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SUMMARY:Principia and the air-pump: the social and political roots of Newt
 on's science - Robert Iliffe (University of Oxford)
DTSTART:20181025T143000Z
DTEND:20181025T160000Z
UID:TALK110320@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Agnes Bolinska
DESCRIPTION:Historical accounts both of the genesis of Newton's scientific
  method and of the varied reception his published work enjoyed in the late
  17th century have appealed to his touchy personality and to the relative 
 incompetence of his critics. In offering asymmetric explanations and indul
 ging in simplistic psychologizing\, this approach has serious limitations.
  By contrast\, in this talk I examine what Newton's private and public wri
 tings say about what he took to be the ideal structure of a truth-seeking 
 scientific community. Unlike more democratic proposals for practising natu
 ral philosophy\, whose core principles were drawn from natural history\, N
 ewton's ideal scientific polity was strongly hierarchical\, open only to e
 xpert subjects who had undergone rigorous training. I link Newton's commen
 ts on the structure of scientific institutions to his prescriptions for ma
 intaining a healthy and productive mind and body\, and also to his religio
 us and political views. I conclude by considering the explanatory status o
 f such approaches.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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