Philosophy 167: Class 9 - Part 11 - The Science of Descartes' Principia: a New Way of Turning Data Into Evidence, and Its Shortcomings.
Smith, George E. (George Edwin), 1938-
2014-10-28
Description
Synopsis: Descartes approached science empirically, but did not use it to predict new things which could be tested experimentally.
Opening line: "Drake said that Descartes's whole Principia is unscientific and we read it and it seems so far removed from our science that you can legitimately ask, 'Why do we even take this to be science at all.?'. "