Robert Hooke’s Experimental Philosophy

Seventeenth-century English polymath Robert Hooke played a pivotal role in developing scientific methodology, according to this enlightening debut history. Henderson, an archives and material culture professor at the University of Exeter, recounts how after Hooke was appointed “curator of experiments” for the newly formed Royal Society in 1662, he found many of the fellows lacking and set about devising a system of study that would enable them to replicate the successes he’d had studying cork, moss, and leech-infested vinegar under a microscope. His system covered both mindset and process, encouraging scientists to remain skeptical of “preconceived ideas,” stay up to date with the scientific literature, and share “findings freely and in a form that was easily understood.” Henderson describes how Hooke, believing that the “human senses need the help of scientific instruments in order to create new knowledge,” invented improved helioscopes (“an instrument used to observe the Sun”), microscopes, and telescopes. Hooke also believed collaboration was essential to science, leading him to form “philosophical clubs” that would debate various topics at coffee houses. The history illuminates the formative early years of science as a scholarly discipline, and Henderson makes a strong case that Hooke’s role in building that discipline has been unjustly overlooked. This intrigues. Photos. (Dec.)