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s/t: A Historical & Critical Essay
Many books well received when originally published ultimately fail the test of time & seem outdated to future generations. Occasionally, a book seen as a solid effort when written is found later to be the definitive work on the subject. The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science by Edwin Arthur Burtt is such.
Burtt investigates the origins... More

s/t: A Historical & Critical Essay
Many books well received when originally published ultimately fail the test of time & seem outdated to future generations. Occasionally, a book seen as a solid effort when written is found later to be the definitive work on the subject. The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science by Edwin Arthur Burtt is such.
Burtt investigates the origins of the modern scientific worldview, a view that's only a few centuries old. Concepts used to describe the world--mass, velocity, energy, time etc--form the substratum of so many modern ideas that their very ubiquity has made it hard to imagine that any other view ever existed. With these ideas woven into all thought how does one separate these ideas from all others in order to better understand them? He attacks this problem by tracing the evolution of modern scientific concepts from their origins in Copernicus & Kepler to their highest development in Newton.
It may be surprising that Copernicus & Kepler weren't motivated by empirical evidence. The empirical evidence was stacked against their view that the sun was at the center of the planetary system. Anyone could see how solid the earth felt & how steady it was. If it were moving then its motion could be felt. The idea that something as large & solid as the earth could be flung thru space was ridiculous. Nor were they motivated by a desire for greater accuracy since the Ptolemaic system they'd soon replace was every bit as accurate as their heliocentric system with regards to predicting eclipses & planetary positions.
Their motivation was essentially a desire for a mathematically elegant way to express planetary motion, a simpler way that could reduce dozens of epicycles to a comparatively small number of circles. To them, mathematics was not the key to nature, mathematics was nature. The simpler mathematical expressions they found were true because nature was parsimonious & would not accomplish by complicated means what could be accomplished more simply with circular orbits. A mathematical nature would reduce the phenomena much as mathematicians reduce complex equations to a smaller number of simple equations.
Kepler's shock upon discovering the planets didn't orbit in circles, but in ellipses was genuine. The smooth constant motion of the planets was thought by him to reflect the constancy of god. Only when he discovered that equal areas were swept out by the planets in equal times was his faith restored in a mathematical universe held together by god.
In Galileo are the beginnings of dualism. On one hand Galileo the empiricist laughs at colleagues who refuse to look thru a telescope & see Jupiter's moons. On the other hand we see the doctrine of primary & 2ndary qualities in which we don't perceive the world as it is, but rather as it affects the senses. This doctrine calls into question the validity of the senses which, presumably, are the source for knowledge of the real world. With sense data either limited or distorted & hence, of questionable reliability, mathematical demonstration becomes the way past the senses to the ultimate nature of things. Descartes further mechanizes the senses & pushes consciousness farther away from reality thereby producing a full blown dualism in which humans are spirits trapped in machines.
Arriving at Newton, by way of Gilbert & Boyle, we have a new universe where the number of causes is reduced from the Aristotelian four, to two. The formal cause has become mathematics which matter must obey in exacting detail. The efficient & substantial causes merge into a mechanical force compelling a passive matter to follow precise trajectories. Gone completely is the final cause as matter becomes the sole occupant of a universe whose future is completely determined by its past. The biological concept of goal directed action has no place in the billiard ball universe of unconscious motion. The irony is that a great intellectual achievement, the formulation of the laws of motion, becomes a means to degrade our intellectual status by reducing mind to matter in motion.
The above oversimplifies Burtt's work & cannot convey the richness of his research & clarity of his presentation. He uses extensive quotes to show the reasoning used by mathematicians & physicists at the dawn of the Enlightenment, demonstrating the shift in thinking that occurs over two centuries.
The only drawback to Burtt's work is that it was written over 90 years ago & the effects of these ideas on post-Newtonian thought aren't covered. The author, in a revised 1932 edition, expressed regret that he couldn't incorporate these later developments into his revisions.
All interested in the development of the modern philosophy of science will enjoy this intellectual journey thru the minds of those who made possible today's world.

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