Ampere's Philosophy of Science
{'Code': '08080301', 'Directorate': {'LongName': 'Direct For Biological Sciences'}, 'Division': {'LongName': 'Div Of Biological Infrastructure'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Ronald J. Overmann'}
The relationship of science with the philosophy of science has                  had a long history, going back at least to Aristotle.  For much                 of this history, the philosophy of science attempted to determine               how science should be done.  Thus, for the ancient and medieval                 world, the search for the four causes listed by Aristotle became                a major function of "science";  in the 17th century, a mechanical               explanation became the norm.  Even in the 20th century, the                     logical positivists argued that science had to be in a                          "nomological-deductive" framework.  By the mid-20th century,                    however, the normative force of philosophy of science had lost                  much of whatever power it ever had to determine how science                     should be carried out.  Today, philosophers of science tend more                to study how science actually works, not how it should perform.                 Yet it remains important to know and understand the changing                    relationship of science and philosophy of science.  Professor                   Williams, under this research grant, is investigating a critical                period in this changing relationship:  the role of philosophy of                science in the work of Andre-Marie Ampere, one of the foremost                  scientists of the first half of the 19th century.                                                                                                               At the end of the 18th century, there occurred a revolution in                  philosophy that altered the philosophical landscape for the 19th                century.  Two elements in this revolution are central to                        Professor Williams' project:  the new epistemology and the                      philosophy of science that could be drawn from this epistemology.               In both areas, the original impetus for philosophical revision                  came from Immanuel Kant.  Kant had a fundamental influence on the               thought of Ampere.  Professor Williams will study in detail the                 origins, evolution and results of Ampere's philosophy of science.                                                                                               The project has three parts.  In the first, Professor Williams                  will examine the introduction of Kantian philosophy into France                 by way of a channel hitherto ignored, namely from Geneva to Lyon.               It was at Lyon that Ampere first encountered Kant and plunged                   into the study of his thought.  In the second, he will examine a                whole mass of manuscripts, hitherto unstudied, containing                       Ampere's ideas on epistemology and the nature of science.  This                 section will include a study of Ampere's theoretical chemistry in               which his philosophy of science was most clearly expressed.  In                 the third, he will examine Ampere's attempts to map the mind and                to fit a taxonomical system to this may. This work culminated in                his Essai sur la philosophie des sciences.
{'FirstName': 'L. Pearce', 'LastName': 'Williams', 'EmailAddress': None, 'StartDate': '07/01/1988', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'Cornell University', 'CityName': 'Ithaca', 'ZipCode': '148502820', 'PhoneNumber': '6072555014', 'StreetAddress': '373 Pine Tree Road', 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'New York', 'StateCode': 'NY'}
{'Code': '1353', 'Text': 'Hist & Philosophy of SET'}
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1988&All=true', 'xml': '8808422.xml'}