, you would likely chance upon a rather ordinary object. At least, that’s what it looks like at first glance. Do give it a second peek, as this relic
1 min readTop Ten Unsung Geniuses: For these scientists, success and fame did not come in equal measure. NautilusUNLIMITED
Top Ten Unsung Geniuses: For these scientists, success and fame did not come in equal measure.
Oct 16, 2014
It’s easy to name science and math geniuses. I can just flip open my old book from the 1960s, which lists “100 Great Scientists”; it contains all the names you’d find on most popular lists of scientific geniuses: Einstein, Newton, Maxwell, Gauss, Boh
5 min readA Tantalizing Promise Ancient History MagazineUNLIMITED
A Tantalizing Promise
Aug 4, 2023
4 min readFrom Coronavirus To The Climate: What It Means To Be A Scientist Today The IndependentUNLIMITED
From Coronavirus To The Climate: What It Means To Be A Scientist Today
Oct 16, 2020
18 min readTo Defend Western Civilization, Start With Science NPRUNLIMITED
To Defend Western Civilization, Start With Science
Jul 18, 2017
3 min readNo Easy Way To Mastery New Zealand ListenerUNLIMITED
No Easy Way To Mastery
May 22, 2022
2 min read
Reviews for Discipline and Experience
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
2 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Discipline and Experience - Peter Dear
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1