Work · Science & Human Sciences
The New Scientific Spirit
Non-Euclidean geometry, relativity and quantum physics show that science advances by revising its own foundations; a closing chapter calls for a “non-Cartesian epistemology” without simple ideas as a starting point.
Introduction
Bachelard published The New Scientific Spirit in 1934, while still teaching at Dijon. Taking non-Euclidean geometry, non-Newtonian mechanics, relativity and the new quantum physics as his examples, he argues that modern science has not built on its earlier principles but revised them, and that a philosophy of science must follow this movement instead of laying down fixed foundations. The new scientific mind is “dialectical”: it moves between rational construction and experiment, and treats the simple as merely the simplified. The book introduces the term “phenomenotechnique” and closes with a chapter on a “non-Cartesian epistemology”. It is often read as the founding text of Bachelard’s historical epistemology.
Connections
Builds on
- On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies1905 · Albert Einstein
Criticizes
- Discourse on the Method1637 · René Descartes
Taken up in
- The Formation of the Scientific Mind1938 · Gaston Bachelard
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