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Oxford Philosophical Club
The Oxford Philosophical Club, also referred to as the "Oxford Circle", was to a group of natural philosophers, mathematicians, physicians, virtuosi and dilettanti gathering around John Wilkins FRS (1614–1672) at Oxford University, Oxford in the period 1649 to 1660. It is documented in particular by John Aubrey: he refers to it as an "experimental philosophical club" run weekly by Wilkins, who successfully bridged the political divide of the times. There is surviving evidence that the Club was formally constituted, and undertook some projects in Oxford libraries. Its historical importance is that members of the Oxford Circle and the Greshamites joined together to form the Royal Society of London in the early 1660s under Charles II of England, Charles II. Having been newly restored as King, Charles II favoured these great scientists and philosophers, so much so that he considered himself one of them. Wilkins was Warden of Wadham College, and the circle around him is also known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Society Of London
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, recognising excellence in science, supporting outstanding science, providing scientific advice for policy, education and public engagement and fostering international and global co-operation. Founded on 28 November 1660, it was granted a royal charter by King Charles II and is the oldest continuously existing scientific academy in the world. The society is governed by its Council, which is chaired by the society's president, according to a set of statutes and standing orders. The members of Council and the president are elected from and by its Fellows, the basic members of the society, who are themselves elected by existing Fellows. , there are about 1,700 fellows, allowed to use the postnominal title FRS (Fellow of the Royal Society) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bp John Wilkins
BP p.l.c. (formerly The British Petroleum Company p.l.c. and BP Amoco p.l.c.; stylised in all lowercase) is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. It is one of the oil and gas "supermajors" and one of the world's largest companies measured by revenues and profits. It is a vertically integrated company operating in all areas of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and extraction, refining, distribution and marketing, power generation, and trading. BP's origins date back to the founding of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1909, established as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company to exploit oil discoveries in Iran. In 1935, it became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and in 1954, adopted the name British Petroleum. BP acquired majority control of Standard Oil of Ohio in 1978. Formerly majority state-owned, the British government privatised the company in stages between 1979 and 1987. BP merged with Amoco in 1998, becoming BP Amoc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seth Ward (bishop)
Seth Ward (1617 – 6 January 1689) was an English mathematician, astronomer, and bishop. Early life He was born in Hertfordshire, and educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1636 and M.A. in 1640, becoming a Fellow in that year. In 1643 he was chosen university mathematical lecturer, but he was deprived of his fellowship next year for opposing the Solemn League and Covenant (with Isaac Barrow, John Barwick and Peter Gunning). Academic In the 1640s, he took instruction in mathematics from William Oughtred, and stayed with relations of Samuel Ward. In 1649, he became Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford University, and gained a high reputation by his theory of planetary motion, propounded in the works entitled ''In Ismaelis Bullialdi astronomiae philolaicae fundamenta inquisitio brevis'' (Oxford, 1653), against the cosmology of Ismael Boulliau, and ''Astronomia geometrica'' (London, 1656) on the system of Kepler. About this time h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle (; 25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, Alchemy, alchemist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of modern chemistry, and one of the pioneers of modern experimental scientific method. He is best known for Boyle's law, which describes the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas, if the temperature is kept constant within a closed system. Among his works, ''The Sceptical Chymist'' is seen as a cornerstone book in the field of chemistry. He was a devout and pious Anglican and is noted for his works in theology. Biography Early years Boyle was born at Lismore Castle in County Waterford, in the far south of Ireland, the seventh son and fourteenth child of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, the 1st Earl of Cork ("the Great Earl of Cork") and Catherine Fenton Boyle, Catherine Fenton. Lord Cor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matthew Wren (writer)
Matthew Wren (20 August 1629 – 14 June 1672) was an English politician and writer. He is now known as an opponent of James Harrington, and a monarchist who made qualified use of the ideas of Thomas Hobbes. Life He was the eldest child of the Royalist Bishop of Ely Matthew Wren and Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Cutler of Ipswich, and therefore cousin of Sir Christopher Wren. He was educated at both Peterhouse, Cambridge and the University of Oxford, graduating M.A. at Oxford on 9 September 1661. He was secretary to Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, from 1660 to 1667, M.P. for St. Michael (1661 to 1672), and secretary to James, Duke of York (1667 to 1672). He was fatally injured accompanying the duke at the Battle of Solebay in 1672 and died on his return to Greenwich. He was buried with his father at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. He was one of the council of the Royal Society named in Charles II's original charter, dated 15 July 1662, and was a prominent member of the Society ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Willis
Thomas Willis Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (27 January 1621 – 11 November 1675) was an English physician who played an important part in the history of anatomy, neurology, and psychiatry, and was a founding member of the Royal Society. Life Willis was born on his parents' farm in Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, where his father held the stewardship of the manor. He was a kinsman of the Willys baronets of Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire. He graduated Master of Arts, M.A. from Christ Church, Oxford in 1642.Willis, Thomas The Galileo Project. Galileo.rice.edu. Retrieved on 17 July 2012. In the Civil War years he was a Royalist, dispossessed of the family farm at North Hinksey by Roundheads, Parliamentary forces. In the 1640s, Willis was one of the royal physicians to Charles I of England, Charles I. Once q ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Bathurst
Ralph Bathurst, FRS (1620 – 14 June 1704) was an English theologian and physician. Early life He was born in Hothorpe, Northamptonshire in 1620 and educated at King Henry VIII School, Coventry. He graduated with a B.A. degree from Trinity College, Oxford in 1638, where he had a family connection with the President, Ralph Kettell (1563–1643). Andrew Pyle (editor), ''Dictionary of Seventeenth Century British Philosophers'' (2000), pp. 74–75. Oxford science and medicine He originally intended a career in the Church of England, and was ordained in 1644, but his prospects were disrupted by the English Civil War, and he turned to medicine. He collaborated with Thomas Willis, and it was to Bathurst that Willis dedicated his first medical publication, the ''Diatribae Duae'' of 1659. Bathurst was active in the intellectual ferment of the time, and very well-connected. In the account given by John Wallis of the precursor groups to the Royal Society of London, Bathurst is men ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren FRS (; – ) was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who was one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England. Known for his work in the English Baroque style, he was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including what is regarded as his masterpiece, St Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710. The principal creative responsibility for a number of the churches is now more commonly attributed to others in his office, especially Nicholas Hawksmoor. Other notable buildings by Wren include the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and the south front of Hampton Court Palace. Educated in Latin and Aristotelian physics at the University of Oxford, Wren was a founder of the Royal Society and served as its president from 1680 to 1682. His scientific work was highly regarded by Isaac Newton and Blaise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurence Rooke
Lawrence Rooke (also Laurence) (1622–26 June 1662) was an English astronomer and mathematician. He was also one of the founders of the Royal Society, although he died as it was being formally constituted. Life He was born in Deptford, and was a great-nephew through his mother of Lancelot Andrewes.C. A. Ronan, ''Laurence Rooke (1622–1662)'', Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 15, (Jul. 1960), pp. 113–118. He was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. in 1647. He became a fellow commoner at Wadham College, Oxford in 1650, having dropped out of academia for a period because of bad health.''Concise Dictionary of National Biography''Andrew Pyle (philosopher), Andrew Pyle (editor), ''Dictionary of Seventeenth Century British Philosophers'' (2000), p. 691. At Wadham he worked closely with John Wilkins and Seth Ward (bishop), Seth Ward. He became Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College in 1652, and then Gre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Neile
William Neile (7 December 1637 – 24 August 1670) was an English mathematician and founder member of the Royal Society. His major mathematical work, the rectification of the semicubical parabola, was carried out when he was aged nineteen, and was published by John Wallis. By carrying out the determination of arc lengths on a curve given algebraically, in other words by extending to algebraic curves generally with Cartesian geometry a basic concept from differential geometry, it represented a major advance in what would become infinitesimal calculus. His name also appears as Neil. Life Neile was born at Bishopsthorpe, the eldest son of Sir Paul Neile MP for Ripon and Newark. His grandfather was Richard Neile, the Archbishop of York. He entered Wadham College, Oxford as a gentleman-commoner in 1652, matriculating in 1655. He was taught by John Wilkins and Seth Ward. In 1657, he became a student at the Middle Temple. In the same year he gave his exact rectification of the sem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Divine Providence
In theology, divine providence, or simply providence, is God's intervention in the universe. The term ''Divine Providence'' (usually capitalized) is also used as a names of God, title of God. A distinction is usually made between "general providence", which refers to God's God the Sustainer, continuous upholding of the existence and natural law, natural order of the universe, and "special providence", which refers to God's extraordinary intervention in the life of people. Miracles and even divine retribution, retribution generally fall in the latter category. Etymology "Divine" evolved in the late 14th century to mean "pertaining to, in the nature of or proceeding from God or a god". This came from the Old French , with a similar meaning, and that from the Latin , meaning "of a god", in turn from , with similar meaning, which was related the Latin , meaning god or deity. The word "providence" comes from Latin meaning foresight or prudence, and that in turn from "ahead" and " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Philosophy
Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe, while ignoring any supernatural influence. It was dominant before the development of modern science. From the ancient world (at least since Aristotle) until the 19th century, ''natural philosophy'' was the common term for the study of physics (nature), a broad term that included botany, zoology, anthropology, and chemistry as well as what is now called physics. It was in the 19th century that the concept of science received its modern shape, with different subjects within science emerging, such as astronomy, biology, and physics. Institutions and communities devoted to science were founded. Isaac Newton's book '' Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica'' (1687) (English: ''Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy'') reflects the use of the term ''natural philosophy'' in the 17th century. Even in the 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
