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−64−Synthesiology - English edition Vol.1 No.1 (2008) Article:Science and society, or research institution and journal: A historical retrospection (M. Akamatsu, et al.)by certain members to be included in the Philosophical Transactions. This might have been due to the fact that Oldenburg himself was not a natural scientist, but it was also necessary to determine the validity of some of the articles with pseudoscience and occult contents as well as hearsays of strange creatures not observed directly.Natural philosophy, after taking the form of journal and also introducing peer review, took on a format for gaining knowledge different from conventional scholasticism in which truth was pursued from heritage of Aristotle’s naturalism and through deduction by propositional logic. The basic stance of natural philosophy became “empirical evidence” first rather than “demonstrative legitimacy”. However, it should not be forgotten that the peer review system also had conservative and authoritarian aspects where things that could not be understood by the reviewers were not included.Another factor that was introduced by academic journals and still has great influence on research today is the preemption of discovery and invention. The regularly published journal stamped time at the moment discoveries and invention were reported therein. The concept of originality appeared around the Renaissance, and the fact that the word “origin” or source developed into “originality” which meant personal capacity expresses well the shift to individualism during the Renaissance. However, there was no method for time stamping back then, so there were many condemnations of plagiarism. The preemption of discovery and invention became clear through publication of research in journals that began in the 17th century, and provided proof of research ability of the individual scientist. While this may be a demonstration of individualism, it was also related closely to the employment of scientists. As mentioned earlier, although some scientists were employed by the academy or held professorship at university, many subsisted on patronage of aristocrats. Leonardo da Vinci during the Renaissance, and Galileo and Kepler of the Modern age were under patronage. Therefore, showing one’s ability as scientist was necessary to finding good patrons.Although academic journals were started for the collective interest of providing a place of accumulation of scientific knowledge for the good of all humankind, they also took on the character of individualism with expressions of originality and further advanced to show expressions of self-indulgence, and thus inconsistency developed.6 Segmentation of scientific knowledgeReturning to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Oldenburg who was secretary of the Royal Society not only transcribed the oral presentations and published them in the journal, but also translated the reports of discoveries and inventions sent from all over the world into English. Oldenburg was a German, and before he became secretary of the Royal Society, he created connections throughout Europe through his job as a tutor for children of British aristocrats accompanying them on the grand tour of Europe to broaden their knowledge. After becoming secretary of the Royal Society, he was able to make the journal successful by collecting discoveries and inventions of natural science with his fluency in language and through his personal connections.Looking at the articles of the Philosophical Transactions, it included stories of some plant discovered somewhere, how to make lens, and stories on Jupiter. The articles were not limited to specific fields. From our current viewpoint, Oldenburg’s abilities to read such wide-ranging contents and to translate them are absolutely amazing. However, “knowledge” initially meant full knowledge. Since natural science was a discipline to understand the truth of nature, it was necessary to look at many different natural phenomena to fully understand the workings of nature.In his writings, Bacon did not think mere collection of evidence was sufficient. He encouraged the stance of carefully inspecting the subject and classifying them by creating lists of present and absent. His information classification system resulted in the segmentation of the natural world and promoted specialization of scientific knowledge. In the knowledge system where natural phenomenon is broken down into the simplest element inevitably assumed the characteristics of reductionism. To clarify law and theory that govern the reduced element, it Fig. 2 Cover of the first issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.

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