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Thomas Sprat
(1635 - 20 May 1713)
English bishop was a founding member and historian of the Royal Society. His History of the Royal Society of London (1667) is described as 'a propagandist defense rather than a factual account' in the Encyclopedia Britannica.' He wrote a biography of his friend, the poet Abraham Cowley.
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Science Quotes by Thomas Sprat (1)
...they have never affirm'd any thing, concerning the Cause, till the Trial was past: whereas, to do it before, is a most venomous thing in the making of Sciences; for whoever has fix'd on his Cause, before he experimented; can hardly avoid fitting his Experiment to his Observations, to his own Cause, which he had before imagin'd; rather than the Cause to the Truth of the Experiment itself.
Referring to experiments of the Aristotelian mode, whereby a preconceived truth would be illustrated merely to convince people of the validity of the original thought.
Referring to experiments of the Aristotelian mode, whereby a preconceived truth would be illustrated merely to convince people of the validity of the original thought.
— Thomas Sprat
Thomas Sprat, Abraham Cowley, History of the Royal Society (1667, 1734), 108.
See also: | Aristotle (85) | Bias (2) | Cause (49) | Experiment (199) | Imagination (50) | Observation (142) | Trial (6) | Truth (241)
