Even in the first half of the 20th century, astronomers had to be content with the uniformity of nature argument confirmed by spectroscopy. In an article in Science in 1920, the American astronomer W. W. Campbell (a great opponent of Lowell…7. On Lowell as Spencerian, and as influenced by Spencer’s American disciple John Fiske, see David Strauss, Percival Lowell: The Culture and Science of a Boston Brahmin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), pp. 97–165.
8. W. W. …
William Wallace Campbell
scientist · 2 mentions across 1 reading
In this course
William Wallace Campbell was an early-20th-century American astronomer known for his empirical skepticism toward speculative planetary science, particularly his opposition to Percival Lowell's canals-on-Mars hypothesis. The readings invoke Campbell as an exemplar of spectroscopic methodology and the "uniformity of nature" principle—a figure whose rigorous observational standards stood against the kind of imaginative projection that characterized Lowell's work. His appearance here illustrates the epistemological tensions between data-driven astronomy and the cultural desire to find life elsewhere, a tension relevant to how the course frames the history of seeing systems and certainty-making.
Mentioned in 1 reading
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