{"id":2575,"date":"2012-08-06T09:00:30","date_gmt":"2012-08-05T21:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/?p=2575"},"modified":"2015-02-12T09:27:19","modified_gmt":"2015-02-11T21:27:19","slug":"oldenburg-newton-experimental-philosophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/oldenburg-newton-experimental-philosophy\/","title":{"rendered":"Oldenburg and Newton on &#8216;Experimental Philosophy&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Kirsten Walsh writes&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>During the debate following the publication of Newton\u2019s <a title=\"First paper\" href=\"http:\/\/rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org\/content\/6\/69-80\/3075.full.pdf+html\" target=\"_blank\">first paper<\/a>, Newton provided a set of <a title=\"Queries paper\" href=\"http:\/\/rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org\/content\/7\/81-91\/4004.2.full.pdf+html\">eight queries<\/a>, in an attempt to steer the debate towards a satisfactory conclusion.\u00a0 When <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Henry_Oldenburg\" target=\"_blank\">Henry Oldenburg<\/a>, Secretary of the Royal Society and Editor of the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Philosophical_Transactions_of_the_Royal_Society\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Philosophical Transactions<\/em><\/a>, published Newton\u2019s queries, he added the following introduction:<\/p>\n<ol>A Serie\u2019s of Quere\u2019s propounded by Mr. Isaac Newton, to be determin\u2019d by Experiments, positively and directly concluding his new Theory of Light and Colours; and here recommended to the Industry of the Lovers of Experimental Philosophy, as they were generously imparted to the Publisher in a Letter of the said Mr. Newtons of July 8. 1672.<\/ol>\n<p>However, Newton didn\u2019t describe his own work as \u2018experimental philosophy\u2019 until 1713, when he added the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/General_Scholium\" target=\"_blank\">General Scholium<\/a> to the <em>Principia<\/em>.\u00a0 He wrote:<\/p>\n<ul>\u2026 and hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, or based on occult qualities, or mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy.\u00a0 In this experimental philosophy, propositions are deduced from the phenomena and are made general by induction.<\/ul>\n<p>In 1672, would Newton have been comfortable with Oldenburg\u2019s label \u2018experimental philosopher\u2019?\u00a0 Or did he consciously avoid the label, as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/4130349\" target=\"_blank\">Alan Shapiro<\/a> suggests, in order to distance himself from the methodology of the early Royal Society?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Oldenburg on &#8216;Experimental Philosophy&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 207px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/5\/52\/Henry_Oldenburg.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"257\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Henry Oldenburg (1619-1677)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>To begin, what did Oldenburg mean by \u2018experimental philosophy\u2019?\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at his prefaces to each issue of the <em>Philosophical Transactions<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Firstly, Oldenburg was talking about the Baconian experimental philosophy.\u00a0 In the <a href=\"http:\/\/rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org\/content\/7\/81-91\/4000.full.pdf+html\" target=\"_blank\">1672 Preface<\/a>, Oldenburg chose to adopt Bacon\u2019s term, \u2018Operative Philosophy\u2019, which he used interchangeably with the term \u2018Experimental Philosophy\u2019.\u00a0 And he wrote:<\/p>\n<ol>But, when our renowned Lord Bacon had demonstrated the Methods for a perfect Restauration of all parts of Real knowledge \u2026 The success became on a sudden stupendious, and Effective philosophy began to sparkle, and even to flow into beams of bright-shining Light, all over the World.<\/ol>\n<p>Moreover, in <a href=\"http:\/\/rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org\/content\/6\/69-80\/2087.full.pdf+html\" target=\"_blank\">1671<\/a>, Oldenburg advocated <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Abraham_Cowley\" target=\"_blank\">Abraham Cowley\u2019s<\/a> Baconian-vision for the Royal Society.\u00a0 In his book, <em>Proposition for the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy<\/em>, Cowley proposed that the Royal Society appoint professors who were:<\/p>\n<ol>bound to study and teach all sorts of Natural, Experimental Philosophy, to consist of the Mathematicks, Mechanicks, Medicine, Anatomy, Chymistry, the History of Animals, Plants &#8230;. and briefly all things contained in the Catalogue of Natural Histories annexed to My Lord Bacon\u2019s Organon.<\/ol>\n<p>(Incidentally, in a <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/tag\/cowley\/\" target=\"_blank\">previous post<\/a> on this blog, Peter Anstey has identified this as the first English book to use the term \u2018experimental philosophy\u2019 in its title.)<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, Oldenburg had in mind an experimental philosophy that emphasised the construction of natural histories.\u00a0 For example, in <a href=\"http:\/\/rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org\/content\/4\/45-56\/893.full.pdf+html\" target=\"_blank\">1669<\/a>, Oldenburg wrote:<\/p>\n<ol>&#8230;we then made an Attempt of laying some Foundation for the Improvement of real Philosophy, and for the spreading of Useful knowledge; in publishing Advices and Directions for the writing of an Experimental Natural History\u2026<\/ol>\n<p>Thirdly, Oldenburg had in mind an experimental philosophy that attempted to recover ancient knowledge.\u00a0 For example, in <a href=\"http:\/\/rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org\/content\/6\/69-80\/2087.full.pdf+html\" target=\"_blank\">1671<\/a>, responding to critics of the experimental philosophy, Oldenburg wrote:<\/p>\n<ol>they call it contemptuously the New Philosophy; when as yet perhaps themselves are not ignorant, that \u2018tis so old as to have been the Discipline in Paradise; and from the First of Mankind \u2026 to have been practised and countenanced by the Best of Men\u2026<\/ol>\n<p>Moreover:<\/p>\n<ol>\u2026 we may not lay aside the other expedient, which is so helpful to explicate the Old Wonders of Art, and Old Histories of Nature; namely, To inquire diligently The things that are; What Rarities of Nature, and what Inventions of Men are now extant in any parts of the World.<\/ol>\n<p>To summarise, Oldenburg had in mind an experimental philosophy that:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Followed Bacon\u2019s method;<\/li>\n<li>Constructed natural histories; and<\/li>\n<li>Investigated ancient knowledge.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Newton on &#8216;Experimental Philosophy&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 220px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/3\/39\/GodfreyKneller-IsaacNewton-1689.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"287\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Isaac Newton (1642-1727)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Would Newton have approved of this way of describing his work?<\/p>\n<p>Certainly Newton would have approved of being broadly aligned with the experimentalist philosophers, as opposed to the speculative philosophers.\u00a0 In his \u2018Queries Paper\u2019, he wrote:<\/p>\n<ol>\u2026 the Theory \u2026 was evinced to me \u2026 not by deducing it only from a confutation of contrary suppositions, but by deriving it from Experiments concluding positively and directly.<\/ol>\n<p>And in the first paper, he wrote: \u201cAnd I shall not mingle conjectures with certainties\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>While Newton didn\u2019t construct natural histories, he may have approved of the Baconian overtones of the label.\u00a0 For, as I\u2019ve discussed <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/2011\/02\/newton%E2%80%99s-queries-are-not-hypotheses\/\" target=\"_blank\">previously<\/a>, Newton\u2019s 1672 queries resemble Baconian queries.<\/p>\n<p>Newton may even have approved of the suggestion that his method had ties to the Ancients.\u00a0 For example, as early as 1686, in his Preface to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Philosophi%C3%A6_Naturalis_Principia_Mathematica\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Principia<\/em><\/a>, Newton emphasised the influence of the Ancients:<\/p>\n<ol>Since the Ancients (according to Pappus) considered mechanics to be of the greatest importance in the investigation of nature and science and since the moderns \u2013 rejecting substantial forms and occult qualities \u2013 have undertaken to reduce the phenomena of nature of mathematical laws, it has seemed best in this treatise to concentrate on mathematics as it relates to natural philosophy.<\/ol>\n<p>So, I think Newton would have approved of Oldenburg\u2019s label, even though later on, when he came to describe his own experimental philosophy, the emphasis was quite different.\u00a0 For example, in Query 31 of the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Opticks\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Opticks<\/em><\/a>, Newton wrote:<\/p>\n<ol>This Analysis consists in making Experiments and Observations, and in drawing general Conclusions from them by Induction, and admitting of no Objections against the Conclusions, but such as are taken from Experiments, or other certain Truths.\u00a0 For Hypotheses are not to be regarded in experimental Philosophy.<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kirsten Walsh writes&#8230; During the debate following the publication of Newton\u2019s first paper, Newton provided a set of eight queries, in an attempt to steer the debate towards a satisfactory conclusion.\u00a0 When Henry Oldenburg, Secretary of the Royal Society and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4582,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[226,227,4405,224],"class_list":["post-2575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ideas","tag-experimental-philosophy","tag-history-of-science","tag-natural-philosophy","tag-newton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4582"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}