Experiment and Natural Philosophy in Seventeenth-Century Tuscany: The History of the Accademia del Cimento
Experiment and Natural Philosophy in Seventeenth-Century Tuscany: The History of the Accademia del Cimento (Studies in History and Philosophy of Science) Luciano Boschiero,
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1402062451
DDC: 509
Edition: Hardcover; 2007-09-05
Summary:
The Accademia del Cimento (1657-1667) was the first institution in
Europe purporting to use an experimental method in its scientific
inquiries. According to some recent accounts, the Cimento belonged to
a new culture of knowledge making that abandoned the practice of
constructing theories in favour of a programme that simply
accumulated ‘matters of fact’, free from theoretical arguments and
speculations. However, while the Cimento, led by Tuscany’s Prince
Leopoldo de’Medici, created a persuasive experimental rhetoric, in
actuality the academicians continued to construct experiments and
interpret their results on the basis of their theoretical aims and
their broader interests in natural philosophy. This analysis begins
by examining the use of experiments, mathematics, and natural
philosophy in seventeenth-century Italy. Once these topics are
clearly defined, it becomes easier to understand the intellectual
interests and motivations of each of the Cimento’s members. Case
studies regarding the Cimento’s work on air-pressure, the vacuum, the
freezing process, and the properties and effects of heat and cold,
reveal the group’s natural philosophical skills, commitments, and
agendas. Meanwhile, in an attempt to avoid religious pressure and to
maintain an uncontroversial reputation for the academy, Leopoldo
censored the academicians from publicly expressing their views on a
number of issues. The purpose of this work is to counter
historiographies that search for the origins of modern science within
the experimental practices of Europe’s first scientific institutions,
such as the Cimento. It proposes that we should look beyond the
experimental rhetoric found in published works, to find that the
Cimento academicians were participants in a culture of natural
philosophical theorising that existed throughout Europe.
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