‘Following No Party But The Truth’: Petrus Van Musschenbroek’s Rhetorical Defence Of (Newtonian) Experimental Philosophy

The Dutch Republic played an important role in the dissemination of Newton’s philosophy. There, it found its earliest proponents, who were instrumental in the spread of Newton’s ideas on the Continent. One of these figures was Petrus van Musschenbroek (1692-1761), who took up professorships at the universities of Duisburg, Utrecht, and Leiden. In a letter to Newton written at the beginning of his academic career, van Musschenbroek explicitly stated that it was his aim to spread the ‘Newtonian philosophy’ in the university, and from there to the rest of Dutch society. In this article, I focus on van Musschenbroek’s activities in the context of his professorship at different universities in the Dutch Republic. I analyse the way van Musschenbroek presents Newton and his philosophy in his academic orations and the prefaces to the different editions of his textbook. I argue that van Musschenbroek implicitly uses a certain view on the institution of the university and its tasks as a leverage in his defence of ‘(Newtonian) experimental philosophy’ and his attack on the existing tradition of Cartesian philosophy in the university. I also show how van Musschenbroek was not consistent in presenting his philosophy as specifically ‘Newtonian’, and increasingly emphasised that he should not be seen as a ‘follower’ of Newton, but rather as an impartial ‘experimental philosopher’. This shift, however, can be seen as motivated by the same rhetorical strategy used by van Musschenbroek in his earlier defence of ‘Newtonian’ experimental philosophy.

Interview on Experimental Philosophy with Joshua Knobe

This conversation piece contains an interview with Joshua Knobe. It provides a useful introduction to what experimental philosophy is and the interdisciplinary collaborations it encourages. Pendaran Roberts and Joshua Knobe collaboratively developed this conversation piece via email. Joshua Knobe is a renowned experimental philosopher, who works on a range of philosophical issues, including philosophy of mind, action and ethics. He is a professor in the Program in Cognitive Science and the Department of Philosophy at Yale University. He is most known for what is now called the ‘Knobe effect’.

An experimental ‘Life’ for an experimental life: Richard Waller's biography of Robert Hooke (1705)

Richard Waller's ‘Life of Dr Robert Hooke’, prefixed to his edition of Hooke's Posthumous Works (1705), is an important source for the life of one of the most eminent members of the early Royal Society. It also has the distinction of being one of the earliest biographies of a man of science to be published in English. I argue that it is in fact the first biography to embrace the subject's natural-philosophical work as the centre of his life, and I investigate Waller's reasons for adopting this strategy and his struggle with the problem of how to represent an early experimental philosopher in print. I suggest that Waller eschews the ‘Christian philosopher’ tradition of contemporary biography – partly because of the unusually diverse and fragmentary nature of Hooke's intellectual output – and draws instead upon the structure of the Royal Society's archive as a means of organizing and understanding Hooke's life. The most quoted phrase from Waller's biography is that Hooke became ‘to a crime close and reserved’ in later life; this essay argues that Waller's biographical sketch was fashioned in order to undo the effects of that reserve. In modelling his approach very closely on the structure of the society's records he was principally concerned with making Hooke's work and biography accessible, intelligible and useful to the fellowship in a context familiar to them, a context which had provided the institutional framework for most of Hooke's adult life. I argue that Waller's ‘Life’ was also intended to make the largest claims for Hooke's intellectual standing that the author dared in the context of the enmity between Hooke and Isaac Newton once the latter became president of the Royal Society. However, I also adduce fresh manuscript evidence that Waller actually compiled, but did not publish, a defence of Hooke's claim to have discovered the inverse square law of gravity, allowing us to glimpse a much more assertive biography of Hooke than the published version.

Hooke's figurations: a figural drawing attributed to Robert Hooke

The experimental philosopher Robert Hooke (1635–1703) is known to have apprenticed to the leading painter Peter Lely on his first arrival in London in the late 1640s. Yet the relevance of Hooke's artistic training to his mature draughtsmanship and identity has remained unclear. Shedding light on that larger interpretive problem, this article argues for the attribution to Hooke of a figural drawing now in Tate Britain (T10678). This attributed drawing is especially interesting because it depicts human subjects and bears Hooke's name functioning as an artistic signature, both highly unusual features for his draughtsmanship. From evidence of how this drawing was collected and physically placed alongside images by leading artists in the early eighteenth century, I suggest how it can offer new insight into the reception of Hooke and his graphic work in the early Enlightenment.