The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q14: What is this science thing?
Now my method, though hard to practice, is easy to explain; and it is this. I propose to establish progressive stages of certainty. The evidence of the sense, helped and guarded by a certain process of correction, I retain. But the mental operation which follows the act of sense I for the most part reject; and instead of it I open and lay out a new and certain path for the mind to proceed in, starting directly from the simple sensuous perception. Novum Organum 1620
Empiricism and idealism alike are faced with a problem to which, so far, philosophy has found no satisfactory solution. This is the problem of showing how we have knowledge of other things than ourself and the operations of our own mind. Bertrand Russell (1945)
James Watt creates a really good steam engine around 1790
Maxwell and Boltzmann establish a kinetic theory of gas 1860s.
Having invented the dye [1856], Perkin was still faced with the problems of raising the capital for producing it, manufacturing it cheaply, adapting it for use in dyeing cotton, gaining acceptance for it among commercial dyers, and creating public demand for it. He was active in all of these areas: he persuaded his father to put up the capital, and his brothers to partner with him to build a factory; he invented a mordant for cotton; he gave technical advice to the dyeing industry; and he publicised his invention of the dye. William Perkin
Between 1405 and 1433 Ming China sent out huge "Treasure Fleets" to the Indian Ocean and beyond. Then Stopped.
1877 Thomas Edison establishes one of the first pure research and development labs in Menlo Park.
Currently, world research and development spending is in excess of one TRILLION dollars.
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