RATIONALISM AND THE APRIOR AS FAILURES IN CONTRAST TO NATURAL SCIENCE – ALWAYS A

RATIONALISM AND THE APRIOR AS FAILURES IN CONTRAST TO NATURAL SCIENCE – ALWAYS AND FOREVER WILL BE

–“Newton’s work stands as the great exemplar of the accomplishments of natural science for the eighteenth century, the most salient contrast between Newton’s work and that of the great rationalist systems lies in their methods.”

“Whereas the great rationalist philosophers of the seventeenth century conceive of scientific knowledge of nature as consisting in a system in which statements expressing the observable phenomena of nature are deduced from first principles, known a priori, Newton’s method begins with the observed phenomena of nature and reduces its multiplicity to unity by induction, that is, by finding mathematical laws or principles from which the observed phenomena can be derived or explained.”

**”The contrast between the great success of Newton’s “bottom-up” procedure and the seemingly endless and fruitless conflicts among philosophers regarding the meaning and validity of first principles of reason naturally favors the rise of the Newtonian (or Baconian) method of acquiring knowledge of nature in the eighteenth century.”**–

From SEP : By Mark Alznauer, Margaret Atherton, Kyla Ebels-Duggan, Alan Nelson, Julius Sensat and Rachel Zuckert provided helpful comments on an earlier draft, which lead to substantial revisions.