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Article ID: CBB000950507

“The Violence of Impediments”: Francis Bacon and the Origins of Experimentation (2008)

Merchant, Carolyn (Author)

Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 99
Pages: 731--760

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Professions and professionalization Science and culture Science and society Experiments and experimentation Metaphors; analogies 17th century Bacon, Francis, 1st Baron Verulam

Francis Bacon's use of metaphors to characterize his nascent concept of experimentation must be interpreted within the historical context of his time. His approach to experimentation is one in which nature is constrained by the violence of impediments and is made new by art and the hand of man. His language about nature should be placed in the context of the history of the contained, controlled experiment, a concept that emerges from juridical practice, from the idea of nature in bonds, and from the tradition of the secrets of nature in settings such as the courtroom, the anatomy theater, and the laboratory.

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Description On the origins and borrowings of his metaphors and language about science.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000950507/

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