Macrobius
Megaphoron
Abstract: In the mid-seventeenth century a movement of self-styled experimental philosophers emerged in Britain. Originating in the discipline of natural philosophy amongst Fellows of the Royal Society of London, it soon spread to medicine and by the eighteenth century had impacted moral philosophy, political philosophy, and aesthetics. Early modern experimental philosophers gave epistemic priority to observation and experiment over theorising and speculation. They decried the use of hypotheses and systembuilding without recourse to experiment and, in some quarters, developed a philosophy of experiment. In the eighteenth century, the movement spread to the Netherlands, France, and Germany. Its important role in early modern philosophy was subsequently eclipsed by the widespread adoption of the Kantian historiography, which emphasised the distinction between rationalism and empiricism and had no place for early modern experimental philosophy. The re-emergence of interest in early modern experimental philosophy roughly coincided with the development of contemporary x-phi. There are some important similarities between the two.
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