Starting A Local Philosophical Society
What comes to mind when I say, "Philosophical Society"? For me it conjures up images of the famous Royal Society with groups of gentleman scientists gathered in a grand room lit by candles with overstuffed chairs and dark wood paneling discussing the leading scientific theories of the day while contemplatively puffing on a pipe. It's a romantic image and probably has little basis in reality but I would have loved to be a fly on the wall listening to the likes of Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Michael Faraday and Ernest Rutherford discussing their theories and breakthroughs. In my mind, science in the 17th through 19th century was largely accessible to the average person with some curiosity about the world around them. The body of knowledge to draw on was limited and a lot could still be learned with simple experimentation. Many of the scientific breakthroughs of those eras came from wealthy men who had time to pursue scie...
