Antoine Lavoisier · Science
Lavoisier’s claim, drawn from the philosopher Condillac, that a science is made of facts, ideas, and <em>words</em>, and cannot be improved in one without the others. In 1787 he and three colleagues rebuilt the whole vocabulary of chemistry so that a substance’s name would reveal its composition.
You learned that Lavoisier, following Condillac, held that every science consists of facts, the ideas that represent them, and the words that express those ideas, so that you cannot perfect a science without perfecting its language. In 1787 he built a systematic nomenclature naming substances by composition. Explain t…
Leads to Étienne Bonnot de Condillac.
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