Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: or, Enquiries into very many Received Tenents And commonly presumed Truths

Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Domains

Philosophy (any)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1646

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Essay Collection

Resources

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Pseudodoxia Epidemica

, a mouthful of a title, can be translated as “popular misconceptions”, or, as it was commonly known in its own time, “vulgar errors”. A detailed examination of folk-beliefs and superstitions, “wisdom” handed down from the ancient authorities, and curiosities in natural philosophy, the book was Thomas Browne's contribution to the scientific project of the seventeenth century whichFrancis Bacon inaugurated in 1605 with

The Advancement of Learning .

That project might be described as a massive housekeeping operation, a concerted effort by all wise persons of discrimination and open mind to cleanse the structure of western learning of the elaborate and unexamined fallacies which had become commonplace within it. Browne, highly trained as a doctor and in…

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666 words

Citation: Preston, Claire. "Pseudodoxia Epidemica: or, Enquiries into very many Received Tenents And commonly presumed Truths". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 June 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2527, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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