How to study a text and find out the relevant documentation relative to its notions, concepts and allusions.

NEWTON'S PRISMS AND THE USES OF EXPERIMENT
D. Gooding, T. Pinch, S. Schaffer, The Uses of Experiment, CUP, 1989.

1) Explain the subtitles:

Instruments are in truth reified theorems (Gaston Bachelard, 1933).

'Perhaps,said the Marchioness, Nature has reserved the merit of demonstrationg Truth to the English Prisms; that is, to those by whose means she at first discovered herself.' (Francesco Algarotti, 1737).

2) Find out who Newton was and what is the "experimentum crucis" referred to in the text.

Use dictionaries, encyclopaedias, and the Internet.

Visit the site http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/activities/index.html

Report.

3) Did you find more sites relevant to Newton? Which do you consider best and why? When would you say a site is scientifically reliable? Account for your answer.

4) Find out :

- what the Royal Society was.
-who Robert Boyle was?

5) Comment on "Doctrine" versus "experiment"

6) What is the importance of "replicability"?

7) What is "experimental philosophy"? What is natural philosophy? What is natural philosophy?

8) If you had to prepare for an exposé on the subject, give 5 titles of books articles or cdroms or internet sites that would constitute your bibliography.