Applying The Experimental Philosophy

Abstract

Isaac Newton used experimental philosophy to extract his theory of light from geometrical discrepancies in the images of sunlight. He found that the image formed by light going through a round hole and a prism in a dark room is mathematically impossible. It should be round, like the aperture through which it comes into the room, but it is oblong. The image width is mathematically correct, but not the length. He shows that sunlight has rays that refract at different angles, each having a different color. The colors refract into circles, as mathematically predicted. But each color superimposes at a different height in the image, giving its oblong shape. From this experimental result, he derives a general theory of the colors and heterogeneity of all white light. His discovery resolved a great many problems of color, which formed a complex optical puzzle before his time. This case illustrates how the experimental method provides us with knowledge about phenomena, not just guesses that shed light on them. Neither the Cartesian way nor any other manner of hypothesis can offer unconditional knowledge. However, the hypothetico-deductive process remains helpful in science whenever the experimental philosophy has yet to render its verdict.