Facts-Ideas-Words & Order

From WikidChem

Lavoisier dvided science into three parts--facts, ideas, and words. Ideas represent scientific facts, and words express the ideas. The interrelated nature of these factors is why Lavoisier thought new nomenclature was so important. He said that in order to improve science, nomenclature had to be improved too, and vice versa. In other words, it does not matter how great a scientific discovery is if you do not have the means to convey it. Hence the idea is that one needed clarity to think clearly about things. Facts, ideas and words all had to be related to one another. Lavoisier's New Order for chemistry has three parts. The first part has to do with gases. There are three sections to the book: the doctrine (theory), the nomenclature, and the facts (but in particular, operations). This was the first written 'lab manual,' since alchemists had tried to be obscure. Lavoisier had wanted to lay things out so that people could reproduce his 'operations,' which is the main reason he had wife record illustrations.