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Phases of physics in J.D. Forbes’ Dissertation Sixth for the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1856)

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PhasesofPhysics_Forbes_Final.pdf (332.7Kb)
Date
03/12/2018
Author
Falconer, Isobel Jessie
Keywords
J.D. Forbes
James David Forbes
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Nineteenth-century science
Natural philosophy
Discipline formation
Associational culture
Scientific discovery
Scientific genius
Intellectual spirit
QC Physics
QH Natural history
History and Philosophy of Science
Mathematics (miscellaneous)
Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
T-NDAS
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Abstract
This paper takes James David Forbes’ Encyclopaedia Britannica entry, Dissertation Sixth, as a lens to examine physics as a cognitive, practical, and social, enterprise. Forbes wrote this survey of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century mathematical and physical sciences, in 1852-6, when British “physics” was at a pivotal point in its history, situated between a discipline identified by its mathematical methods – originating in France - and one identified by its university laboratory institutions. Contemporary encyclopaedias provided a nexus for publishers, the book trade, readers, and men of science, in the formation of physics as a field. Forbes was both a witness, whose account of the progress of physics or natural philosophy can be explored at face value, and an agent, who exploited the opportunity offered by the Encyclopaedia Britannica in the mid nineteenth century to enrol the broadly educated public, and scientific collective, illuminating the connection between the definition of physics and its forms of social practice. Forbes used the terms “physics” and “natural philosophy” interchangeably. He portrayed the field as progressed by the natural genius of great men, who curated the discipline within an associational culture that engendered true intellectual spirit. Although this societal mechanism was becoming ineffective, Forbes did not see university institutions as the way forward. Instead, running counter to his friend William Whewell, he advocated inclusion of the mechanical arts (engineering), and a strictly limited role for mathematics. He revealed tensions when the widely accepted discovery-based historiography conflicted with intellectual and moral worth, reflecting a nineteenth-century concern with spirit that cuts across twentieth-century questions about discipline and field.
Citation
Falconer , I J 2018 , ' Phases of physics in J.D. Forbes’ Dissertation Sixth for the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1856) ' , History of Science , vol. OnlineFirst . https://doi.org/10.1177/0073275318811443
Publication
History of Science
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/0073275318811443
ISSN
0073-2753
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2018, the Author(s). This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher's policies. This is the author created accepted version manuscript following peer review and as such may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1177/0073275318811443
Collections
  • Pure Mathematics Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
URL
http://arxiv.org/abs/1810.06063
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/16618

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