"Grosseteste was the first medieval writer to break with the ancient tradition of discounting refraction in the rainbow. In another way, however, Grosseteste is firmly bound to his predecessors' rainbows—an experimentalist in principle, in practice he strays very little from the Aristotelian tradition of selective observation constrained by geometry. Furthermore, Grosseteste's rainbow theory often appeals to authority, leading historian Bruce Eastwood to remark: "When sources fail, he invents, and the invention is never contradictory to literary sources." (In fairness, Grosseteste made several observations about the rainbow that gainsaid ancient authority.)"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from EnglandReligious leadersPhilosophers from EnglandEducators from EnglandAnglican bishops
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Raymond L. Lee & Alistair B. Fraser, The Rainbow Bridge: Rainbows in Art, Myth, and Science (2001)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Grosseteste
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Robert Grosseteste
1175 – 1253
Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175 – 1253) was an English statesman, scholastic philosopher, theologian, scientist, pastor, poet, educator and Bishop of Lincoln, Province of Canterbury, England. From about 1220 to 1235 he wrote a host of scientific treatises and was an early supporter of what was to become the scientific method. Roger Bacon expressed his indebtedness to the work of Grosseteste and A.C. Crombie describes him as "the real founder of the tradition of scientific thought in medieval Oxford.
57 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Robert Grosseteste →
Related Quotes
"The head is borne towards the heavens and has two lights, as it were the sun and moon."
"Grosseteste's contribution was to emphasize the importance of falsification in the search for true causes and to deve…"
"The strategic act by which Grosseteste and his thirteenth- and fourteenth-century successors created modern experimen…"
"Groesseteste appears to have been the first medieval writer to recognize and deal with the two fundamental methodolog…"
"Just as the light of the sun irradiates the organ of vision and things visible, enabling the former to see and the la…"
"The consideration of lines, angles and figures is of the greatest utility since it is impossible for natural philosop…"
"Power from natural agents may go by a short line, and then in its activity greater... But if by a straight line then …"
"This part of optics, when well understood, shows us how we may make things a very long distance off appear as if plac…"
"Every operation in nature is in the shortest, best ordered, briefest, and best possible way."
"The diligent investigator of natural phenomena can give the causes of all natural effects... by the rules and roots a…"