0 INTRODUCTION

4. RHETORIC AND THE WORLD OF SCIENCE IN THE EModE PERIOD
such as Gilbert and later on Bacon understood the importance of the scientific experiment
and defended its use in front of their peers. When scholars adopted the methods of
superior craftsmen, the barrier between liberal and mechanical arts was broken, leading to
the birth of modern science.
Critical voices with ME science, such as, for instance, Bacon, considered that its
emphasis in theorizing was an obstacle for the development of science itself (Eamon
1994: 7). Therefore, Baconian sciences were different from the previous period in that,
first of all, the scientific community was no longer a small and homogeneous one, but a
community composed by scholars as well as amateurs and craftsmen (see Section 4.2.1
below). Thus, this new heterogeneous generation of scientists transformed the old
conception of science, bringing about new interests and disciplines, previously
disregarded by academic scientists. Furthermore, they were not so deeply influenced by
the established doctrines as scientists had been before. Since the new science was based
on factual information instead of theory, it could profit more from many ordinary
investigators than from a few genius (Eamon 1994: 319). Thus, science needed a
scientific community open to share all the discoveries and achievements with other
scientists; scientists should collaborate among themselves. Only by using previous
knowledge and by continuing along the lines of investigation carried out by previous
researchers, science could make progress (Zilsel 1942: 557). The field of medicine does
not remain impassive to these changes:
During this period, the scientific paradigm experienced a major
epistemological shift: medieval scholastic, logocentric science, relying
on knowledge derived from Galen, Hippocrates and other ancient
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