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Hypotheses and Perspectives in the History and Philosophy of Science pp 347–365Cite as

Koyré Versus Olschki–Zilsel

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Abstract

In 1939 Koyré introduced the notion of the scientific revolution (SR) as a catch phrase that deals with the “[…] profonde transformation intellectuelle dont la physique modern […]” (Koyré 1939, p. 12; 1943b, p. 400) that he alleged happened at the time of Galileo. For Koyré these changes are due to “pure unadulterated thought” because, as expressed in his 1943 critique of the Olschki–Zilsel position, science “is made not by engineers or craftsmen, but by men who seldom built or made anything more real than theory” (Koyré 1943b, p. 401). We now know Galileo did quite a lot of experimentation; hence, this statement by Koyré is no longer acceptable. In this paper, I will assess the Koyré argument against the Olschki–Zilsel position. Central to my argument is that only by applying a comparative framework, such as developed in my forthcoming book The European Roots of Science, it is possible to throw light on this vexed issue.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In referring to Kepler’s work, the following acronyms will be used: “MC” for Mysterium cosmographicum to refer to Kepler (1981) [1596], “HM” for Harmonices mundi to refer to Kepler (1969) [1619] and “KGW” to refer to Kepler’s Gesammelte Werke (Kepler 1937).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Diederick Raven

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  1. Diederick Raven
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Correspondence to Diederick Raven .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lille University, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

    Raffaele Pisano

  2. Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Joseph Agassi

  3. National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

    Daria Drozdova

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Raven, D. (2018). Koyré Versus Olschki–Zilsel. In: Pisano, R., Agassi, J., Drozdova, D. (eds) Hypotheses and Perspectives in the History and Philosophy of Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61712-1_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61712-1_17

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