ABSTRACT
The changing attitudes of the seventeenth century towards scientific enquiry generated a great deal of uncertainty about the social relevance of new methodologies and new topics of investigation. This study will draw attention to the human motives behind the emergence of these changing attitudes towards discovery and exploration. At issue are the expectations and emotional energies invested in the study of nature. The desire to expand knowledge has been described as the most prominent objective of this century. Such a grand commitment to progress could only be formulated in hindsight, though. It fails to take account of a myriad of individual initiatives that converged into a far-reaching transformation of the period’s intellectual landscape. What has subsequently come to be described as the new science of the early modern period therefore harboured promises for people from a vast range of backgrounds.
