Utente:Distico/Sandbox: differenze tra le versioni

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Distico (discussione | contributi)
Distico (discussione | contributi)
Riga 66:
 
Bailly had practically abandoned astronomical ob- servation after his last work on the satellites of Jupiter.1 Now he was completely absorbed in historical composi- tion. We know that the history of modern astronomy was planned and perhaps begun even before the publica- tion of the ancient astronomy in 1775, for there are numerous references to it in that work. Like the earlier volume, the two which appeared in 1779 offer a fairly straightforward and factual account of events and dis- coveries based on documented, if not incontrovertible, arguments. They are written in a scholarly manner and make use of many of the same sources available to historians of science today. In some respects, Bailly's work is still without a serious rival.2 The ideas generated by his public debate with Vol- taire, however, seem to have produced some alterations in the original plan. An esprit de systeme pervades the work. Although Bailly himself refused to admit this, he seems constantly to be proving that systewme is the instrument of progress. An awareness of this new development in his thought is indicated by the appear- ance of a new and more philosophic "Discours pre- liminaire" at the head of volume one. The ostensible reason for this preface is Bailly's de- fense of the biographical system which he uses. He recognizes that the new history of the eighteenth century is the history of the human spirit, of the multitude and mass of humanity as well as its leaders and its principal milestones. But science, he feels, is somehow above- or apart from-this sceptred sway: "Les sciences, comme les evenements, sont les ouvrages des hommes, mais la multitude n'y a point de part; la multitude les ignore ou les regarde avec indifference: ceux qui les cultivent sont une classe isolee." 3
 
--> RASOIO DI OCCAM che è un tratto tipico del pensiero di Bailly
 
===Il rapporto con la massoneria===