Pseudodoxia Epidemica

Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Enquiries into very many received tenents and commonly presumed truths,also known simply asPseudodoxia EpidemicaorVulgar Errors,is a work byThomas Brownechallenging and refuting the "vulgar" or common errors and superstitions of his age. It first appeared in 1646 and went through five subsequent editions, the last revision occurring in 1672. The work includes evidence of Browne's adherence to theBaconianmethod of empirical observation of nature, and was in the vanguard of work-in-progress scientific journalism during the 17th-centuryScientific Revolution.Throughout its pages frequent examples of Browne's subtle humour can also be found.

Browne's three determinants for obtaining truth were the authority of past scholarly works, the act of reason, and empirical experience. Each of these determinants is employed upon subjects ranging from common folklore to the cosmological. Subjects covered inPseudodoxia Epidemicaare arranged in accordance to the time-honouredRenaissancescale of creation; the learned doctor essaying on the nature of error itself (Book 1), continuing with fallacies in themineral,vegetable(Book 2), andanimal(Book 3) kingdoms onto errors concerning Man (Book 4), Art (Book 5),GeographyandHistory(Book 6), and finallyAstronomyand theCosmos(Book 7).

Popular science[edit]

Pseudodoxia Epidemicawas a valuable source of information which found itself upon the shelves of many homes in seventeenth century England. Being in the vanguard of the scientific writing, it paved the way for much subsequent popular scientific journalism and began a decline in the belief in mythical creatures. Its science includes many examples of Browne's 'at-first-hand' empiricism as well as early examples of the formulation of scientific hypothesis.

The second ofPseudodoxia Epidemica's seven books entitledTenets concerning Mineral and Vegetable Bodiesincludes Browne's experiments withstatic electricityandmagnetism—the wordelectricitybeing one of hundreds of neologisms includingmedical,pathology,hallucination,literary,andcomputercontributed by Browne into the vocabulary of the early Scientific Revolution.

Editions[edit]

The popularity ofPseudodoxiain its day is confirmed by the fact that it went through no fewer than six editions. The first appeared in 1646 during the reign ofCharles Iand during theEnglish Civil War;four during theinterregnum,in 1650, 1658 (two), and 1659; and the final edition in 1672, during the reign ofCharles II,and when theScientific Revolutionwas well under way.Pseudodoxiawas subsequently translated and published in French, Dutch, Latin and German throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The GermanChristian Cabalist Christian Knorr von Rosenrothtranslated the book into German in 1680.^[1]

Table of contents page for the 1646 copy ofPseudodoxia Epidemica,orVulgar Errors
First page of the 1646 copy ofPseudodoxia Epidemica,orVulgar Errors

Evaluation by other writers[edit]

Today there is considerable confusion how best to define Sir Thomas Browne's scientific methodology,^{[citation needed]}which is described by E. S. Merton thus:

Theeclecticismso characteristic of Browne... Browne does not cry from the house tops, as didFrancis Bacon,the liberating power of experience in opposition to the sterilising influence of reason. Nor does he guarantee as didDescartes,the intuitive truth of reason as opposed to the falsity of the senses. Unlike either, he follows both sense experience and a priori reason in his quest for truth. He uses what comes to him from tradition and from contemporary Science, often perhaps without too precise a formulation.^{[citation needed]}

William P. Dunn summarised the ambiguities of Browne's scientific view-point thus:

Here is Browne's scientific point of view in a nutshell. One lobe of his brain wants to study facts and test hypotheses on the basis of them, the other is fascinated by mystic symbols and analogies.^[2]

Robert Sencourt succinctly defined Browne's relationship to scientific enquiry as "an instance of a scientific reason, lit up by mysticism, in the Church of England".^[3]

The 1651 bookArcana Microcosmi,byAlexander Ross,attempted to rebut many of Browne's claims.

Sources[edit]

A detailed edition ofPseudodoxia Epidemicain two volumes was published byOxford University Pressin 1986, edited and comprehensively annotated by Robin Robbins.

References[edit]

^Beitchman, Philip (1998).Alchemy of the Word: Cabala of the Renaissance.Albany: State University of New York Press.ISBN 079143737X.
^William P. Dunn (1 January 1950).Sir Thomas Browne: a Study in Religious Philosophy.U of Minnesota Press. pp. 131–.ISBN 978-0-8166-5751-3.
^Sencourt, Robert.Outflying Philosophy: a Literary Study of the Religious Element.Ardent Media. p. 126.

External links[edit]

[1] Beitchman, Philip (1998).Alchemy of the Word: Cabala of the Renaissance.Albany: State University of New York Press.ISBN 079143737X.

[Dunn1950-2] William P. Dunn (1 January 1950).Sir Thomas Browne: a Study in Religious Philosophy.U of Minnesota Press. pp. 131–.ISBN 978-0-8166-5751-3.

[3] Sencourt, Robert.Outflying Philosophy: a Literary Study of the Religious Element.Ardent Media. p. 126.

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