The Evolution of Science
How science changed radically from being language based to being math based
In the 19th century and before, poetry was on an equal footing, even in some ways superior to, other rational discourse, and as a result, could be used to critique the philosophical and scientific enterprises. The arts, history and the other humanities were regarded as being relevant to discussions about science. In the world of the 21st century, we wouldn’t use poetry or an exploration of world history as key elements in a text about science, but such a treatment was something of a requirement in the 19th century (at least the early part of the century) in order for a scientific text to be taken seriously.
A lack of demarcation between intellectual pursuits was regarded as appropriate and axiomatic. Descartes explains the reasoning behind this in Rules for the Direction of the Mind (1628) in the following terms:
For since the sciences taken all together are identical with human wisdom, which always remains one and the same, however applied to different subjects, and suffers no more differentiation proceeding from them than the light of the sun experiences from the variety of the things which it illumines, there is no need for minds to be confined at all within limits; for neither does the knowing of one truth have an effect…