Difference between revisions of "Scientist"
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(Remove tendentious nonsense, even though what's left is a silly tautology. Make it less silly by adding origin of the word.) |
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| − | A scientist is a practitioner of [[science]]. | + | A scientist is a practitioner of [[science]]. |
| − | + | The invention of the word ''scientist'' is often credited to [[William Whewell]] (1794-1866), who was himself a scientist as well as a moral philosopher and Anglican priest. In 1858, he wrote: | |
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| + | :As we cannot use ''physician'' for a cultivator of physics, I have referred to him as a ''Physicist.'' | ||
| + | :We need very much[sic] a name to describe a cultivator of science in general. I should incline to call him a ''Scientist.'' Thus we might say that as an Artist is a Musician, Painter, or Poet, a Scientist is a Mathematician, Physicist, or Naturalist.<ref>Whewell, William (1858), ''Novum Organon Renovatum: Being the second part of the philosophy of the inductive sciences,'' J. W. Parker and Son, [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC22881657&id=xYMKAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA14-PA338&lpg=RA14-PA338&dq=%22william+whewell%22+scientist p. 338]</ref> | ||
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| + | ==References== | ||
<references/> | <references/> | ||
Revision as of 23:54, February 24, 2007
A scientist is a practitioner of science.
The invention of the word scientist is often credited to William Whewell (1794-1866), who was himself a scientist as well as a moral philosopher and Anglican priest. In 1858, he wrote:
- As we cannot use physician for a cultivator of physics, I have referred to him as a Physicist.
- We need very much[sic] a name to describe a cultivator of science in general. I should incline to call him a Scientist. Thus we might say that as an Artist is a Musician, Painter, or Poet, a Scientist is a Mathematician, Physicist, or Naturalist.[1]