“The Spirit of Invention”. Hooke’s Poetics for a New Science in An Attempt to Prove the Motion of the Earth by Observation

Abstract

In his first Cutlerian Lecture, An Attempt to Prove the Motion of the Earth by Observations (1674), Robert Hooke endeavours to establish the validity of the Copernican system by using his own experiments. This article aims to re-evaluate the scope of Hooke’s agenda by reading the preface to his text in its broader, poetic, context, as a critique of the traditional ways of writing natural philosophy and an attempt to reform of the classical modes of publication and dissemination of knowledge. It shows that Hooke’s defence of a ’Spirit of Invention’ can be construed in two interrelated ways : first, the invention and construction of instruments that can prove the Copernican hypothesis ; secondly, the conception and construction of texts that can faithfully convey the discoveries, both of art and nature. These mechanical and poetical programmes are thoroughly intertwined in Hooke’s effort to establish an experimental and mechanical philosophy in keeping with the Baconian ideal of a collaborative scientific method.