Article ID: CBB949279132

Phases of physics in J. D. Forbes’ Dissertation Sixth for the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1856) (2021)

unapi

This paper takes James David Forbes’ Encyclopaedia Britannica entry, Dissertation Sixth, as a lens to examine physics as a cognitive, practical, and social enterprise. Forbes wrote this survey of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century mathematical and physical sciences between 1852 and 1856, when British “physics” was at a pivotal point in its history, situated between a field identified by its mathematical methods – originating in France – and a discipline identified by its university laboratory institutions. Contemporary encyclopedias provided a nexus for publishers, the book trade, readers, and men of science in the formation of physics as a field. Forbes was both a witness, whose account of the progress of physics or natural philosophy can be explored at face value, and an agent, who exploited the opportunity offered by the Encyclopaedia Britannica in the mid nineteenth century to enroll the broadly educated public and scientific collective, illuminating the connection between the definition of physics and its forms of social practice. Forbes used the terms “physics” and “natural philosophy” interchangeably. He portrayed the field as progressed by the natural genius of great men who curated it within an associational culture that engendered true intellectual spirit. Although this societal mechanism was becoming ineffective, Forbes did not see university institutions as the way forward. Instead, running counter to his friend William Whewell, he advocated inclusion of the mechanical arts (engineering), and a strictly limited role for mathematics. He revealed tensions when the widely accepted discovery-based historiography conflicted with intellectual and moral worth, reflecting a nineteenth-century concern with spirit that cuts across twentieth-century questions about discipline and field.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB949279132/

Similar Citations

Book Pietro Daniel Omodeo; Volkhard Wels; (2019)
Natural Knowledge and Aristotelianism at Early Modern Protestant Universities (/isis/citation/CBB325233371/)

Article Darrigol, Olivier; Shatashvili, Samson; (2010)
In Honor of James Maccullagh (1809--1847) (/isis/citation/CBB001033629/)

Book Secord, James A.; (2014)
Visions of Science: Books And Readers at the Dawn of the Victorian Age (/isis/citation/CBB001551308/)

Article Thomas B. Greenslade; (2020)
Professors of Natural Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century (/isis/citation/CBB377443938/)

Book Blum, Paul Richard; (2012)
Studies on Early Modern Aristotelianism (/isis/citation/CBB001201594/)

Article Henderson, Andrea; (2014)
The Physics and Poetry of Analogy (/isis/citation/CBB001550338/)

Article Sybil Gertrude De Clark; (2017)
Qualitative vs Quantitative Conceptions of Homogeneity in Nineteenth Century Dimensional Analysis (/isis/citation/CBB667414764/)

Book Schuster, John; (2013)
Descartes-Agonistes: Physico-Mathematics, Method and Corpuscular-Mechanism 1618--33 (/isis/citation/CBB001500367/)

Chapter Assis, André K. T.; (2010)
Newton and Inverse Problems (/isis/citation/CBB001250579/)

Article Schemmel, Matthias; (2014)
Medieval Representations of Change and Their Early Modern Application (/isis/citation/CBB001201190/)

Book Reisch, Gregor; Cunningham, Andrew; Kusukawa, Sachiko; (2010)
Natural Philosophy Epitomised: A Translation of Books 8--11 of Gregor Reisch's Philosophical Pearl (1503) (/isis/citation/CBB001024715/)

Article Wilson, Curtis; Harper, William; (2014)
The Coming-To-Be of Hansen’s Method (/isis/citation/CBB001202203/)

Article Jip van Besouw; Steffen Ducheyne; (2021)
Characterisations in Britain of Isaac Newton’s Approach to Physical Inquiry in the Principia between 1687 and 1713 (/isis/citation/CBB596401598/)

Book Poole, William; (2010)
John Aubrey and the Advancement of Learning (/isis/citation/CBB001200526/)

Article Bennett, J.; (2010)
MacCullagh's Ireland: The Institutional and Cultural Space for Geometry and Physics (/isis/citation/CBB001033631/)

Book Arianrhod, Robyn; (2005)
Einstein's Heroes: Imagining the World through the Language of Mathematics (/isis/citation/CBB000640788/)

Chapter Smith, George E.; (2012)
How Newton's Principia Changed Physics (/isis/citation/CBB001500352/)

Authors & Contributors
Jip van Besouw
Sybil Gertrude de Clark
Schuster, John
Harper, William
Wilson, Curtis
Wigelsworth, Jeffrey Robert
Concepts
Physics
Natural philosophy
Mathematics and its relationship to science
Mathematics
Universities and colleges
Astronomy
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
17th century
Early modern
Renaissance
20th century, early
Places
Great Britain
Ireland
London (England)
Freiberg (Germany)
United States
France
Institutions
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment