Abstract

This paper will examine the work of two physics professors at the University of Leiden: Burchard de Volder (1643-1709) and his successor, Willem J ‘s Gravesande (1668-1742). Both men are responsible for innovations in pedagogy that emphasize the demonstration of experiment: de Volder was the first university physics professor to demonstrate experiments in his classroom and created the Leiden Physics Theatre for that purpose; one generation later, ‘s Gravesande taught in that same theatre and provided students with the first comprehensive textbook in experimental physics. While both men emphasize experiment in their pedagogy, they differ in their epistemological commitments. De Volder, a Cartesian, demonstrates experiments to inspire his young students, still greatly affected by sensory perception, to take on the daunting task of true science, which for him involves deduction from first principles. In contrast, ‘s Gravesande, a Newtonian, teaches his students how to use experiments in order to gain reliable information about the world. This paper studies their respective positions in the ongoing vis viva controversy as a means of understanding the influence Locke’s epistemology had on early eighteenth-century physics, particularly on the Dutch reception of Newton.