Experiment & Observation: The Air Pump & The Microscope

Question 1

Name 3 objects/animals illustrated and analyzed by Robert Hooke in his Micrographia.

Answer 1

The flea, fly, and cork

Question 2

According to Shapin and Schaffer, what three technologies shaped the ‘experimental life’ of the late 17th century?

Answer 2

1. a new material technology: instruments (air pump, microscope, etc)
2. a new “literary technology”: the experimental report and
   circumstantial detail = “virtual witnessing”
3. a new “social technology”: specific conventions for carrying out and talking about experiments (in spaces like the Royal Society)

Question 3

What was the difference between experiment and experience?

Answer 3

Experience (older usage): regularly occurrences in the ordinary course of nature

Experiment starts to mean a specific deliberate trial, that can (in theory) be replicated

• In English, “experiment” and “experience” start to have distinct meanings from late 17th

Question 4

Name new instruments

Answer 4

Telescope, thermometer, barometer, air-pump, microscope (5)

Question 5

What were the three technologies to create matters of fact?

Answer 5

1. a new material technology: instruments (air pump, microscope, etc)
2. a new “literary technology”: the experimental report and
   circumstantial detail = “virtual witnessing”
3. a new “social technology”: specific conventions for carrying out and talking about experiments (in spaces like the Royal Society)

Question 6

Explain matter-of-fact

Answer 6

“Matter of fact” refers to objective and verifiable information or reality.

Associated with the emergence of new technologies and practices aimed at establishing empirical, observable, and reproducible facts in scientific inquiry.

Question 7

Explain the debate between Boyle and Hobbes concerning the air-pumps?

Answer 7

• Hobbes: the air pump can not be a reliable source for natural philosophy. The pump is nothing more than a “pop gun”, a toy; it produces artificial effects, but not natural science
• Boyle: despite the difficulties in using it, the air pump’s effects are verified by reliable witnesses and can be used as evidence of the “spring of the air” (air pressure)
• Hobbes attacks Royal Society for being a closed space (he is not admitted).

Question 8

What were the themes in Hooke’s Micrographia?

Answer 8

• “inlargement of the dominion of the senses” to their former powers
• Mechanist (corpuscular) ontology
• Empiricist epistemology
• Compiling data for a future Baconian natural history
• The Wonder of the newly discovered world
• Natural Theological overtones? (Does the study of nature lend support to religious belief, or not?)