Caverni, Raffaello, Storia del metodo sperimentale in Italia, 1891-1900

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                  <pb xlink:href="020/01/011.jpg" pagenum="xii"/>
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                delle scienze naturali
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                (on the philosophy of natural science), changed—who
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                knows why—with publication in volume form in 1877 into the less significant
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                De'nuovi studi della filosofia, Discorsi di Raffaello Caverni a un giovane studente
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                (on the new studies of philosophy, conversations of Raffaello Caverni with a
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                young student). Here he maintained that philosophy too is a science of observa­
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                tion, that is, basically experimental, and criticized both those philosophers who
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                want to consider man prescinding from any scientific preparation and without
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                any knowledge of physiology in particular and those scientists who see in man
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                only his material being. </foreign>
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                <foreign lang="en">But the central theme of this treatise is delicate and
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                controversial for his times. </foreign>
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                <foreign lang="en">Caverni undertook a critical examination of
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                Darwin's theory of evolution as contained in
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                The Descent of Man,
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                which had
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                appeared in 1871. A subtitle of the third chapter declared “That the new
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                doctrine of Darwin and natural science ought not frighten the faithful who
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                should be allowed to cultivate them in all serenity and we too, confuting them
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                where necessary, should cultivate them with love.” His program was clear but
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                hardly in harmony with the position taken by the Catholic world. </foreign>
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                <foreign lang="en">And thus,
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                while the articles printed in the magazine miraculously passed, not so the book
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                which was put on the Index with a decree dated July 1, 1878. Father Gio­
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                vanozzi, particularly competent in the matter, wrote, “I believe the prohibition
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                of the book was due not to its defense of the evolutionary hypothesis, but to the
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                rather sharp and caustic attacks against institutes, methods and persons of the
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                ecclesiastical world.”
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                In any case, this episode marked the parting of ways—a
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                break only on a cultural plane, of course, yet even so, sharp and precise—with
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                a rejection which was to be constant and unhesitating of a certain “tradition”
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                that Caverni found stale and moldy. </foreign>
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                <foreign lang="en">For even after the decision of the Con­
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                gregation of the Index, his ideas did not change essentially. </foreign>
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                <foreign lang="en">In the
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                Rassegna
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                Nazionale
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                he continued to publish articles on an analogous subject,
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                Sull'
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                antichità dell'uomo
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                (on the antiquity of man); in this series, which appeared in
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                volume form in 1881, he concluded, as in his preceding work, that the faithful
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                may tranquilly attend geologists'debates on the matter. </foreign>
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                <foreign lang="en">The substance is more
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                or less the same. </foreign>
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                <foreign lang="en">Perhaps this time he simply refrained from those biting
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                allusions to some colleagues which, to tell the truth, he brings off so skillfully. </foreign>
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                5. POPULAR WORKS
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                <foreign lang="en">From 1884 to 1888 Raffaello Caverni dedicated himself to scientific populariza­
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                tion, without doubt a congenial genre. </foreign>
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                <foreign lang="en">For his task he put aside those regal and
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                curial robes he had donned to write of philosophy and the history of science and
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                treated the subjects of physics and natural science in limpid, fluent language,
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                presenting orderly ideas and familiar images. </foreign>
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                <foreign lang="en">For this reason the environment,
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                mentality, and customs of his times enter freely into these pages and they </foreign>
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