TY - GEN T1 - The invisible world : early modern philosophy and the invention of the microscope T2 - Studies in intellectual history and the history of philosophy. A1 - Wilson, Catherine, 1951- LA - English PP - Princeton, N.J. PB - Princeton University Press YR - 1995 UL - https://ebooks.jgu.edu.in/Record/jstor_eba_on1226522056 AB - 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. AB - 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. OP - 280 CN - B67 .W55 1995eb SN - 9780691221823 SN - 0691221820 SN - 0691034184 SN - 9780691034188 SN - 0691017093 SN - 9780691017099 KW - Philosophy and science : Europe : History : 17th century. KW - Philosophy, Modern : 17th century. KW - Microscopes : Europe : History : 17th century. KW - Europe : Intellectual life : 17th century. KW - Philosophy and science. KW - Microscopes. KW - Philosophy, Modern. KW - Philosophy : history KW - Microscopy : history KW - Philosophie et sciences. KW - Philosophie : 17e siècle. KW - Europe : Vie intellectuelle : 17e siècle. KW - Philosophie et sciences : Europe : Histoire : 17e siècle. KW - Microscopes : Europe : Histoire : 17e siècle. KW - SCIENCE : History. KW - Intellectual life KW - Microscopes KW - Philosophy and science KW - Philosophy, Modern KW - Europe KW - Philosophie KW - Naturwissenschaften KW - Filosofie. KW - Microscopie. KW - Science : Europe : History : 17th century. KW - Science : Philosophy. KW - Microscopy : Europe : 17th century. KW - Philosophie et sciences : Europe : 17e siècle. KW - Microscopes : Europe : 17e siècle. KW - Philosophie des sciences. KW - 1600-1699 KW - History ER -