Pre-Kantian Rationalism: Reason and Experiment in Early Modern Natural Philosophy

In this seminar we consider the use of observation and experiment together with reason in early-modern natural philosophy. Possible topics include Bacon's method and actual experimental practice, the conflict between Descartes and Pascal over the vacuum, Galileo's appeal to experience in his theory of motion and his defense of Copernicanism, the conflict between Galileo and Descartes over gravitation and free fall, Boyle, Hobbes and Royal Society experimentation, Cavendish against Hooke and microscopes, the empirical debate in the Royal Society about witches and ghosts, Newton's arguments for universal gravitation, etc.