Experimental Science in the Century of Science

Acting philosophically as a spokesman for modern experimental science was Bacon, whose major work was The Great Revival of Learning, published in 1620, but this monumental work was completed in only two parts, namely, On the Value and Development of Science and The New Treatise on Instruments, the former of which establishes the object and significance of scientific research, and classifies the sciences; and the latter of which, in response to Aristotle's Treatise on Instruments, actually was directed against the logic of medieval scriptural philosophy, articulating a new approach to the study of nature - inductive logic. But Bacon's advocacy of empirical processing mainly refers to experiment-based induction, and thus underestimates the role of mathematics and deduction or even takes a distrustful attitude.

The New Instruments: Bacon's "New Instruments" is mainly written to advocate a new methodology - inductive method, in order to better justify the Baconian inductive method, Bacon cited a lot of experiments, and it is in the exposition of these experiments, revealing the highlights of Bacon's ideas of scientific research, can be said to be the Bacon's "side business". Bacon's "sideline" research for the whole scientific endeavor to make a great contribution. Bacon to explore the scientific method - inductive method as the main line, in the "new tools" discussed a lot of specific scientific research, including many experiments or Bacon himself did. At that particular time, Bacon's approach was very pioneering. Moreover, Bacon's final death was to do the freezing experiments and unfortunately died of cold, so it can be said that Bacon finally devoted his life to the cause of scientific research. In the book, he talked about the theory of heat, the principle of indestructibility of matter, the theory of fluctuation of sound, the discrimination of suction, the study of animals, light and color.

The ideas of Descartes, a French philosopher and scientist of the same era as Bacon, also had an important influence on the development of modern experimental science. Although he underestimated the role of experience, his contributions to mathematics and his emphasis on the significance of mathematical methods helped and inspired later experimental scientists. Descartes advocated that science begins with skepticism; he believed that it was necessary to doubt what was taken on faith and generally taken as truth, but that such doubt was not an end in itself, but rather an attempt to ensure that the basis of knowledge was absolutely reliable and free from error. Descartes advocated the deductive method in scientific research. He believed that one must start from a few self-evident kilometers and introduce other principles step by step until one constitutes a self-explanatory body of knowledge, and that each step of the reasoning must be clear and intelligible, and only then can one reach the truth. Descartes emphasized deduction to belittle induction, which is one-sided; but experimental scientists generally pay attention to the conditions of induction method, so that people are fully aware of the use of deductive argumentation for scientific research and has a positive significance.

Modern experimental science master Galileo Bacon advocated the experimental method and Descartes respected mathematical method, logical deduction method in their own scientific practice organically combined in astronomy, mechanics, physics and other disciplines, the research, the creation of a new way of combining scientific experiments and mathematical methods of research. This new method opened up an infinitely wide world for the study of nature, and it became a typical method in the study of natural science in the future, i.e., designing appropriate experiments to study natural processes, exploring regular connections, and then writing down the discovered laws in mathematical language to form formulas. Driven by capitalist production, the natural sciences in the 16th-18th centuries got rid of the constraints of religious theology, developed rapidly and made great achievements. In particular, the three laws of mechanics and the law of gravity as the core of the complete mechanics theory system, the laws of motion of objects on the earth and the laws of celestial motion are summarized in a unified theory, realizing the first theoretical synthesis of the physical sciences centered on mechanics, thus ruling out the creation of God, and giving a fatal blow to the religious theological view of nature. However, in line with the development of natural science in this period, a metaphysical mechanical view of nature was formed.

The modern metaphysical view of nature, based on experimental scientific materials, basically overcame the defects of intuition, discursiveness, and speculation in the ancient view of nature, and tried to explain natural phenomena by comparing the multiplicative scientific knowledge, which is undoubtedly a progress. However, the modern view of nature due to the lack of dialectic, the natural world as unchanging, which is compared to the ancient view of nature that the natural world as a constantly evolving and changing point of view, then it is another step backward.

Since the second half of the 18th century, as natural science moved from the empirical realm into the theoretical realm, the contradiction between the dialectical nature of natural science itself and the metaphysical nature of the mechanical view of nature gradually intensified. A series of major achievements in natural science have opened one gap after another in the barriers of the mechanical view of nature, preparing the conditions for the emergence of the dialectical materialist view of nature. The great progress of natural science since the second half of the 18th century has shown that; natural phenomena, which used to be regarded as isolated and fragmented, have been proved to be different forms of unified material motion. They not only exhibit diversity in space, but also have a history of their occurrence, development and extinction in time. Early natural science was a spontaneous hobby and interest sport engaged in out of awe and curiosity for nature. Although after the modern scientific revolution, science was separated from the parent body of philosophy and embarked on a logical track of its own independent development on the basis of experience and by means of experimentation, the scope and scale of modern scientific research have been relatively narrow in a long historical period. Scientists tend to single-handedly, secluded and solitary thought of the main mode of activity.

With the progress of science, the number of people who are enthusiastic about science increased rapidly, scientists became a social occupation, and the scientific ****syndicate came into being in this context. A hallmark of the formation of the scientific ****society was the establishment of societies and academies, where members met frequently to discuss new problems and advance new scholarship. The earliest of these societies appeared in Naples in 1560 as the "Academy of the Mysteries of Nature," and the "Academy of the Lynx," of which Galileo was a member, was founded in Rome from 1603 to 1630. In 1651, the Medici nobles founded the "Accademia Simanto" in Florence.

The 19th century, science has made great progress, science with its convincing results, unique value and function, attracted a large number of people embarked on the road of science, scientific research presents the characteristics of professional and structured. 1826, the German chemist Lippincott created the Giesen Chemistry Laboratory, the Giesen Laboratory marked the transition of scientists' organization from the Society-type structure to the professional structure. 1874, the German chemist Li Bixi founded the Giesen Chemistry Laboratory, Giesen Laboratory marked the transition of scientists' organization from the Society-type structure to the professional structure. The emergence of the famous Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University in 1874 is not only the beginning of modern science to modern science, but also a sign of the conversion of the tradition and subject of scientific research.