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Cambridge Studies in the History of Science
Science and the Enlightenment
A general history of 18th century science covering both the physical and life sciences. Places the scientific developments of the century in the cultural context of the Enlightenment and reveals the extent to which scientific ideas permeated the thought of the age.
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First published April 26, 1985
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August 16, 2014
SCIENCE AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT
BY
THOMAS L. HANKINS
It was the age of reason. From the Seventeenth to the eight¬eenth centuries an Enlightenment occurred within the realm of science that germinated from the single seed of natural history to a full blossom of segmented scientific disciplines. This was the most important contribution of science during this period. As the disciplines came unto there own they developed with a process of rationalization while trending away from a theological basis.
It began with the mechanical philosophy and mathematics which explained the natural world by motion and parts of matter. The motion of this matter was divided among three schools of thought; Newton's external, Leibniz's internal and Descartes' no power. These three were the leading mathematicians of this peri¬od. The study of mathematics had reached a turning point early in the Enlightenment. Lagrange, in 1781, felt that math had reached its limit like a tapped out ore. Instead a new method of attack was used; that of analysis. Analysis had a dichotic meaning of reduction of mathematical problems to equations and proper scien¬tific method in experimentation.
Calculus was then created to deal with the problem of motion. All mathematical techniques of this time were in response to the problems posed by mechanics. These mechanics offered a new field of analysis with such problems of describing the motion of a string. Newton's calculus was tested with his predictions of the three problems of universal gravitation. These were the calculation of the shape of the earth, the motion of the moon, and the return of Hally's comet. The correct predictions of these problems increased the ability of celestial mechanics and aroused general interest in the field of science.
Experimental physics was another field which matured in response to the desire to discover the laws governing the inor¬ganic world. From 1720, Experimental Physics was to include heat, light, magnetism and electricity. The theory of subtle fluids arose with the need to quantify these physical phenomena. An example of the subtle fluids was the ether which was how the planets were thought to be able to effect each other at a dis¬tance.
Of all the subtle fluids electricity and heat caused the most excitement. Important advancements in electricity included Boyle's investigations of electricity in a vacuum, Hauksbee's barometric light (1705), Gray's communication of electricity at a distance (1729) and the Leyden Jar (1746) which allowed for the accumulation of charge. An attempt was made to quantify heat by Celsius (1742) in his creation of the Centigrade scale. Wilcke (1757) said that there existed a latent heat that was hidden from the thermometer. The subtle fluids, in general, served there purpose to quantify experimental physics.
The introduction of chemistry was a creation of a new science rather than a metamorphosis of an old one. Before 1750 chemistry was not an independent discipline, though it was dis¬tantly related to alchemy. There were five main points to the chemical revolution. First, was the theory of the gaseous or vaporous state of matter. This was the realization that air was a combination of various gasses. Second, was the coming of pneumat¬ic chemistry with the discovery that airs consisted of different chemical properties. Third was the discovery of the nature of combustion by Belcher's Phlogiston theory and Lavoisier's experi¬ments. Fourth was the rationalization of chemistry. With the theory of combustion secured, Lavoisier showed that water was a compound and that air was a mixture. He then set out to rational¬ly define a language for the new chemistry. Finally, John Dalton reintroduced the idea of the atom back into chemistry. This ended the progress of the new chemical discipline in the Enlightenment.
Natural history was a field that parented the scientific children of experimental physiology, biology, geology and bota¬ny. Natural history was an investigation of nature, seeking to describe and classify, not search for causes. It found a rebirth in the late seventeenth century because God was believed to only be known through nature. By studying nature they could thereby understand God. This study of life also arose from the shortcom¬ings of the mechanical philosophies explanations of nature in terms of levers, pulleys and pumps.
Experimental physiology arose in the 1740's at the same time of the conception of the subtle fluids. It attempted to describe the body with the ideas of growth, nutrition and regeneration. At the turning point of 1740 the physiologists ceased their attempt to determine the structure of living things. Instead they placed great rational emphasis on vital function. Albrecht Von Haller carried out vitalistic experiments on the irritability and sensi¬bility of animal tissue. Haller was swayed by his religious conviction of a spiritual soul. Bordeau believed in a universal property of sensibility and not in the concept of the soul. This was the major paradox of physiology during the Enlightenment.
Although biology does not become a separate discipline until the end of the eighteenth century, its beginnings were found in the Enlightenment. The ideas of generation and preformation were the two major topics in this field which at this time was still classified as natural history. Generation was the reproduc¬tion of organisms and the regrowth of body parts. The two great discoveries of generation were the parthenogenesis studies of Charles Bonnet and the fresh water hydra studies of regeneration by Abraham Trembley. The theory of preformation was that at conception the embryo was a completely formed animal only needing to grow. This theory declined in the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1760 it was revived with the modified idea of the embryo consisting of a preexisting order, form and mold.
Geology emerged as a distinct scientific discipline at the end of the eighteenth century with the contrasting theories of Abraham Werner and James Hutton. Werner believed that water was the main ingredient in the formation of rock strata. He and his colleagues were called Neptunists. Hutton felt that the tilting of the strata was due to the earths internal heat which was dis¬played in the action of volcanoes; thus he was called a Vulcan¬ist. Hutton believed in a uniformitarian theory of slow change over time. This was opposed to the catastrophism theory which attempted to fit geologic time into the Bible's chronology. The vulcanist-uniforitarian victory over the neptunist-catastrophists represents a transition of a religious to science based explana¬tion of geology.
Botany emerged from the eighteenth century naturalism as an attempt to find a natural system of classification for plants and animals. This search for a natural system was a desire to find God's plan. They attempted to classify plants by there essence. The essence was that which made the plants what they were. The essence of man was his soul not, for example, the color of his eyes. Linnaeus was the greatest botanist. Beginning with the species he used characteristics of fruitification to classify plants. Another of his contributions was his binomial nomencla¬ture. With this system the first Latin name described the genus and the second classified the species. Buffon criticized the Linnaean system. He said that it was impossible to set an arbi¬trary classification for plants and animals. Buffon determined species by reproductive histories not characteristics.
The moral or social sciences was the final offering of the Enlightenment to the categorization of science. In 1774 Turgot became the controller general under Louis XVI in a France that was in financial crisis. His response to this problem was to rationalize social and political institutions on the basis of natural rights. Turgot was the first to use the term social science. In this science human action was to be regulated not by the Bible, but by nature. Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws con¬tained legal and social issues that related to people. It was considered one of the most important books of the entire Enlight¬enment period.
The Enlightenment was a period of rationalization and a period of reason, but most importantly it was a period of defini¬tion, growth and classification of the sciences into separate fields of study. While God and his laws of nature at first was a central issue in this time, eventually the religious explanation gave way to purely scientific answers.
BY
THOMAS L. HANKINS
It was the age of reason. From the Seventeenth to the eight¬eenth centuries an Enlightenment occurred within the realm of science that germinated from the single seed of natural history to a full blossom of segmented scientific disciplines. This was the most important contribution of science during this period. As the disciplines came unto there own they developed with a process of rationalization while trending away from a theological basis.
It began with the mechanical philosophy and mathematics which explained the natural world by motion and parts of matter. The motion of this matter was divided among three schools of thought; Newton's external, Leibniz's internal and Descartes' no power. These three were the leading mathematicians of this peri¬od. The study of mathematics had reached a turning point early in the Enlightenment. Lagrange, in 1781, felt that math had reached its limit like a tapped out ore. Instead a new method of attack was used; that of analysis. Analysis had a dichotic meaning of reduction of mathematical problems to equations and proper scien¬tific method in experimentation.
Calculus was then created to deal with the problem of motion. All mathematical techniques of this time were in response to the problems posed by mechanics. These mechanics offered a new field of analysis with such problems of describing the motion of a string. Newton's calculus was tested with his predictions of the three problems of universal gravitation. These were the calculation of the shape of the earth, the motion of the moon, and the return of Hally's comet. The correct predictions of these problems increased the ability of celestial mechanics and aroused general interest in the field of science.
Experimental physics was another field which matured in response to the desire to discover the laws governing the inor¬ganic world. From 1720, Experimental Physics was to include heat, light, magnetism and electricity. The theory of subtle fluids arose with the need to quantify these physical phenomena. An example of the subtle fluids was the ether which was how the planets were thought to be able to effect each other at a dis¬tance.
Of all the subtle fluids electricity and heat caused the most excitement. Important advancements in electricity included Boyle's investigations of electricity in a vacuum, Hauksbee's barometric light (1705), Gray's communication of electricity at a distance (1729) and the Leyden Jar (1746) which allowed for the accumulation of charge. An attempt was made to quantify heat by Celsius (1742) in his creation of the Centigrade scale. Wilcke (1757) said that there existed a latent heat that was hidden from the thermometer. The subtle fluids, in general, served there purpose to quantify experimental physics.
The introduction of chemistry was a creation of a new science rather than a metamorphosis of an old one. Before 1750 chemistry was not an independent discipline, though it was dis¬tantly related to alchemy. There were five main points to the chemical revolution. First, was the theory of the gaseous or vaporous state of matter. This was the realization that air was a combination of various gasses. Second, was the coming of pneumat¬ic chemistry with the discovery that airs consisted of different chemical properties. Third was the discovery of the nature of combustion by Belcher's Phlogiston theory and Lavoisier's experi¬ments. Fourth was the rationalization of chemistry. With the theory of combustion secured, Lavoisier showed that water was a compound and that air was a mixture. He then set out to rational¬ly define a language for the new chemistry. Finally, John Dalton reintroduced the idea of the atom back into chemistry. This ended the progress of the new chemical discipline in the Enlightenment.
Natural history was a field that parented the scientific children of experimental physiology, biology, geology and bota¬ny. Natural history was an investigation of nature, seeking to describe and classify, not search for causes. It found a rebirth in the late seventeenth century because God was believed to only be known through nature. By studying nature they could thereby understand God. This study of life also arose from the shortcom¬ings of the mechanical philosophies explanations of nature in terms of levers, pulleys and pumps.
Experimental physiology arose in the 1740's at the same time of the conception of the subtle fluids. It attempted to describe the body with the ideas of growth, nutrition and regeneration. At the turning point of 1740 the physiologists ceased their attempt to determine the structure of living things. Instead they placed great rational emphasis on vital function. Albrecht Von Haller carried out vitalistic experiments on the irritability and sensi¬bility of animal tissue. Haller was swayed by his religious conviction of a spiritual soul. Bordeau believed in a universal property of sensibility and not in the concept of the soul. This was the major paradox of physiology during the Enlightenment.
Although biology does not become a separate discipline until the end of the eighteenth century, its beginnings were found in the Enlightenment. The ideas of generation and preformation were the two major topics in this field which at this time was still classified as natural history. Generation was the reproduc¬tion of organisms and the regrowth of body parts. The two great discoveries of generation were the parthenogenesis studies of Charles Bonnet and the fresh water hydra studies of regeneration by Abraham Trembley. The theory of preformation was that at conception the embryo was a completely formed animal only needing to grow. This theory declined in the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1760 it was revived with the modified idea of the embryo consisting of a preexisting order, form and mold.
Geology emerged as a distinct scientific discipline at the end of the eighteenth century with the contrasting theories of Abraham Werner and James Hutton. Werner believed that water was the main ingredient in the formation of rock strata. He and his colleagues were called Neptunists. Hutton felt that the tilting of the strata was due to the earths internal heat which was dis¬played in the action of volcanoes; thus he was called a Vulcan¬ist. Hutton believed in a uniformitarian theory of slow change over time. This was opposed to the catastrophism theory which attempted to fit geologic time into the Bible's chronology. The vulcanist-uniforitarian victory over the neptunist-catastrophists represents a transition of a religious to science based explana¬tion of geology.
Botany emerged from the eighteenth century naturalism as an attempt to find a natural system of classification for plants and animals. This search for a natural system was a desire to find God's plan. They attempted to classify plants by there essence. The essence was that which made the plants what they were. The essence of man was his soul not, for example, the color of his eyes. Linnaeus was the greatest botanist. Beginning with the species he used characteristics of fruitification to classify plants. Another of his contributions was his binomial nomencla¬ture. With this system the first Latin name described the genus and the second classified the species. Buffon criticized the Linnaean system. He said that it was impossible to set an arbi¬trary classification for plants and animals. Buffon determined species by reproductive histories not characteristics.
The moral or social sciences was the final offering of the Enlightenment to the categorization of science. In 1774 Turgot became the controller general under Louis XVI in a France that was in financial crisis. His response to this problem was to rationalize social and political institutions on the basis of natural rights. Turgot was the first to use the term social science. In this science human action was to be regulated not by the Bible, but by nature. Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws con¬tained legal and social issues that related to people. It was considered one of the most important books of the entire Enlight¬enment period.
The Enlightenment was a period of rationalization and a period of reason, but most importantly it was a period of defini¬tion, growth and classification of the sciences into separate fields of study. While God and his laws of nature at first was a central issue in this time, eventually the religious explanation gave way to purely scientific answers.
September 8, 2014
A lucid survey of various areas of scientific activity in the 18th century. As such it can be frustrating in its moving from one topic to another. A good bibliographic essay gives a good idea of where to look next.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews