ABSTRACT
In a small cottage in the tiny village of Grasmere in Cumbria in 1802, a "circle" consisting of William, Dorothy, and John Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, and the Hutchinson sisters Martha and Sara described what they were doing as lighting a lantern to illuminate the whole world. One could see them as the "hippies" of their day, or as high-minded, secular worshippers of nature. They added to their love of nature, detailed observation, introspection, and hard thinking. As in some religious precedents they prescribe a strong diet of ideas for the mind while purifying the body by curbing indulgence. Wilfred Bion's thinking on models was considerably influenced by R. B. Braithwaite: he was a philosopher of science who was an important member of the Wittgenstein circle. Braithwaite examined the nature of scientific explanation, and described "scientific deductive systems" (SDS) in mathematical terms (1953).
