Dana Jalobeanu

Francis Bacon’s main contribution to the emergence of experimental philosophy was a new way of thinking about the serial character of experimental practices. His natural and experimental histories document his constant attempts to order experimental inquiries. They consist of large collections of lists and series of items, most of which are called “experiments.” For Bacon, “experiment” is a generic term; it is used for tests and trials, recipes, ideas of experimental investigations, theoretical observations and methodological suggestions. Experiments never stand alone in a natural history; they come in series of numbered items, sometimes grouped under “heads” and “topics of inquiry.” In the Latin natural histories..

In this paper we argue that the primary issue in Descartes’ Principles of Philosophy, Part II, articles 1-40, is the problem of individuating bodies. We demonstrate that Descartes departs from the traditional quest for a principle of individuation, moving to a different strategy with the more modest aim of constructing bodies adequate to the needs of his cosmology. In doing this he meets with a series of difficulties, and this is precisely the challenge that Newton took up. We show that Descartes’ questions and his strategy influenced not only Newton’s account of physical bodies, but also the structure of his mechanics.

Scholars often saw 'Sidereus nuncius' as inaugurating a novel genre of scientific writing; one that mixes elements of astronomy and natural philosophy, mixed-mathematics and travel reports, cosmography and the conventions of baroque drawing, elements of humanist pedagogy and elements of natural history. Although some of these influences were subject of extensive treatment, the natural historical elements of 'Sidereus nuncius' were, comparatively, less carefully investigated. And yet, as I will show in this paper, the natural historical outlook of 'Sidereus nuncius' played a significant role in its reception. My purpose in this paper is to investigate some of the elements of natural history present in 'Sidereus nuncius'. Firstly, I show that in writing Sidereus nuncius, Galileo often made appeal to the “specialized observations” and “expert reports” of natural historians. Secondly, I show that some of the early readers of Sidereus nuncius, such as Johannes Kepler and Francis Bacon, read Galileo’s book as a natural history. I also discuss the ways in which some of them were read and interpreted in the same vein by some of Galileo’s early readers, such as Johannes Kepler and Francis Bacon.