The experimental universal is acquired by us, whose mind's eye is not purely spiritual, only through the help of the senses. For when the senses seve… - Robert Grosseteste

" "

The experimental universal is acquired by us, whose mind's eye is not purely spiritual, only through the help of the senses. For when the senses several times observe two singular occurrences, of which one is the cause of the other or is related to it in some other way, and they do not see the connection between them... And from this perception repeated again and again and stored in memory, and from the sensory knowledge from which the perception is built up, the functioning of the reasoning begins. The functioning reason therefore begins to wonder and to consider whether things really are as the sensible recollection says, and these two lead the reason to experiment... But when he has administered many times with the sure exclusion of all other things [that could be mistaken for the cause]... then there is formed in the reason this universal... and this is the way in which it comes from sensation to a universal experimental principle.

English
Collect this quote

About Robert Grosseteste

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..." Translations of Robert Grosseteste's quotes in this article are due to A.C. Crombie, Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science 1100-1700 (1953) unless otherwise noted.

Also Known As

Alternative Names: Robert Greathead Bishop Grosthead Robert de Lincoln Robert Grossestus Robert Grotest Robert Grostte Robert Grostete Robert Grostest Robert Grosstete Robert Grosstête Robert of Lincoln Rupert of Lincoln Robert Capito Robert Grossatesta Robert Groshead Robert Grossoteste Robert Grosse-Tête Robert Grosthed Robert Grosthead Roberto Grossatesta Robertus Grosseteste Robertus Grossetestus Robertus Grossatesta Robert Grosse-Tete Robert Grosteste
Limited Time Offer

Premium members can get their quote collection automatically imported into their Quotewise collections.

Related quotes. More quotes will automatically load as you scroll down, or you can use the load more buttons.

Additional quotes by Robert Grosseteste

One cause, in so far as it is one, is productive of only one effect. I do not rule out several efficient causes of which one is nearer and another more remote in the same order. Thus when I say simply 'animal', I do not exclude another substance or particular substance. Hence motion, in so far as it is one, is productive of only one effect. But motion is present in every body from an intrinsic principle which is called natural. Therefore an efficient cause simply proportional to the motion is present in all bodies. But nothing is present in common in every body except primitive matter and primitive form and magnitude, which necessarily follows from these two, and whatever is entailed by magnitude as such, as position and shape. But simply through magnitude a body does not receive motion, as is clear enough when Aristotle shows that everything that moves is divisible, not, therefore, simply because of magnitude or something entailed by magnitude is a body productive of motion. Nor is primitive matter productive of motion, because it is itself passive. It is therefore necessary that motion follow simply from the primitive form as from an efficient cause.

And since the proportions of the human voice and the gesticulations of the human body are regulated by the same modulation as that by which sound and the motion of other bodies are, musical thought is subalternated not only to the harmony of human voice and gesticulation, but also of instruments and of those whose delectation consist in motion or sound and with these the harmony of the celestial and non-celestial. And since the concordance of times and the composition and harmony of the lower world and of all things composed of four elements come from celestial motions, and, moreover, since it is necessary to find the harmony of causes in their effects, the study of music also extends to knowing the proportions of times and the constitution of the elements of the lower world, and even the composition of all the elements.

Limited Time Offer

Premium members can get their quote collection automatically imported into their Quotewise collections.

Power from natural agents may go by a short line, and then in its activity greater... But if by a straight line then its action is stronger and better, as Aristotle says in Book V of the Physics, because nature operates in the shortest way possible. But the straight line is the shortest of all, as he says in the same place.

Loading...