The Conservative Resistance in Scientific Revolution

科学革命中的保守派抵抗

• 批准号: 9011998
• 负责人: Roger Ariew
• 金额: $ 9.31万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1991
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1991-01-01 至 1994-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9011998&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Conservative; Resistance; Scientific; Revolution

"How many times does the apple have to fall?" This question was raised by then Representative Bowman who wanted to know why NSF needed to support a new biography of Newton given the many that already existed. The question assumes that history is a static discipline--that history is simply a gathering of all the "facts" to be set on the page in chronological order. But the historian is like the scientist--they continually seek to refine and improve upon our understanding of events. They offer new theories and gather new evidence to support them. Eddington, for example, sought new evidence in the bending of light from star during a solar eclipse to establish Einstein's theory of gravity over Newton's. Similarly, historians turn to new kinds of evidence in order to establish new interpretations of how and why historical events came about. This move to re-examine and re-interpret events has hit at what had long been thought to be firmly established within the history of science: the Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution of the 17th Century involved the overthrow of the Aristotelian world system and its replacement by "modern science." The revolution began with Copernicus and ended with Newton and his theory of universal gravitation. Yet recent historical scholarship has established that the success of Copernicanism around the turn of the 17th century was quite problematic and not explainable on any merely "rational" grounds. Indeed, the Tychonic system, with the planets circling the sun, the sun circling the immobile earth, made better sense than Copernicanism which so radically contradicted our common-sense understanding of the physical laws of motion. But by mid-17th century, historians and philosophers had assumed that Aristotelianism was defeated and the triumph of modern physics was clear. Yet, Professors Ariew and Garber have found that even this victory was nearly as problematic as the victory of Copernicanism. They are examining the exact process of rejection of Aristotelian natural philosophy during the early to mid-17th century. Paris was then home to a lively and independent intellectual community that included many of the figures most responsible for the rise of the new mechanical philosophy, while at the same time, the University of Paris and numerous smaller colleges were strongholds of traditional Aristotelian thought. Their project involves studying intellectual currents both inside and outside the University, including published books, lecture notes, letters, pamphlets, broadsides, and engravings. They hope to illuminate how, with specifics and in detail, the Aristotelian natural philosophy of the schools was set aside and modern science emerged. The results of the project should enhance our understanding of the complex relations among various scientific, philosophical and theological doctrines, the intellectual context of early modern science, and the status of scientific claims to authority.

“苹果要掉多少次？“这个问题是 由当时的代表鲍曼提出，他想知道为什么NSF 需要支持一个新的牛顿传记鉴于许多， 已经存在了。 这个问题假设历史是静态的 纪律--历史只是所有“事实”的集合 按时间顺序排列在页面上。 但历史学家 就像科学家一样--他们不断地寻求改进和提高 我们对事件的理解。 他们提出了新的理论， 收集新的证据来支持他们。 比如爱丁顿 寻找新的证据，在弯曲的光从星星在一个 建立了爱因斯坦的引力理论 牛顿的。同样地，历史学家们也会转向新的证据， 为了建立新的解释如何和为什么历史 事件发生了。 这一举动重新审视和重新解释事件 一直以来被认为是根深蒂固的 在科学史上最重要的事件：科学革命 17世纪的科学革命 推翻亚里士多德的世界体系， “现代科学。“这场革命始于哥白尼， 牛顿和他的万有引力理论 然而最近 历史学者已经确定， 世纪之交的哥白尼主义 有问题的，不能用任何“理性”的理由来解释。 事实上，第谷系统，行星围绕太阳旋转， 太阳绕着静止的地球转，这比 哥白尼学说与我们的常识如此矛盾 理解运动的物理规律。 但到了17世纪中期， 世纪，历史学家和哲学家们认为， 亚里士多德主义被打败了，现代物理学的胜利是 清楚 然而，阿里尤教授和加伯教授发现， 这场胜利几乎和哥白尼学说的胜利一样成问题。 他们正在研究拒绝阿斯特丽安的确切过程 自然哲学在世纪早期到中期。 巴黎是 然后是一个活跃而独立的知识分子群体的家园， 包括许多对美国经济增长负有最大责任的人物， 新的机械哲学，同时，大学 巴黎和许多较小的学院的据点， 传统的亚里士多德思想 他们的项目涉及研究 大学内外的知识潮流， 包括出版的书籍、讲义、信件、小册子， 宽边和雕刻。 他们希望阐明， 具体和细节，阿斯特丽德的自然哲学， 学校被搁置一边，现代科学出现了。的结果 这个项目应该会加深我们对这个综合体的了解 各种科学、哲学和神学之间的关系 学说，早期现代科学的知识背景， 对权威的科学主张的地位。