1084 PONTIFICIAE ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARVM SCRIPTA VARIA -
25
the only true method in science was to proceed from particular
sense observations to wider generalizations (Novum Organum,
Book I, xix), and clearly recognised that ’’the true and lawful
goal of the sciences is . . . that human life be endowed with
new discoveries and power.’’
2.3. The concept of an objective world of physical reality
gradually took firm shape in the seventeenth century in the
hands of gifted astronomers, mathematicians and scientists. A
few names may be mentioned from among those who were born
in the first half of the century: PIERRE FERMAT (1601-1665),
CHRISTIAN HUYGENS (1629-1695), BLAISE PASCAL (1623-1662),
ROBERT BOYLE (1627-1601), JoHN RAY (1624-1705), ROBERT
FIOOKE (1635-1703), ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727), and GoTT-
FRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ (1646-1716). The rate of advancement
of science increased progressively in the eighteenth and the
nineteenth centuries, and during the last few decades has opened
new frontiers with almost unimaginable possibilities.
2.4. The advancement of science prepared the ground for
the industrial revolution in Europe in the eighteenth century,
first in spinning and weaving, next in the use of iron and steel,
and then of electricity in the nineteenth century, which stimul-
ated the growth of the capitalist economies in West Europe and
North America. The spread of the scientific outlook also prep-
ared the ground for the age of reason and the French revolut-
ion, which occurred at the end of the eighteenth century, and
oromoted the growth of nationalism in Europe, in its modern
sense, in the nineteenth century.
2.5. The industrial revolution increasingly replaced human
and animal power by steam or electricity to drive machinery
for the increasing production of both consumer and capital
goods. The development of engineering techniques led to a
close linkage between science and technology; and during the
last hundred and fifty years. industrial development is being
14] Mahalanobis I - pag. 16
