Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de

Japanese: ビュフォン（英語表記）Buffon， Georges-Louis Leclerc， Comte de

Born: September 7, 1707, Montbard
Died April 16, 1788. French naturalist in Paris. Also known as an Enlightenment thinker. Initially studied law, but later studied medicine, botany, and mathematics, and traveled to Italy. His research into probability theory was recognized, and he became an associate member of the Academie des Sciences at the age of 26. In 1739 he was appointed director of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Paris, a position he held for the rest of his life. He was a member of the Academie de France, the Royal Society of London, the Berlin Academy, and the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He translated the works of S. Hales and I. Newton, and systematically developed the methodology of experimental science, stressing the importance of empirical foundations in natural science. In his great work, Natural History (44 volumes, 1749-1804), he caused a stir by proposing that the age of the earth was more than 80,000 years, instead of the 6,000 years previously estimated from the Bible. He also rejected the idea of natural disasters and believed that nature, including plant and animal species, gradually changes, influencing the later development of the theory of evolution. He also famously argued over the form of Newton's law of universal gravitation between Buffon, who supported the strict inverse square form and A.C. Clairaut, who argued for the necessity of additional terms, in a debate (49) over the form of the law of universal gravitation. In 1753, he became a member of the Académie Française, and in his commemorative lecture Discours sur le style, he defined style as the order and movement of thought.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

[生]1707.9.7. モンバール
[没]1788.4.16. パリ
フランスの博物学者。啓蒙思想家としても知られる。初め法律を学んだが，のち医学，植物学，数学を学び，イタリアに旅行。確率論の研究が認められ，26歳で科学アカデミー副会員。 1739年パリの王立植物園の園長に任命され，終生その地位にあった。フランス学士院，ロンドン・ロイヤル・ソサエティ，ベルリンアカデミー，ペテルブルグ科学アカデミー各会員。 S.ヘールズ，I.ニュートンの書物を翻訳するとともに，実験科学の方法論を体系的に展開，自然科学における経験的基礎の重要性を説いた。また大著『博物誌』 (または『自然誌』) Histoire naturelle，générale et particulière (44巻，1749～1804) では，従来聖書からの推定によって 6000年ぐらいとされていた地球の年齢を，8万年以上と唱えて話題をまき，天変地異説を否定し，自然は動植物の種を含めて徐々に変化をとげると考えて，のちの進化論形成に影響を与えた。またニュートンの万有引力法則の形式をめぐって，法則の単純性を主張して，厳密な逆2乗の形式を支持するビュフォンと，付加項の必要を唱えた A.C.クレローとの論争 (49) は有名である。 53年アカデミー・フランセーズ会員，入会の記念講演『文体論』 Discours sur le styleにおいて文体を思想の秩序と運動と定義した。

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