Open AccessTurning tradition into an instrument of research: The editorship of William Nicholson (1753–1815)
Author(s) -
Gielas Anna
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
centaurus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.127
H-Index - 9
eISSN - 1600-0498
pISSN - 0008-8994
DOI - 10.1111/1600-0498.12283
Subject(s) - subversion , empire , natural (archaeology) , natural philosophy , politics , the arts , philosophy , epistemology , metropolitan area , sociology , art history , law , art , history , political science , archaeology
Mainly known for its links to the periodical market and radical politics, this article recontextualizes the editorship of William Nicholson (1753–1815) in terms of its roots in the metropolitan natural philosophical circles of the second half of the 18th century as well as its impact on experimenters and men of science after 1797. The article argues that Nicholson's editorship of the Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts was a means to expand his philosophical significance among natural philosophers at home and abroad—and was, in fact, a form of epistemological subversion that challenged the “Banksian Learned Empire.”