On The Philosophy Of Discovery, Chapters Historical And Critical
William Whewell
48 chapters
26 hour read
Selected Chapters
48 chapters
ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF DISCOVERY, CHAPTERS HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL;
ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF DISCOVERY, CHAPTERS HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL;
BY WILLIAM WHEWELL, D.D. MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE. INCLUDING THE COMPLETION OF THE THIRD EDITION OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE INDUCTIVE SCIENCES. ΛΑΜΠΑΔΙΑ ΕΧΟΝΤΕΣ ΔΙΑΔΩΣΟΥΣΙΝ ΑΛΛΗΛΟΙΣ LONDON: JOHN W. PARKER AND SON, WEST STRAND. 1860. The following are the latest editions of the series of works which has been published connected with the present subject: History of the Inductive Sciences , 3 Vols. 1857. History of Scientific Ideas , 2
51 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PREFACE
PREFACE
The two works which I entitled The History of the Inductive Sciences , and The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences , were intended to present to the reader a view of the steps by which those portions of human knowledge which are held to be most certain and stable have been acquired, and of the philosophical principles which are involved in those steps. Each of these steps was a scientific Discovery , in which a new conception was applied in order to bind together observed facts. And though the
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.
By the examination of the elements of human thought in which I have been engaged, and by a consideration of the history of the most clear and certain parts of our knowledge, I have been led to doctrines respecting the progress of that exact and systematic knowledge which we call Science; and these doctrines I have endeavoured to lay before the reader in the History of the Sciences and of Scientific Ideas. The questions on which I have thus ventured to pronounce have had a strong interest for man
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER II. Plato.
CHAPTER II. Plato.
There would be small advantage in beginning our examination earlier than the period of the Socratic School at Athens; for although the spirit of inquiry on such subjects had awakened in Greece at an earlier period, and although the peculiar aptitude of the Grecian mind for such researches had shown itself repeatedly in subtle distinctions and acute reasonings, all the positive results of these early efforts were contained in a more definite form in the reasonings of the Platonic age. Before that
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER III. Additional Remarks on Plato.
CHAPTER III. Additional Remarks on Plato.
The leading points in Plato's writings which bear upon the philosophy of discovery are these: 1. The Doctrine of Ideas. 2. The Doctrine of the One and the Many. 3. The notion of the nature and aim of Science. 4. The survey of existing Sciences. 1. The Doctrine of Ideas is an attempt to solve a problem which in all ages forces itself upon the notice of thoughtful men; namely, How can certain and permanent knowledge be possible for man, since all his knowledge must be derived from transient and fl
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IV. Aristotle.
CHAPTER IV. Aristotle.
The views of Aristotle with regard to the foundations of human knowledge are very different from those of his tutor Plato, and are even by himself put in opposition to them. He dissents altogether from the Platonic doctrine that Ideas are the true materials of our knowledge; and after giving, respecting the origin of this doctrine, the account which we quoted in the last chapter, he goes on to reason against it. "Thus," he says [11] , "they devised Ideas of all things which are spoken of as univ
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER V. Additional Remarks on Aristotle.
CHAPTER V. Additional Remarks on Aristotle.
1. O NE of the most conspicuous points in Aristotle's doctrines as bearing upon the philosophy of Science is his account of that mode of attaining truth which is called Induction ; for we are accustomed to consider Induction as the process by which our Sciences have been formed; and we call them collectively the Inductive Sciences . Aristotle often speaks of Induction, as for instance, when he says that Socrates introduced the frequent use of it. But the cardinal passage on this subject is in hi
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VI. The Later Greeks.
CHAPTER VI. The Later Greeks.
Thus while Plato was disposed to seek the essence of our knowledge in Ideas alone, Aristotle, slighting this source of truth, looked to Experience as the beginning of Science; and he attempted to obtain, by division and deduction, all that Experience did not immediately supply. And thus, with these two great names, began that struggle of opposite opinions which has ever since that time agitated the speculative world, as men have urged the claims of Ideas or of Experience to our respect, and as a
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VII. The Romans.
CHAPTER VII. The Romans.
The Romans had no philosophy but that which they borrowed from the Greeks; and what they thus received, they hardly made entirely their own. The vast and profound question of which we have been speaking, the relation between Existence and our Knowledge of what exists, they never appear to have fathomed, even so far as to discern how wide and deep it is. In the development of the ideas by which nature is to be understood, they went no further than their Greek masters had gone, nor indeed was more
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VIII. Arabian Philosophers.
CHAPTER VIII. Arabian Philosophers.
I have noticed certain additions to Physical Science made by the Arabians; namely, in Astronomy [45] . The discovery of the motion of the Sun's Apogee by Albategnius, and the discovery of the Moon's Variation by Aboul-Wefa; and in Optics [46] the assertion of Alhazen that the angle of refraction is not proportional to the angle of incidence, as Ptolemy had supposed: and certain steps in the philosophy of vision. We must also suppose, as the Arabic word alkali reminds us, that the Arabians contri
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IX. The Schoolmen of the Middle Ages.
CHAPTER IX. The Schoolmen of the Middle Ages.
In the History of the Sciences I have devoted a Book to the state of Science in the middle ages, and have endeavoured to analyse the intellectual defects of that period. Among the characteristic features of the human mind during those times, I have noticed Indistinctness of Ideas, a Commentatorial Spirit, Mysticism, and Dogmatism. The account there given of this portion of the history of man belongs, in reality, rather to the History of Ideas than to the History of Progressive Science. For, as w
33 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER X. The Innovators of the Middle Ages.
CHAPTER X. The Innovators of the Middle Ages.
Raymond Lully. 1. General Remarks. — In the rise of Experimental Philosophy, understanding the term in the way just now stated, two features have already been alluded to: the disposition to cast off the prevalent reverence for the opinions and methods of preceding teachers with an eager expectation of some vast advantage to be derived from a change; and the belief that this improvement must be sought by drawing our knowledge from external observation rather than from mere intellectual efforts;—
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XI. The Innovators of the Middle Ages—continued.
CHAPTER XI. The Innovators of the Middle Ages—continued.
Roger Bacon. We now come to a philosopher of a very different character, who was impelled to declare his dissent from the reigning philosophy by the abundance of his knowledge, and by his clear apprehension of the mode in which real knowledge had been acquired and must be increased. Roger Bacon was born in 1214, near Ilchester, in Somersetshire, of an old family. In his youth he was a student at Oxford, and made extraordinary progress in all branches of learning. He then went to the University o
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XII. The Revival of Platonism.
CHAPTER XII. The Revival of Platonism.
1. Causes of Delay in the Advance of Knowledge. — In the insight possessed by learned men into the method by which truth was to be discovered, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries went backwards, rather than forwards, from the point which had been reached in the thirteenth. Roger Bacon had urged them to have recourse to experiment; but they returned with additional and exclusive zeal to the more favourite employment of reasoning upon their own conceptions. He had called upon them to look at th
57 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIII. The Theoretical Reformers of Science.
CHAPTER XIII. The Theoretical Reformers of Science.
Francis Bacon, who, about half a century later, treated the subject of a reform of philosophy in a far more penetrating and masterly manner, has given us his judgment of Telesius. In his view, he takes Telesius as the restorer of the Atomic philosophy, which Democritus and Parmenides taught among the ancients; and according to his custom, he presents an image of this philosophy in an adaptation of a portion of ancient mythology [111] . The Celestial Cupid, who with Cœlus, was the parent of the G
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIV. The Practical Reformers of Science.
CHAPTER XIV. The Practical Reformers of Science.
1. Character of the Practical Reformers. — We now come to a class of speculators who had perhaps a greater share in bringing about the change from stationary to progressive knowledge, than those writers who so loudly announced the revolution. The mode in which the philosophers of whom we now speak produced their impressions on men's minds, was very different from the procedure of the theoretical reformers. What these talked of, they did; what these promised, they performed. While the theorists c
57 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XV. Francis Bacon.
CHAPTER XV. Francis Bacon.
(I.) 1. General Remarks. — It is a matter of some difficulty to speak of the character and merits of this illustrious man, as regards his place in that philosophical history with which we are here engaged. If we were to content ourselves with estimating him according to the office which, as we have just seen, he claims for himself [168] , as merely the harbinger and announcer of a sounder method of scientific inquiry than that which was recognized before him, the task would be comparatively easy
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVI. Additional Remarks on Francis Bacon.
CHAPTER XVI. Additional Remarks on Francis Bacon.
Francis Bacon and his works have recently been discussed and examined by various writers in France and Germany as well as England [197] . Not to mention smaller essays, M. Bouillet has published a valuable edition of his philosophical works; Count Joseph de Maistre wrote a severe critique of his philosophy, which has been published since the death of the author; M. Charles Remusat has written a lucid and discriminating Essay on the subject; and in England we have had a new edition of the works p
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVII. From Bacon to Newton.
CHAPTER XVII. From Bacon to Newton.
1. Harvey. — We have already seen that Bacon was by no means the first mover or principal author of the revolution in the method of philosophizing which took place in his time; but only the writer who proclaimed in the most impressive and comprehensive manner, the scheme, the profit, the dignity, and the prospects of the new philosophy. Those, therefore, who after him, took up the same views are not to be considered as his successors, but as his fellow-labourers; and the line of historical succe
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVIII. Newton.
CHAPTER XVIII. Newton.
1. B OLD and extensive as had been the anticipations of those whose minds were excited by the promise of the new philosophy, the discoveries of Newton respecting the mechanics of the universe, brought into view truths more general and profound than those earlier philosophers had hoped or imagined. With these vast accessions to human knowledge, men's thoughts were again set in action; and philosophers made earnest and various attempts to draw, from these extraordinary advances in science, the tru
56 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIX. Locke and his French Followers.
CHAPTER XIX. Locke and his French Followers.
1. I N the constant opposition and struggle of the schools of philosophy, which consider our Senses and our Ideas respectively, as the principal sources of our knowledge, we have seen that at the period of which we now treat, the tendency was to exalt the external and disparage the internal element. The disposition to ascribe our knowledge to observation alone, had already, in Bacon's time, led him to dwell to a disproportionate degree upon that half of his subject; and had tinged Newton's expre
29 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XX. The Reaction against the Sensational School.
CHAPTER XX. The Reaction against the Sensational School.
1. W HEN Locke's Essay appeared, it was easily seen that its tendency was to urge, in a much more rigorous sense than had previously been usual, the ancient maxim of Aristotle, adopted by the schoolmen of the middle ages, that "nothing exists in the intellect but what has entered by the senses." Leibnitz expressed in a pointed manner the limitation with which this doctrine had always been understood. "Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu;— nempe ," he added, " nisi intellectus
29 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXI. Further Advance of the Sensational School. M. Auguste Comte.
CHAPTER XXI. Further Advance of the Sensational School. M. Auguste Comte.
I shall now take the liberty of noticing the views published by a contemporary writer; not that it forms part of my design to offer any criticism upon the writings of all those who have treated of those subjects on which we are now employed; but because we can more distinctly in this manner point out the contrasts and ultimate tendencies of the several systems of opinion which have come under our survey: and since from among these systems we have endeavoured to extract and secure the portion of
34 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXII. Mr. Mill's Logic[264].
CHAPTER XXII. Mr. Mill's Logic[264].
The History of the Inductive Sciences was published in 1837, and the Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences in 1840. In 1843 Mr. Mill published his System of Logic , in which he states that without the aid derived from the facts and ideas in my volumes, the corresponding portion of his own would most probably not have been written, and quotes parts of what I have said with commendation. He also, however, dissents from me on several important and fundamental points, and argues against what I have s
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXIII. Political Economy as an Inductive Science.
CHAPTER XXIII. Political Economy as an Inductive Science.
( Moral Sciences. )—1. Both M. Comte and Mr. Mill, in speaking of the methods of advancing science, aim, as I have said, at the extension of their methods to moral subjects, and aspire to suggest means for the augmentation of our knowledge of ethical, political, and social truths. I have not here ventured upon a like extension of my conclusions, because I wished to confine my views of the philosophy of discovery to the cases in which all allow that solid and permanent discoveries have been made.
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXIV. Modern German Philosophy[295].
CHAPTER XXIV. Modern German Philosophy[295].
I. Science is the Idealization of Facts. 1. I have spoken, a few chapters back, of the Reaction against the doctrines of the Sensational School in England and France. In Germany also there was a Reaction against these doctrines;—but there, this movement took a direction different from its direction in other countries. Omitting many other names, Kant, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel may be regarded as the writers who mark, in a prominent manner, this Germanic line of speculation. The problem of philo
45 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXV. The Fundamental Antithesis as it exists in the Moral World.
CHAPTER XXV. The Fundamental Antithesis as it exists in the Moral World.
1. W E HAVE hitherto spoken of the Fundamental Antithesis as the ground of our speculations concerning the material world, at least mainly. We have indeed been led by the physical sciences, and especially by Biology, to the borders of Psychology. We have had to consider not only the mechanical effects of muscular contraction, but the sensations which the nerves receive and convey:—the way in which sensations become perceptions; the way in which perceptions determine actions. In this manner we ha
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXVI. Of the "Philosophy of the Infinite."
CHAPTER XXVI. Of the "Philosophy of the Infinite."
In the last Chapter but one I stated that Schelling propounded a Philosophy of the Absolute, the Absolute being the original basis of truth in which the two opposite elements, Ideas and Facts, are identified, and that Hegel also founded his philosophy on the Identity of these two elements. These German philosophies appear to me, as I have ventured to intimate, of small or no value in their bearing on the history of actual science. I have in the history of the sciences noted instances in which th
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXVII. Sir William Hamilton on Inertia and Weight.
CHAPTER XXVII. Sir William Hamilton on Inertia and Weight.
In a preceding chapter I have spoken of Sir William Hamilton as the expositor, to English readers, of modern German systems, and especially of the so-called "Philosophy of the Unconditioned." But the same writer is also noticeable as a continuator of the speculations of English and Scottish philosophers concerning primary and secondary qualities; and these speculations bear so far upon the philosophy of science that it is proper to notice them here. 1. In our survey of the sciences, we have spok
14 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXVIII. Influence of German Systems of Philosophy in Britain.
CHAPTER XXVIII. Influence of German Systems of Philosophy in Britain.
The philosophy of Kant, as I have already said, involved a definite doctrine on the subject of the Fundamental Antithesis, and a correction of some of the errors of Locke and his successors. It was not however at first favourably received among British philosophers, and those who accepted it were judged somewhat capriciously and captiously. I will say a word on these points [307] . 1. ( Stewart )—Dugald Stewart, in his Dissertation on the Progress of the Moral Sciences , repeatedly mentions Kant
40 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXIX. Necessary Truth is progressive. Objections considered.
CHAPTER XXIX. Necessary Truth is progressive. Objections considered.
The doctrine that necessary truth is progressive is a doctrine very important in its bearing upon the nature of the human mind; and, as I conceive, in its theological bearing also. But it is a doctrine to which objections are likely to be made from various quarters, and I will consider some of these objections. 1. Necessary truths, it will be said, cannot increase in number. New ones cannot be added to the old ones. For necessary truths are those of which the necessity is plain and evident to al
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXX. The Theological Bearing of the Philosophy of Discovery.
CHAPTER XXX. The Theological Bearing of the Philosophy of Discovery.
That necessary truth is progressive;—that science is the idealization of facts, and that this process goes on from age to age, and advances with the advance of scientific discovery;—these are doctrines which I have endeavoured to establish and to elucidate. If these doctrines are true, they are so important that I may be excused should I return to them again and again, and trace their consequences in various directions. Especially I would examine the bearing of these doctrines upon our religious
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXXI. Man's Knowledge of God.
CHAPTER XXXI. Man's Knowledge of God.
1. M AN'S powers and means of knowledge are so limited and imperfect that he can know little concerning God. It is well that men in their theological speculations should recollect that it is so, and should pursue all such speculations in a modest and humble spirit. But this humility and modesty defeat their own ends, when they lead us to think that we can know nothing concerning God: for to be modest and humble in dealing with this subject, implies that we know this , at least, that God is a pro
27 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXXII. Analogies of Physical and Religious Philosophy.
CHAPTER XXXII. Analogies of Physical and Religious Philosophy.
1. A NY assertion of analogy between physical and religious philosophy will very properly be looked upon with great jealousy as likely to be forced and delusive; and it is only in its most general aspects that a sound philosophy on the two subjects can offer any points of resemblance. But in some of its general conditions the discovery of truth in the one field of knowledge and in the other may offer certain analogies, as well as differences, which it may be instructive to notice; and to some su
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Appendix A. OF THE PLATONIC THEORY OF IDEAS.
Appendix A. OF THE PLATONIC THEORY OF IDEAS.
"These laws impressed upon creation by its Creator, and apprehended by man, are something distinct equally from the Creator and from man, and the whole mass of them may fairly be termed the World of Things Intelligible. "Further, there are qualities in the supreme and ultimate Cause of all, which are manifested in His creation, and not merely manifested, but, in a manner—after being brought out of his super-essential nature into the stage of being [which is] below him, but next to him—are then b
26 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Appendix B. ON PLATO'S SURVEY OF THE SCIENCES.
Appendix B. ON PLATO'S SURVEY OF THE SCIENCES.
( Cam. Phil. Soc. April 23, 1855. ) A survey by Plato of the state of the Sciences, as existing in his time, may be regarded as hardly less interesting than Francis Bacon's Review of the condition of the Sciences of his time, contained in the Advancement of Learning . Such a survey we have, in the seventh book of Plato's Republic ; and it will be instructive to examine what the Sciences then were, and what Plato aspired to have them become; aiding ourselves by the light afforded by the subsequen
22 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Appendix BB. ON PLATO'S NOTION OF DIALECTIC.
Appendix BB. ON PLATO'S NOTION OF DIALECTIC.
( Cam. Phil. Soc. May 7, 1855 .) The survey of the sciences, arithmetic, plane geometry, solid geometry, astronomy and harmonics—which is contained in the seventh Book of the Republic (§ 6-12), and which has been discussed in the preceding paper, represents them as instruments in an education, of which the end is something much higher—as steps in a progression which is to go further. "Do you not know," says Socrates (§ 12), "that all this is merely a prelude to the strain which we have to learn?
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Appendix C. OF THE INTELLECTUAL POWERS ACCORDING TO PLATO.
Appendix C. OF THE INTELLECTUAL POWERS ACCORDING TO PLATO.
( Cam. Phil. Soc. Nov. 10, 1856 .) In the Seventh Book of Plato's Republic , we have certain sciences described as the instruments of a philosophical and intellectual education; and we have a certain other intellectual employment spoken of, namely, Dialectic, as the means of carrying the mind beyond these sciences, and of enabling it to see the sources of those truths which the sciences assume as their first principles. These points have been discussed in the two preceding papers. But this schem
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Appendix D. CRITICISM OF ARISTOTLE'S ACCOUNT OF INDUCTION.
Appendix D. CRITICISM OF ARISTOTLE'S ACCOUNT OF INDUCTION.
( Cam. Phil. Soc. Feb. 11, 1850 .) The Cambridge Philosophical Society has willingly admitted among its proceedings not only contributions to science, but also to the philosophy of science; and it is to be presumed that this willingness will not be less if the speculations concerning the philosophy of science which are offered to the Society involve a reference to ancient authors. Induction, the process by which general truths are collected from particular examples, is one main point in such phi
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Appendix E. ON THE FUNDAMENTAL ANTITHESIS OF PHILOSOPHY.
Appendix E. ON THE FUNDAMENTAL ANTITHESIS OF PHILOSOPHY.
( Cam. Phil. Soc. Feb. 5, 1844. ) 1. A LL persons who have attended in any degree to the views generally current of the nature of reasoning are familiar with the distinction of necessary truths and truths of experience ; and few such persons, or at least few students of mathematics, require to have this distinction explained or enforced. All geometricians are satisfied that the geometrical truths with which they are conversant are necessarily true: they not only are true, but they must be true.
42 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Appendix F. REMARKS ON A REVIEW OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE INDUCTIVE SCIENCES.
Appendix F. REMARKS ON A REVIEW OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE INDUCTIVE SCIENCES.
Trinity Lodge, April 11th, 1844. My Dear Herschel , Being about to send you a copy of a paper on a philosophical question just printed in the Transactions of our Cambridge Society, I am tempted to add, as a private communication, a few Remarks on another aspect of the same question. These Remarks I think I may properly address to you. They will refer to an Article in the Quarterly Review for June, 1841, respecting my History and Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences; and without assigning any oth
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Appendix G. OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF HYPOTHESES IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE.
Appendix G. OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF HYPOTHESES IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE.
( Cam. Phil. Soc. May 19, 1851. ) 1. T HE history of science suggests the reflection that it is very difficult for the same person at the same time to do justice to two conflicting theories. Take for example the Cartesian hypothesis of vortices and the Newtonian doctrine of universal gravitation. The adherents of the earlier opinion resisted the evidence of the Newtonian theory with a degree of obstinacy and captiousness which now appears to us quite marvellous: while on the other hand, since th
22 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Appendix H. ON HEGEL'S CRITICISM OF NEWTON'S PRINCIPIA.
Appendix H. ON HEGEL'S CRITICISM OF NEWTON'S PRINCIPIA.
( Cam. Phil. Soc. May 21, 1849 .) The Newtonian doctrine of universal gravitation, as the cause of the motions which take place in the solar system, is so entirely established in our minds, and the fallacy of all the ordinary arguments against it is so clearly understood among us, that it would undoubtedly be deemed a waste of time to argue such questions in this place, so far as physical truth is concerned. But since in other parts of Europe, there are teachers of philosophy whose reputation an
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX TO THE MEMOIR ON HEGEL'S CRITICISM OF NEWTON'S PRINCIPIA.
APPENDIX TO THE MEMOIR ON HEGEL'S CRITICISM OF NEWTON'S PRINCIPIA.
Hegel. Encyclopædia (2nd Ed. 1827), Part XI. p. 250. C. Absolute Mechanics. § 269. Gravitation is the true and determinate conception of material Corporeity, which (Conception) is realized to the Idea (zur Idee). General Corporeity is separable essentially into particular Bodies, and connects itself with the Element of Individuality or subjectivity, as apparent (phenomenal) presence in the Motion , which by this means is immediately a system of several Bodies . Universal gravitation must, as to
48 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Appendix K. DEMONSTRATION THAT ALL MATTER IS HEAVY.
Appendix K. DEMONSTRATION THAT ALL MATTER IS HEAVY.
The general questions which all such discussions suggest, are (in the existing phase of English philosophy) whether certain proposed scientific truths, (as the laws of motion,) be necessary truths; and if they are necessary, (which I have attempted to show that in a certain sense they are,) on what ground their necessity rests. These questions may be discussed in a general form, as I have elsewhere attempted to show. But it may be instructive also to follow the general arguments into the form wh
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
WORKS BY WILLIAM WHEWELL, D.D. F.R.S. MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
WORKS BY WILLIAM WHEWELL, D.D. F.R.S. MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
HISTORY OF THE INDUCTIVE SCIENCES. Third and Cheaper Edition. Three Volumes, Small Octavo, 24 s. HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC IDEAS, being the First Part of a Third Edition of the "Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences," with Additions. Two Volumes, 14 s. NOVUM ORGANON RENOVATUM; being the Second Part of a Third Edition of the "Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences." With large Additions. 7 s. INDICATIONS OF THE CREATOR: Theological Extracts from the "History and the Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences.
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
New Books and New Editions, Published by John W. Parker and Son, West Strand.
New Books and New Editions, Published by John W. Parker and Son, West Strand.
History of England, from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Fifth and Sixth Volumes, containing the Reigns of Edward the Sixth and Mary. By J. Anthony Froude . In the Press. A Second Edition of the First Four Volumes, containing the Reign of Henry VIII. 2 l. 14 s. History of England, during the Reign of George the Third. By W. Massey , M.P. Vols. I. and II. 12 s. each. The Third Volume in the Press . History of Civilization in England. By Henry Thomas Buckle . The First Volume. Octavo
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Annotated Edition of the English Poets, WITH INTRODUCTIONS, NOTES, AND MEMOIRS, Historical, Biographical and Critical, BY ROBERT BELL.
Annotated Edition of the English Poets, WITH INTRODUCTIONS, NOTES, AND MEMOIRS, Historical, Biographical and Critical, BY ROBERT BELL.
In Volumes , 2s. 6d. EACH, BOUND IN CLOTH . ANCIENT POEMS, BALLADS, AND SONGS OF THE PEASANTRY. 2 s. 6 d. GREENE AND MARLOWE. 2 s. 6 d. EARLY BALLADS ILLUSTRATIVE OF HISTORY, TRADITIONS, AND CUSTOMS. 2 s. 6 d. BEN JONSON. 2 s. 6 d. CHAUCER. Eight Volumes, 20 s. BUTLER. Three Volumes, 7 s. 6 d. THOMSON. Two Volumes, 5 s. DRYDEN. Three Volumes, 7 s. 6 d. SHAKSPEARE. 2 s. 6 d. COWPER. Three Volumes. 7 s. 6 d. SURREY, MINOR CONTEMPORANEOUS POETS, AND BUCKHURST. 2 s. 6 d. SONGS FROM THE DRAMATISTS; f
51 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter