Pseudodoxia Epidemica

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Pseudodoxia Epidemica: or, Enquiries into very many received tenents and commonly presumed truths, also known simply as Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Vulgar Errors, is a work by the English polymath Thomas Browne, challenging and refuting the "vulgar" or common errors and superstitions of his own historical era. It first appeared in 1646 and went through five subsequent editions, the last revision occurring in 1672. The work includes evidence of Browne's adherence to the Baconian method of empirical observation of nature, and was in the vanguard of work-in-progress scientific journalism during the 17th-century Scientific Revolution. Throughout its pages, frequent examples of Browne's subtle humour can also be found. Browne's three determinants for obtaining truth were the authority of past scholarly works, the act of reason, and empirical experience. Each of these determinants is employed upon subjects ranging from common folklore to cosmology. Subjects covered in Pseudodoxia Epidemica are arranged in accordance to the time-honoured Renaissance scale of creation; the learned doctor essaying on the nature of error itself (Book 1), continuing with fallacies in the mineral, vegetable (Book 2), and animal (Book 3) kingdoms onto errors concerning Man (Book 4), Art (Book 5), Geography and History (Book 6), and finally Astronomy and the Cosmos (Book 7). In the process of describing the science of his era, Browne introduced a number of neologisms in his works. Among the neologisms introduced in the book are the terms electricity, medical, pathology, hallucination, literary, and computer.

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non-fiction

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Thomas Browne

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