Collective empiricism at the Paris Observatoire in the late seventeenth century

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article discusses the epistemic practices developed by astronomers at the Paris Observatoire in the late seventeenth century. It compares their approach with the research carried out by Tycho Brahe at the Uraniborg Observatory about a century earlier. The article will focus on three selected epistemological differences between the research at the Observatoire and at Uraniborg. The first is a different way of founding and legitimating astronomy. Tycho understood astronomical research as part of a humanistic philosophical worldview. Cassini and his colleagues at the Observatoire emphasised the empirical nature of astronomy and its practical utility for the state. The second difference was the collectivisation of knowledge. While Tycho approached research in an individualistic way, the astronomers from the Observatoire stressed the importance of collective and coordinated collaboration. The third change was the institutionalisation of science in the context of the administration of the modern absolutist state, which provided research with long-term continuity. The article shows that the practice of collective empiricism connected the astronomers of Paris with other empirical science representatives throughout Europe.