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J. A. Bennett

Bio: J. A. Bennett is an academic researcher from University of Cambridge. The author has contributed to research in topics: Copernican principle & Consistency (negotiation). The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 5 publications receiving 69 citations.

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, Wilkins states that there is scarce any Hypothesis which seems to have in it any clearenesse or consistency, but hath here its strenuous assertours, such as the Atomicall and Magneticall in Philosophy, the Copernican in Astronomy &c.
Abstract: … there is not to be wished a more generall liberty in point of judgment or debate, then what is here allowed. So that there is scarce any Hypothesis, which hath been formerly or lately entertained by Judicious men, and seems to have in it any clearenesse or consistency, but hath here its strenuous Assertours, as the Atomicall and Magneticall in Philosophy, the Copernican in Astronomy &c. (John Wilkins on Oxford University, 1654.)

53 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The science de l'astronomie s'est particulierement developpee, ainsi que les instruments and les programs de recherche destines a mesurer the position des etoiles ou des meridiens as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Depuis le XVIII e siecle, la science de l'astronomie s'est particulierement developpee. Le nombre des observatoires en Europe s'est accru, ainsi que les instruments et les programmes de recherche destines a mesurer la position des etoiles ou des meridiens

12 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The chronometre de Harrison (J), charpentier inconnu qui decouvrit la longitude au niveau de la mer and qui inventa le chronometres, le mettant ainsi en rivalite avec la communite scientifique as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Historiographie de Harrison (J.), charpentier inconnu qui decouvrit la longitude au niveau de la mer et qui inventa le chronometre, le mettant ainsi en rivalite avec la communite scientifique

2 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Herschel's analysis concluded with a set of tables, "set down for the convenience of those who may be inclined to make trial of this construction" as mentioned in this paper, which is the basis for a planar achromatic doublet.
Abstract: It has not unfrequently of late been made a subject of reproach to mathematicians who have occupied themselves with the theory of the refracting telescope, that the practical benefit derived from their speculations has been by no means commensurate to the expenditure of analytical skill and labour they have called for, and that for all the abstruse researches of Clairaut, Euler, D'Alembert, and other celebrated geometers, nothing hitherto has resulted beyond a mass of complicated formulae, which, though confessedly exact in theory, have never yet been made the basis of construction of a single good instrument, and remain therefore totally inapplicable, or at least unapplied, in practice.' Thus John Herschel introduced his mathematical account of \"the aberrations of compound lenses and object glasses\" in 1821. His aim was a genuinely useful result, since previous attempts to derive conditions for an aplanatic achromatic doublet had yielded formulae too complex to be handled by a practical optician and had used data irrelevant to his methods and materials. Herschel's analysis concluded with a set of tables, \"set down for the convenience of those who may be inclined to make trial of this construction't.s of radii of curvature and focal lengths of the lenses of a compound object glass-an achromatic doublet that would be free from spherical aberration, both for celestial objects and for terrestrial objects situated on the axis of the telescope. The values could easily be adjusted for any required focal length. During the 1820s Charles Tulley was one of the leading English opticians. He was in business with his sons William and Thomas and was engaged, for example, by the Royal Astronomical Society, to conduct experiments on large object glasses.\" Sir James South commissioned him to make an objective of 31in. aperture and 45 in. focal length according to Herschel's prescription, and in 1822 South published some observations of close double stars made with Tulley's telescope, in order to show that \"what, therefore, Mr Herschel's theory told him would be good, Mr Tulley's practice has declared SO\".4 This telescope has been described in subsequent literature,\" but until now there has been no evidence that the instrument itself had survived. William Pearson, in his Introduction to practical astronomy (London, 1829), says that Tulley made a 3-!in. aperture, 45 in. focal length object glass according to Herschel's design, which \"turned out so good, that it was competent to separate double stars of the first class, and to exhibit minute objects very distinctly\". Pearson does not mention South, but says that \"The telescope is now in the possession of a Mr Moore of Lincoln\".\" However in the following year, 1830, there appeared John Herschel's article on \"Light\" in the Encyclopaedia metropolitana. Here he deals once again with his account of an aplanatic object glass, and says that the telescope belonging to Moore is the one made for South:

1 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 1983-Isis
TL;DR: The purpose of this essay is to indicate how authors of the period, particularly the Jesuit scholar Francisco Suarez and the Calvinist professor at Leyden, Frank Burgersdijk, addressed the question of the definition and measurement of time.
Abstract: ion: Some aspects of its historical and philosophical significance. REINHARD BRANDT: Observations on the first draft of the Essay concerning human understanding. JOHN DUNN: Individuality and clientage in the formation of Locke's social imagination. LORENZ KROGER: The concept of experience in John Locke. EDMUND LEITES: Locke's liberal theory of parenthood. WOLFGANG VON LEYDEN: Locke's strange doctrine of punishment. JOHN R. MILTON: John Locke and the nominalist tradition. G.A.J. ROGERS: Locke, law, and the laws of nature. H.A.S. SCHANKULA: Locke, Descartes, and the science of nature. UDO THIEL: Locke's concept of person. ROGER S. WOOLHOUSE: Locke, Leibniz, and the reality of ideas. JOHN W. YOLTON: Locke and Malebranche: Two concepts of ideas. 1304 BRAUEN, FRED. Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680). J. Hist. Ideas, 1982, 43:129-134. 1305 BRECHT, MARTIN. Kritik und Reform der Wissenschaften bei Johann Valentin Andreae. Pp. 129-151 in Friedrich Seck (ed.) Wissenschaftsgeschichte um Wilhelm Schickard. Tubingen: Mohr, 1981. 1306 CANZIANI,GUIDO. Filosofia e scienza nella morale di Descartes. (Pubblicazioni del Centro di Studi del Pensiero Filosofico del Cinquecento e del Seicento in Relazione ai Problemi della Scienza, Serie 1, studi 16.) 392 pp., notes, index. Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1980. 1307 CLARKE, DESMOND M. Descartes' philosophy of science. xii + 249 pp., bibl., index. Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press, 1982. 1308 CLAVELIN, MAURICE. Histoire des sciences et th6orie du raisonnement: A propos d'un livre r6cent sur Galilee et l'art du raisonnement. Rev. Hist. Sci., 1982, 35: 331-340. Expands on thoughts expressed by Maurice A. Finnochiaro in Galileo and the art of reasoning: Rhetorical foundations of logic and scientific method (1980). 1309 COHEN, I. BERNARD. Newton's copy of Leibniz's Theodicee: With some remarks on the turned-down pages of books in Newton's library. Isis, 1982, 73: 410-414. 1310 CONWAY, ANNE. The principles of the most ancient and modern philosophy. Ed. with an introd. by Peter Loptson. (International archives of the history of ideas, 101.) 252 pp., index. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1982. Text in Latin and English. 1311 CRESSY, DAVID. Francis Bacon and the advancement of schooling. Hist. Eur. Ideas, 1981, 2: 65-74. 1312 DANIEL, STEPHEN H. Seventeenthcentury scholastic treatments of time. J. Hist. Ideas, 1981, 42: 587-606. 81 37.1. Seventeenth Century: General \"The purpose of this essay is to indicate how authors of the period, particularly the Jesuit scholar Francisco Suarez and the Calvinist professor at Leyden, Frank Burgersdijk, addressed the question of the definition and measurement of time ... [They] serve as examples of the growing tension betweenthe metaphysical treatment of time and a more physical, cosmological treatment of time.\" 1313 DEREGIBUS, ARTURO. Bruno e Spinoza: La realta dell'infinito e il problema della sua unita. 1: I1 concetto dell'infinito nel pensiero filosofico di Bruno. 2: La dottrina di Spinoza sull'infinito. 2 vols., 403 pp., notes, index. Turin: Giappichelli, 1981. 1314 DESCARTES, RENE. Principles of philosophy. Trans., with explanatory notes, by Valentine Rodger Miller and Reese P. Miller. (Collection des travaux de l'Academie Internationale d'Historie des Sciences, 30.) xxviii + 325 pp., illus., index. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1983. 1315 DONI GARFAGNINI, MANUELA (ed.) Lettere e carte Magliabechi: Regesto. Vol. primo. (Fonti per la storia d'Italia, sussidi, 137.) 2 vols.; xxiv + 1065 pp. Rome: Istituto Storio Italiano per l'Eta Moderna e Contemporanea, 1981. 1316 DOUILLARD, PAUL R. Metaphysics and epistemology in Descartes' Meditations. Diss. Abstr. Int., 1982, 42: 4031-A. Dissertation at Boston College, 1981. Univ. Microfilms order no. 82-03962. 224 pp. 1317 IQUIPE DESCARTES. Bulletin Cartbsien, XI: Bibliographie internationale critique des etudes cartesiennes pour l'annbe 1980. Arch. Phil. (Paris), 1982, 45(4): 1-65. 1318 FEINGOLD, MORDECHAI. Science, universities, and society in England, 15801640. 1981. PhD thesis, Oxford Univ. (UK). Supervisor: C. Webster. 1319 FORCE, JAMES E. Secularisation, the language of God, and the Royal Society at the turn of the 17th century. Hist. Eur. Ideas, 1981, 2: 221-235. 1320 FREUDENTHAL, GIDEON. Atom und Individuum im Zeitalter Newtons: Zur Genese der mechanistischen Naturund Sozialphilosophie. 331 pp., bibl. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1982. 1321 GABEL, GERNOT U. Leibniz: Eine Bibliographie europaischer und nordamerikanischer Hochschulschriften, 18751975. (Bibliographien zur Philosophie, 7.) 46 pp., index. Cologne: Gemini, 1983. 1322 GARBER, DANIEL; COHEN, LESLEY. A point of order: Analysis, synthesis and Descartes's Principes. Arch. Gesch. Phil., 1982, 64: 136-147. 1323 HARRINGTON, THOMAS MORE. Pascal philosophe: Une etude unitaire de la pensee de Pascal. 189 pp., bibl. Paris: Societe d'Edition d'Enseignement Superieur, 1982. 1324 HENRY, JOHN. Atomism and eschatology: Catholicism and natural philosophy in the Interregnum. Brit. J. Hist. Sci., 1982,15: 211-239. A group of heterodox English Catholics developed one of the earliest systems of mechanical philosophy (epitomized in Sir Kenelm Digby's Two treatises (1644)) in order to promote their own counter-reforming theology. 1325 HINMAN, LAWRENCE M. Descartes' children: The skeptical legacy of Cartesianism. New Scholast., 1982, 56: 355-370. 1326 HIRSCHFIELD, JOHN M. The Acade mie Royale des Sciences, 1666-1683. 222 pp., bibl. New York: Arno, 1981. Reprint of the author's PhD thesis, Chicago, 1957. 1327 HOBART, MICHAEL E. Science and religion in the thought of Nicolas Malebranche. x + 195 pp., bibl., index. Chapel Hill: Univ. North Carolina Press, 1982. 1328 HOOKER, MICHAEL (ed.) Leibniz: Critical and interpretive essays. 373 pp., bibl., index. Minneapolis: Univ. Minnesota Press, 1982. Contains a 20-page bibliography of work on Leibniz. 1329 HUNTER, MICHAEL. Early problems in professionalizing scientific research: Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712) and the Royal Society, with an unpublished letter to Henry Oldenburg. Notes Rec. Roy. Soc. Lond., 1982, 36: 189-209. 1330 HUNTER, MICHAEL. Reconstructing Restoration science: Problems and pitfalls in institutional history. Soc. Stud. Sci., 1982, 12: 451-466. A reply to L. and G. Mulligan, \"Reconstructing Restoration science,\" Soc. Stud. Sci., 1981, 1: 327-64. 1331 INTERNATIONAL LEIBNIZ CONGRESS. 3rd, 1977. Theoria cum praxi: Zum Verhaltnis von Theorie und Praxis im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert. Akten des III. Internationalen Leibnizkongresses, Hannover, 12. bis 17. November 1977. Band IV: Naturwissenschaft, Technik, Medizin, Mathematik. (Studia Leibnitiana Supplementa, 23.) 191 pp., illus., bibls. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1982. 82 37.1. Seventeenth Century: General

103 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: In this sense, all the major philosophers of the seventeenth century, with the possible exception of Malebranche, were determinists as mentioned in this paper, and each of them was a compatibilist with respect to freedom and determination: each held that being free is logically compatible with being causally determined.
Abstract: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Determinism, broadly speaking, is the doctrine that whatever happens in the world is brought about by causes other than itself. In this sense, all the major philosophers of the seventeenth century – with the possible exception of Male-branche – were determinists. But these same philosophers also believed in human freedom. It follows that each of them (again, perhaps excepting Malebranche) was a compatibilist with respect to freedom and determination: each held that being free is logically compatible with being causally determined. Yet their specific teachings on this subject are very different from one another. For they had very different views on the nature and scope of human freedom, and different conceptions of causation. This chapter concentrates on the teachings of these major figures: Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Malebranche, Locke, and Leibniz. There were, of course, other seventeenth-century thinkers who concerned themselves with freedom and determinism – this was one of the most frequently debated issues of the age. And some of these others, in opposition to the philosophers, were incompatibilists. They held that an action logically cannot both be causally determined and be free, in any proper sense of ‘free’. An incompatibilist has two options: adhere to determination and deny that anything or anyone is free (this is hard determinism) or admit free actions and claim that these are undetermined, and thereby reject the doctrine of determinism (this is libertarianism). We know of no seventeenth-century thinker who took the hard determinist position, but quite a few were libertarians.

68 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The magnet served three interests of Restoration mechanical philosophers: it provided a model of cosmic forces, it suggested a solution to the problem of longitude determination, and evidence of its corpuscular mechanism would silence critics as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Summary The magnet served three interests of Restoration mechanical philosophers: it provided a model of cosmic forces, it suggested a solution to the problem of longitude determination, and evidence of its corpuscular mechanism would silence critics. An implicit condition of William Gilbert's ‘magnetic philosophy’ was the existence of a unique, immaterial magnetic virtue. Restoration mechanical philosophers, while claiming descent from their compatriot, worked successfully to disprove this, following an experimental regime of Henry Power. Magnetic philosophy lost its coherence and became subsumed in the study of effluvia. This contradiction of a distinct, yet mechanical magnetic philosophy came to a head in 1684 in an argument between Robert Hooke and Martin Lister. An effluvial explanation of magnetism introduced great complexity to the North-seeking behaviour of compass needles, and undermined the already troubled longitude programme. Thus magnetic philosophy no longer furthered the interests which had...

66 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2000

66 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A close examination of one key group of natural philosophers working in England during the 1670s shows that their program necessarily incorporated souls and spirits, attractions and congruities, within both their ontology and their epistemology as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Recent historiography of the Scientific Revolution has challenged the assumption that the achievements of seventeenth-century natural philosophy can easily be described as the ‘mechanization of the world-picture.’ That assumption licensed a story which took mechanization as self-evidently progressive and so in no need of further historical analysis. The clock-work world was triumphant and inevitably so. However, a close examination of one key group of natural philosophers working in England during the 1670s shows that their program necessarily incorporated souls and spirits, attractions and congruities, within both their ontology and their epistemology. Any natural philosophical strategy which excluded spirits and sympathies from its world was condemned as tending to subversion and irreligion. This examination shows that the term ‘mechanical philosophy’ was a category given its meanings within local contexts and carries no universal sense separate from that accomplished by these natural philosophers. It also shows how the experimental praxis was compelled to treat souls and spirits, to produce them through experimental labor, and then to extend these experimentally developed entities throughout the cosmos, both social and natural. The development of mechanical philosophy cannot be used to explain the cognitive and social structure of this program, nor its success: instead, the historical setting of experimental work shows how a philosophy of matter and spirit was deliberately constructed by the end of the seventeenth century.

65 citations