The Victorian period in Britain was an "age of reform." It is therefore not surprising that two of the era's most eminent intellects described themselves as reformers. John Stuart Mill - philosopher, political economist, and Parliamentarian - remains a canonical author of Anglo-American philosophy, [...]
On a summer day in 1674, in the small Dutch city of Delft, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek a cloth salesman, local bureaucrat, and self-taught natural philosopher gazed through a tiny lens set into a brass holder and discovered a never-before imagined world of microscopic life. At the same time, in a nearby [...]
"The""Philosophical Breakfast Club "recounts the life and work of four men who met as students at Cambridge University: Charles Babbage, John Herschel, William Whewell, and Richard Jones. Recognizing that they shared a love of science (as well as good food and drink) they began to meet on Sunday mor[...]
By the early 17th century the Scientific Revolution was well under way. Philosophers and scientists were throwing off the yoke of ancient authority to peer at nature and the cosmos through microscopes and telescopes. In October 1632, in the small town of Delft in the Dutch Republic, two geniuses wer[...]