scholarly journals The origins of the Royal Society

1948 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-137 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Experimental Philosophy ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Scientific Societies ◽  
John Wallis ◽  
Thomas Sprat

The official historians of the Royal Society, from Thomas Sprat in 1667 to Sir Henry Lyons in 1944, have not been concerned to probe very deeply into the origins of the Society. The fullest of their accounts of this part of its history is given by C. R. Weld (1848) who briefly summarizes the formation and development of some other academies and scientific societies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and their relation to the Royal Society, and investigates, though not in great detail, some of the circumstances which may have led to its foundation. With the exception of Sprat, who wrote too early, the historians have based their account of the origins of the Royal Society on a letter from Dr John Wallis, F.R.S., to Dr Smith of Magdalen College, Oxford, dated 29 January 1696/1697. 2 In view of this, and in spite of its length, Wallis’s account is quoted here also: . . . About the year 1645, while I lived in London (at a time, when, by our Civil Wars, Academical Studies were much interrupted in both our universities:) beside the Conversation of divers eminent Divines, as to matters Theological; I had the opportunity of being acquainted with divers worthy Persons, inquisitive into Natural Philosophy, and other parts of Humane Learning: And particularly of what hath been called the New Philosophy or Experimental Philosophy.

Essay reviews: The spring-tide of experimental philosophy

1992 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-316
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Experimental Philosophy ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Spring Tide ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
The Public ◽  
Experimental Learning ◽  
Middle Period ◽  
Public Demonstration

Marie Boas Hall, Promoting experimental learning: experiment and the Royal Society, 1660-1727 . Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. xiii + 207, £35.00 ISBN 0-521-40503-3 In her welcome new book, Marie Hall traces the development and the subsequent decline of the public demonstration of experiments at the weekly meetings of the Royal Society, from the foundation in late 1660 to the end of Newton’s Presidency, at his death in 1727. The history is divided into three periods: the early optimistic Baconian phase, from 1660 to the mid-1670s; the more sombre middle period of the last quarter of the 17th century, when the attempted recapture of the early ideals met with only modest success; and the years spanned by Newton’s Presidency (1703- 27), when ‘Experiments of Fruit’ were largely abandoned in favour of ‘Experiments of Light’, and attention turned from useful inventions to the natural philosophy of a time-bounded universe in the steady-state, with its theosophic and theotechnic implications.

scholarly journals Evaluating John Theophilus Desaguliers' Newtonianism: the case of waterwheel knowledge in A course of experimental philosophy

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-477
Author(s):  
Andrew M. A. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Mechanics ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Experimental Philosophy ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Sphere Of Influence ◽  
Natural Philosophers

John Theophilus Desaguliers (1683–1744) was a French-born English Huguenot who made his name as a public lecturer in London and a demonstrator at the Royal Society, writing a very popular introduction to Isaac Newton's natural philosophy, the two-volume A course of experimental philosophy (1734–1744). This paper looks at the influence of three French natural philosophers, Edme Mariotte (1620–1684), Antoine Parent (1666–1716) and Bernard Forest de Bélidor (1698–1761), on the account of waterwheel functioning in the second volume of that work. The aim of the paper is to show that, although Desaguliers demonstrated a commitment to Newton's work, his own natural philosophical objectives also led him to borrow ideas from natural philosophers outside Newton's direct sphere of influence. To do this I shall give an account of what Desaguliers appropriated from Newton's Principia , how it fitted in with his own project and how he also made use of other natural philosophers' theories in his discussion of fluid mechanics. This will hopefully result in a more nuanced conception of Desaguliers' ‘Newtonianism’ that takes into account the diverse sources and influences in his work.

scholarly journals John Winthorp (Junior), F. R. S. Governor of Connecticut 1660 to 1676

1940 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-115
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
New World ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Natural Knowledge ◽  
New Born ◽  
Charles Ii ◽  
John Wallis

The first steps which were taken to form the Royal Society are said on the authority of Dr John Wallis, the mathematician, to date from about 1645, when he and certain other learned men in London began to meet from time to time to discuss the new philosophy, and other matters of common interest. There is however evidence to show that even earlier some of these men and their friends had in mind a plan, still undeveloped, to found a Society for the advancement of Natural Knowledge. For this information we are indebted to John Winthrop (junior) and to his correspondents in this country. He was one of the early puritans many of whom emigrated to the New World and there established the colony of New England. The fortieth volume of the Philosophical Transactions was dedicated to his grandson, also a John Winthrop, F.R.S., who was a generous benefactor of the Society. In the dedicatory letter Dr Cromwell Mortimer, the Secretary of the Society, writes of John Winthrop (junior) on 15 August 1741 : ‘In concert with these (i.e. Boyle, Wilkins and Oldenburg) and other learned friends (as he often revisited England) he was one of those who first formed the Plan of the Royal Society, and had not the Civil Wars happily ended as they did Mr Boyle and Mr Wilkins with several other learned men would have left England (as may appear in letters from Boyle, Wilkins, K. Digby, etc., to Mr Winthrop), and, out of esteem for the most excellent and valuable Governor, John Winthrop the younger, would have retired to his new-born colony and there established that Society for promoting Natural Knowledge which these gentlemen had formed, as it were, in embryo among themselves, but which afterwards receiving the Protection of the King Charles II obtain’d the style of Royal, and hath since done so much Honour to the British Nations, as to be imitated by the several European Princes who desired to be esteemed the Patrons of learning.’

The Triple Graft: European Influence on American Science – 1727–1861

1962 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 4-16
Author(s):  
W. H. G. Armytage
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Robert Boyle ◽  
American Science ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Lunar Society Of Birmingham ◽  
Royal Society Of London ◽  
The Revolution

Those British virtuosos who later formed the Royal Society of London, once considered (according to an eighteenth century secretary) migrating to Connecticut, “had not the Civil wars happily ended as they did.” Whether true or not, the story indicates the attraction which America offered to the early fellows. Robert Boyle was very interested in the College of William and Mary, opened in 1692, and this interest resulted in the creation of a chair of mathematics and natural philosophy. Of its nine occupants up to the Revolution, Dr. William Small, who held it from 1758–1764 was the most influential. “He fixed the destinies of my life,” wrote Jefferson. He fixed the destinies of several others in England too, for he is generally credited with initiating the Lunar Society of Birmingham on his return to England.

scholarly journals Polity and liturgy in the philosophy of John Wallis

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 505-525
Author(s):  
Jason M. Rampelt
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
English Civil War ◽  
Founding Member ◽  
Church Polity ◽  
John Wallis ◽  
Close Investigation

John Wallis, a founding member of the Royal Society, theologian and churchman, participated in the leading ecclesiastical conferences in England from the beginning of the English Civil War to the Restoration. His allegiance across governments, both civil and ecclesiastical, has provoked criticism. Close investigation into his position on key church issues, however, reveals a deeper philosophical unity binding together his natural philosophy, mathematics and views on church polity and liturgy.

Christopher Wren's De Corpore Saturni

1968 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-229 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Experimental Philosophy ◽  
The Subject ◽  
John Wilkins ◽  
John Wallis ◽  
Christopher Wren ◽  
Oval Shape

We there discoursed . . . the Copernican Hypothesis, the Nature of Comets and new Stars, the Attendants on Jupiter , the Oval shape of Saturn, the Inequalities and Selenography of the Moon , the several Phases of Venus and Mercury , the Improvement of Telescopes, the grinding of Glasses for that purpose . . . THIS was written by John Wallis in 1678 in his Defence of the Royal Society and he was referring to the meetings held in London about 1645 by men interested in experimental philosophy. The ‘Oval shape of Saturn’ was a reference to what was then an important problem in astronomy: the explanation of the different appearances of Saturn. Among the men who were to become founding members of the Royal Society were a number who had an interest in this problem, John Wallis, Seth Ward, Dr Jonathan Goddard and Sir Paul Neile, who both kept operators at their houses for the grinding of lenses, John Wilkins, Laurence Rooke, William Balle, and Christopher Wren. Neile, Balle and Wren especially spent a great deal of time and effort on the problem in the 1650’s, effort that resulted in Wren’s hypothesis on Saturn, which is the subject of De Corpore Saturni.

Margaret Cavendish among the Baconians

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-84
Author(s):  
Daniel Garber ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Experimental Philosophy ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Margaret Cavendish ◽  
Philosophical Thought

Margaret Cavendish is a very difficult thinker to place in context. Given her stern critique of the “experimental philosophy” in the Observations on the Experimental Philosophy, one might be tempted to place Cavendish among the opponents of Francis Bacon and his experimental thought. But, I argue, her rela­tion to Baconianism is much more subtle than that would suggest. I begin with an overview of Cavendish’s philosophical program, focusing mainly on her later natural philosophical thought in Philosophical and Physical Opinions (1663), Philosophical Letters (1664), Observations on the Experimental Philosophy (1666/68) and her Grounds of Natural Philosophy (1668). I then turn to Francis Bacon, and talk about how he understood his philosophical program in the 1620s, and how it had been transformed by later Baconians in the 1650s and 1660s. While Bacon held a vitalistic natural philosophy, what was most visible, particularly in Royal Society propaganda, was his experimentalism. But Margaret Cavendish’s natural philosophical program is, in a way, the exact contrary. While she was skeptical of Bacon’s experimentalism, she was an enthusiastic advocate for a vitalistic materialism that may well have been inspired, at least in part, by Bacon’s thought. Because of her opposition to the experimental philosophy, her contemporaries may not have seen her as a Baconian. But even so I think that she was a philosopher whom Bacon himself would have recognized as a kindred spirit.

Francis Bacon and the Origins of Christian Virtuosity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Nuovo
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
Natural Philosopher ◽  
Robert Boyle ◽  
The Mind

Although the vocation of Christian virtuoso was invented and named by Robert Boyle, Francis Bacon provided the archtype. A Christian virtuoso is an experimental natural philosopher who professes Christianity, who endeavors to unite empiricism and supernatural belief in an intellectual life. In his program for the renewal of the learning Bacon prescribed that the empirical study of nature be the basis of all the sciences, including not only the study of physical things, but of human society, and literature. He insisted that natural causes only be used to explain natural events and proposed not to mix theology with natural philosophy. This became a rule of the Royal Society of London, of which Boyle was a principal founder. Bacon’s rule also had a theological use, to preserve the purity and the divine authority of revelation. In the mind of the Christian virtuoso, nature and divine revelation were separate but complementary sources of truth.

"Plain and Vulgarly Express'd": Margaret Cavendish and the Discourse of the New Science

2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Nate
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Woman Writer ◽  
Margaret Cavendish ◽  
New Science ◽  
Plain Style ◽  
Thomas Sprat

Although Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673), did not belong to the scientific community which after 1660 formed itself around the Royal Society, several of the philosophical issues discussed there are reflected in her writings. Lengthy reflections on language and style which run through her philosophical worksprovide evidence that the linguistic and rhetorical debates of the early Royal Society also left their mark. The isolation which Cavendish faced as a woman writer obliged her to discuss problems of terminology and style even more intensively, thereby adhering to the rhetorical principle of perspicuity which Thomas Sprat demanded in his proposal for a scientific plain style. The influence of the New Science on Cavendish's work becomes obvious when her later writings are compared to her earlier ones where traces of a courtly and more elitist understanding of style can still be found. In this paper the development of Cavendish's stylistic attitudes is traced in several of her works, including her Utopian narrative The Blazing World (1666).

Hobbes'forgotten Natural Histories

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Bunce
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Historical Information ◽  
Natural Histories

AbstractThomas Hobbes' natural philosophy is often characterised as rationalistic in opposition to the emerging inductivist method employed by Francis Bacon and fellows of the Gresham College - later the Royal Society. Where as the inductivists researched and published a multitude of natural histories, Hobbes' mature publications contain little natural historical information. Nonetheless, Hobbes read numerous natural histories and incorporated them into his works and often used details from these histories to support important theoretical moves. He also wrote a number of natural histories, some of which remain either unpublished or untranslated. Hobbes' own mature statements about his early interest in natural histories are also misleading. This article attempts to review Hobbes' early writings on natural histories and argues that his works of the 1630s and 1640s owe a significant debt to the natural histories of Francis Bacon, Hobbes' one-time patron.

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