Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-grxwn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T01:07:34.968Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Newton's Opticks as Classic: On Teaching the Texture of Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Dennis L. Sepper
Dennis L. Sepper*
Affiliation:
University of Dallas
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The opening paragraphs of Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions noted that different kinds of scientific writings have peculiar roles (Kuhn 1962). A textbook written for pedagogical purposes in a well-established scientific field gives a view of the field quite different from the actual history—an actual history that for the most part has to be reconstructed from the writings that originated the field. The originating writings correspond to the period of founding, to revolutionary science, whereas conventionalized textbooks belong to normal science.

This is almost too well known to be rehearsed again. Certain works found a science, like Newton's Opticks or Watson and Crick's original papers on the double-helical structure of DNA; others come in their wake, not just textbooks used for beginners but all the future texts that contribute to the paradigm project embodied in the originals.

Type
Part VIII. Science and Philosophy in the Classic Texts
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1994 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1994 , 1994 , pp. 258 - 265
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boyle, R. (1664), Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours. London: H. Herringman.Google Scholar
Cohen, I.B. (1956), Franklin and Newton: An inquiry into speculative Newtonian experimental science and Franklin's work in electricity as an example there of: Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society 43, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.Google Scholar
Corcos, A.F. and Monaghan, F.V. (1993), Gregor Mendel's “Experiments on Plant Hybrids.” New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Franklin, R.E. and Gosling, R.G. (1953), “Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate,” Nature 171 (April 25): 740–741.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gadamer, H.-G. (1989), Truth and Method, 2d ed. New York: Crossroad.Google Scholar
Hall, A.R. (1993), All Was Light: An Introduction to Newton's Opticks. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, T.S. (1962), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sepper, D.L. (1994), Newton's Optical Writings: A Guided Study. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Shapiro, A.E. (1993), Fits, Passions, and Paroxysms: Physics, Method, and Chemistry and Newton's Theories of Colored Bodies and Fits of Easy Reflection. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Watson, J.D. (1968), The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA. New York: Atheneum.Google Scholar
Watson, J.D. and Crick, F.H.C. (1953a), “A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid,” Nature 171 (April 25): 737–738.10.1038/171737a0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, J.D. and Crick, F.H.C. (1953b), “Genetical Implications of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic Acid,” Nature 171 (May 30): 964–967.10.1038/171964b0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkins, M.H.F., Stokes, A.R. and Wilson, H.R. (1953), “Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids,” Nature 171 (April 25): 738–740.10.1038/171738a0CrossRefGoogle Scholar