The intellectual origins of the Royal Society

1968 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-143 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
New World ◽  
World View ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Scientific Activity ◽  
Intellectual Structure ◽  
Religious Motivation ◽  
World Picture ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Intellectual Origins

A few decades ago historical studies of the background to the English scientific movement of the seventeenth century tended to involve discussions of the influence of utilitarian motives in drawing men to the study of nature. At one extreme, the technical needs of the ‘English bourgeoisie’ were said to be of primary importance (1). Other studies made utilitarian considerations part of a constellation of attitudes which supplied a religious motivation for engaging in scientific activity (2). Although some of these issues were recently raised anew, they wear a faded air, having been pushed to the periphery of historical interest by a number of brilliant explorations of the intellectual structure of the new mechanical world-view (3). Once the Earth had been ‘hurled into the skies’ by Copernicus, and the finite, graded universe of Aristotle with its associated qualitative and teleological physics had been discredited, it was the enormous intellectual adventure of fashioning a new world-picture which called forth the deepest energies of the creators of modern science. Problems were essentially set and solved by an inner dialectic of advance.

scholarly journals Property, Patronage, and the Politics of Science: The Founding of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

1974 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Shapin
Keyword(s):  
Social System ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Scientific Activity ◽  
Scientific Enterprise ◽  
Natural Knowledge ◽  
System A ◽  
Constant Change ◽  
Organizational Demands

The institutionalization of natural knowledge in the form of a scientific society may be interpreted in several ways. If we wish to view science as something apart, unchanging in its intellectual nature, we may regard the scientific enterprise as presenting to the sustaining social system a number of absolute and necessary organizational demands: for example, scientific activity requires acceptance as an important social activity valued for its own sake, that is, it requires autonomy; it is separate from other forms of enquiry and requires distinct institutional modes; it is public knowledge and requires a public, universalistic forum; it is productive of constant change and requires of the sustaining social system a flexibility in adapting to change. Support for such an interpretation may be found in the rise of modern science in seventeenth-century England, France, and Italy and in the accompanying rise of specifically scientific societies. Thus, the founding of the Royal Society of London may be interpreted as the organizational embodiment of immanent demands arising from scientific activity—the cashing of a blank cheque payable to science written on society's current account.

scholarly journals Negotiating a New World View in Acts 1.8? A Note on the Expression ἕως ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς

2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Peter-Ben Smit
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
World View ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World

This article argues that the expression ‘to the end of the earth’ in Acts 1.8, while not referring to one specific geographical location, as has often been argued in contemporary scholarship on Acts, is best understood as a way of (re)ordering the world geographically and, therefore, ideologically. Drawing on Greco-Roman geographical and literary conventions, the article suggests that the author of Acts invites the work's readers to look at the world in a new way, with Jerusalem and the gospel emanating from it as its centre – and the rest, including Rome, as its ideological (and therefore geographical) periphery. In this way, Acts proceeds to renegotiate the ‘world-view’ of its readers in an intercultural and subversive way.

scholarly journals The interrelation dynamics of Fundamental Science and Society (on an example of nanotechnology)

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 82-87
Author(s):  
Ye. A. Zhoukova
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Scientific Activity ◽  
Science And Society ◽  
World Picture ◽  
The World ◽  
Fundamental Research ◽  
To Receive ◽  
High Technologies

This article represents the results of the research granted by RFFS № 04-06-80192. The high technologies foundation is based on fundamental research. Inclusion of bioethical and environmental problems in a context of scientific activity becomes the specifics of a modern science. Nanotechnology fundamental researches lead to a change of the world picture, which bases now on the laws of quantum mechanics. Creating nanotechnology, a person enters competition with the nature as aspires to receive the control over mi- croscopic processes and structures, although himself can become a slave of nanotechnology.

Galileo's Claim to Fame: The Proof that the Earth Moves From the Evidence of the Tides

1970 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. R. J. Shea
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Physical Reality ◽  
Actual Process ◽  
Thought Processes ◽  
Success Story ◽  
World Picture ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of

Until fairly recently a common way of doing history of science was to pick up an important strand of contemporary scientific thought and to trace its origin back to the philosophical tangle of the scientific revolution. This approach conveniently by-passed the breakdowns of once useful and pervasive theories, and neglected the long intellectual journeys along devious routes. History of science read like a success story; the pioneers who failed were neither dismissed nor excused; they were simply ignored. The historian knew what he was hunting for and he was careful to limit his search to areas where his quarry was sure to be found. This method, which has been dubbed the precursor-view, stands in contrast—albeit, not in opposition—to the contextual method, which aims at a better understanding of the actual thought-processes of the early scientists. On this second view, history of science must not only account for present theories in the light of past developments, it must also assess old theories in terms of the scientist's conceptual framework, and judge them against the background of the world picture of his age. This may lead the historian down the blind alleys of the past, chasing spurious attempts at explaining the nature of physical reality, but it can clear the ground for a less anachronistic interpretation of the emergence of modern science and the actual process of discovery. History of science acts as a winnowing fork, but we cannot suppose that the discoverer himself always separated the wheat from the chaff, and we must be ever wary of equating the dream with the task.

Comparison of publication activity level in the medical field in Ukraine and the countries of the worldActivities of higher education institutions in the technology transfer

2020 ◽  
pp. 74-83
Author(s):  
A.B. Osadcha
Keyword(s):  
Web Of Science ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
Scientific Activity ◽  
Activity Level ◽  
Publication Activity ◽  
Research Progress ◽  
Medical Field

In the context of the rapid development of scientific and technological progress in Ukraine, including the medical field, a significant contribution belongs to scientific researches based on world recognition, and publications in scientific journals indexed in international bibliometric databases, will lead to the possibility of upgrading modern science in medical higher educational institutions. The most significant in modern society is not only activity process or thought, but the result that scientific research provides. Scientific activity is difficult to evaluate with only one parameter; moreover, there is a need for evaluation using qualitative indicators. The article presents author’s research results of publication activity level in the medical field in Ukraine, taking into account world experience based on international bibliometric database Clarivate Analytics’s Web of Science. Clarivate Analytics accelerates research progress by providing researchers with reliable information sources, analytics around the world, and the ability to quickly create, defend, and commercialize new ideas. Clarivate Analytics is an independent company with more than 4000 employees working in more than 100 countries, and has a well-known brand — Web of Science. It provides access to the largest database of scientific articles from carefully selected reputable journals. Researchers can use effective search instruments that take into account metadata and bibliographic references and allow you to get the highest quality, meaningful and impartial information. Web of Science is an accurate and reliable source of information for assessing scientific work, the most comprehensive resource in which both quality and quantity are equally valued.

III. On the figure, dimensions, and mean specific gravity of the Earth, as derived from the ordnance trigonometrical survey of Great Britain and Ireland

1857 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 111-116 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Specific Gravity ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Government

The Trigonometrical Survey of the United Kingdom commenced in the year 1784, under the immediate auspices of the Royal Society; the first base was traced by General Roy on the 16th of April of that year, on Hounslow Heath, in presence of Sir Joseph Banks, then President of the Society, and some of its most distinguished Fellows. The principal object which the Government had then in view, was the connexion of the Observatories of Paris and Greenwich by means of a triangulation, for the purpose of determining the difference of longitude between the two observatories.

Early Modern Spaces in Motion

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Social Behaviour ◽  
New World ◽  
Architectural History ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
The Earth ◽  
German Speaking

Stretching back to antiquity, motion had been a key means of designing and describing the physical environment. But during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, individuals across Europe increasingly designed, experienced, and described a new world of motion: one characterized by continuous, rather than segmented, movement. New spaces that included vistas along house interiors and uninterrupted library reading rooms offered open expanses for shaping sequences of social behaviour, scientists observed how the Earth rotated around the sun, and philosophers attributed emotions to neural vibrations in the human brain. Early Modern Spaces in Motion examines this increased emphasis on motion with eight essays encompassing a geographical span of Portugal to German-speaking lands and a disciplinary range from architectural history to English. It consequently merges longstanding strands of analysis considering people in motion and buildings in motion to explore the cultural historical attitudes underpinning the varied impacts of motion in early modern Europe.

scholarly journals XXXIV. On the transit of Venus in 1769. To the Right Honourable The Earl of Morton, President to the Council and Fellows of the Royal Society, this discourse is, with all humility, inscribed, by their humble servant, Thomas Hornsby

1765 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 326-344 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Theory Of Gravity ◽  
The Right ◽  
Made In

The observations of the late transit of Venus, though made with all possible care and accuracy, have not enabled us to determine with certainty the real quantity of the sun's parallax; since, by a comparison of the observations made in several parts of the globe, the sun's parallax is not less than 8" 1/2, nor does it seem to exceed 10". From the labours of those gentlemen, who have attempted to deduce this quantity from the theory of gravity, it should seem that the earth performs its annual revolution round the sun at a greater distance than is generally imagined: since Mr. Professor Stewart has determined the sun's parallax to be only 6', 9, and Mr. Mayer, the late celebrated Professor at Gottingen, who hath brought the lunar tables to a degree of perfection almost unexpected, is of opinion that it cannot exceed 8".

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