Scientific Methodology in Nineteenth Century Britain: Volume I: Building Philosophical Systems

by Charles H. Pence (Editor)

Overview

This collection of primary sources examines scientific methodology in Britain during the long nineteenth century. Perhaps the most striking feature of nineteenth-century works on scientific method is the extent to which they were taken up by authors interested in writing large-scale, systemic works introducing, at one stroke, a philosophy of science, a view of what "good scientific practice" would look like, and investigations of logic, epistemology, and metaphysics. This volume presents the views laid out in the four largest and most important such treatises: Sir John F. W. Herschel’s Preliminary Discourse on Natural Philosophy, William Whewell’s History of the Inductive Sciences and Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, and John Stuart Mill’s A System of Logic, as well as other contributors to the philosophy of science in this period. This title will be of great interest to students of the history of philosophy and the history of science.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032204901
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/25/2025
Series:	Nineteenth-Century Science, Technology and Medicine: Sources and Documents
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dr. Charles H. Pence is Assistant Professor and Director of the Center for the Philosophy of Science and Society (CEFISES) at the Université catholique de Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.

Table of Contents

Volume 1: Building Philosophical Systems

 

General Introduction

Volume 1 Introduction

 

Part 1: Setting the Stage

1. Isaac Newton, “Scholium”, from Principia Mathematica, tr. Andrew Motte (1803 [1726, 1729 tr.]), pp. 1:6–1:14

2.Isaac Newton, “Queries”, from Opticks (1730)

3. Émilie Du Châtelet, “Of Hypothesis”, from Foundations of Physics, tr. Isabelle Bour and Judith P. Zinsser (1740, tr. 2009), pp. 147–155

4. Immanuel Kant, “Preface” from Prolegomena and Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science, tr. Ernest Belfort Bax (1883 [1786]), pp. 137–149

5. Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (1786), pp. 1:33–1:52

6. Mary Shepherd, Essay Upon the Relation of Cause and Effect (1824), pp. 40–63

 

Part 2: Sir John F. W. Herschel’s Preliminary Discourse

7. John F. W. Herschel, Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, 2^nd ed. (1851), Chapter I, pp. 13–17; Chapter V, pp. 135–138; Chapter VI, pp. 144–175; Chapter VII, pp. 190–200

8. William Whewell, “[Review of] A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy”, The Quarterly Review, Vol. 45, No. 90 (1831), pp. 374–391, 398–402

 

Part 3: William Whewell’s History and Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences

9. William Whewell, “Of the Establishment of the Principles of Dynamics”, and “Of Certain Characteristics of Scientific Induction”, from The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded Upon Their History, 2 vols., 2^nd ed. (1847), pp. 1:215–1:227, 2:46–2:74

 

Part 4: John Stuart Mill’s System of Logic

10. John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic (1843), “Of Observation and Experiment” and “Of the Four Methods of Experimental Enquiry”, pp. 1:437–1:479 and from “Of Demonstration, and Necessary Truths” and “The Same Subject Continued”, pp. 1:296–300, 1:311–323, 1:328–330

 

Part 5: Positivism

11. Auguste Comte, The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte, tr. Harriet Martineau (1853 [1830]), pp. 25–38

12. Ernst Mach, “Introductory Remarks: Antimetaphysical”, from The Analysis of Sensations, 1^st ed., tr. C. M. Williams (1897), pp. 1–26

13. Karl Pearson, The Grammar of Science, 1^st ed., (1892), pp. 92–104, 116–121

 

Bibliography

Index