We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 April 2019
It was 1790, and Jefferson was still enraptured with Francis Bacon and his Novum Organum Scientiarum published in 1620. If that work, which had deeply influenced the generation of Voltaire, had one dominant theme, it was the need to rid the mind of prejudices and prior conceptions. Jefferson, although still capable of growth, was nonetheless inclined to smirk at ideas that contradicted truths he held to be “self-evident.”1 At the time of his 1785 arrival in Paris his worldview was still grounded in the medieval cosmology of the Great Chain of Being, and his understanding of science was still rooted in deductions from “the laws of nature.” He could show respect for experimentalism, as late as his 80s, when he had a burst of excitement for vivisection as practiced by Jean-Pierre Flourens in the field of brain physiology.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
