The Invisible World: Early Modern Philosophy and the Invention of the Microscope

by Catherine Wilson

Overview

In the seventeenth century the microscope opened up a new world of observation, and, according to Catherine Wilson, profoundly revised the thinking of scientists and philosophers alike. The interior of nature, once closed off to both sympathetic intuition and direct perception, was now accessible with the help of optical instruments. The microscope led to a conception of science as an objective, procedure-driven mode of inquiry and renewed interest in atomism and mechanism. Focusing on the earliest forays into microscopical research, from 1620 to 1720, this book provides us with both a compelling technological history and a lively assessment of the new knowledge that helped launch philosophy into the modern era.


Wilson argues that the discovery of the microworld—and the apparent role of living animalcula in generation, contagion, and disease—presented metaphysicians with the task of reconciling the ubiquity of life with human-centered theological systems. It was also a source of problems for philosophers concerned with essences, qualities, and the limits of human knowledge, whose positions are echoed in current debates about realism and instrument-mediated knowledge. Covering the contributions of pioneering microscopists (Leeuwenhoek, Swammerdam, Malpighi, Grew, and Hooke) and the work of philosophers interested in the microworld (Bacon, Descartes, Leibniz, Malebranche, Locke, and Berkeley), she challenges historians who view the abstract sciences as the sole catalyst of the Scientific Revolution as she stresses the importance of observational and experimental science to the modern intellect.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691017099
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	12/21/1997
Series:	Studies in Intellectual History and the History of Philosophy , #2
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	290
Product dimensions:	7.75(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Catherine Wilson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alberta, and the author of Leibniz's Metaphysics (Princeton).

Table of Contents

Preface
1	Science and Protoscience	3
2	The Subtlety of Nature	39
3	Instruments and Applications	70
4	Preexistent and Emergent Form	103
5	Animalcula and the Theory of Animate Contagion	140
6	The Philosophers and the Microscope	176
7	The Microscope Superfluous and Uncertain	215
8	Truths and Appearances	251
Bibliography	257
Index	273

Editorial Reviews

Winner of the 1996 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Biological Science, Association of American Publishers

From the Publisher

Wilson's book is a delightful work of immense scholarship.

American Historical Review - Steven Shapin

This is an important work. It breaks new ground, and it forces us to reassess some of our most cherished assumptions about the scientific revolution.

Journal of the History of Biology - Joseph C. Pitt

The Invisible World is a welcome step toward a renewed appreciation of classical light microscopy.

Contemporary Sociology - Nicolas Rasmussen

Wilson shows that microscopic observations reinforced the contemporary idea of the 'living machine'—that is, a reductionist view of nature. And therein lies the ultimate paradox of our machine-driven science: the essence of our natural world remains hidden despite our increasingly sophisticated scientific technology.

Nature - Willem Hackmann

A very stimulating discussion of the interplay between scientific theory and scientific instrumentation, in the context of an instrument with which most feel familiar. . . . Fully documented and intensively argued.

New Scientist - Brian Bracegirdle

Wilson's book is a delightful work of immense scholarship.
— Steven Shapin

American Historical Review

This is an important work. It breaks new ground, and it forces us to reassess some of our most cherished assumptions about the scientific revolution.
— Joseph C. Pitt

Journal of the History of Biology

The Invisible World is a welcome step toward a renewed appreciation of classical light microscopy.
— Nicolas Rasmussen

Contemporary Sociology

Wilson shows that microscopic observations reinforced the contemporary idea of the 'living machine'—that is, a reductionist view of nature. And therein lies the ultimate paradox of our machine-driven science: the essence of our natural world remains hidden despite our increasingly sophisticated scientific technology.
— Willem Hackmann

Nature

A very stimulating discussion of the interplay between scientific theory and scientific instrumentation, in the context of an instrument with which most feel familiar. . . . Fully documented and intensively argued.
— Brian Bracegirdle

New Scientist