The Scientific Revolution (science.culture) - Hardcover

Shapin, Steven

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226750205 ISBN 13: 9780226750200

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1996

Synopsis

"There was no such thing as the Scientific Revolution, and this is a book about it." With this provocative and apparently paradoxical claim, Steven Shapin begins his bold vibrant exploration of the origins of the modern scientific worldview.

"Shapin's account is informed, nuanced, and articulated with clarity. . . . This is not to attack or devalue science but to reveal its richness as the human endeavor that it most surely is. . . .Shapin's book is an impressive achievement."—David C. Lindberg, Science

"Shapin has used the crucial 17th century as a platform for presenting the power of science-studies approaches. At the same time, he has presented the period in fresh perspective."—Chronicle of Higher Education

"Timely and highly readable . . . A book which every scientist curious about our predecessors should read."—Trevor Pinch, New Scientist

"It's hard to believe that there could be a more accessible, informed or concise account of how it [the scientific revolution], and we have come to this. The Scientific Revolution should be a set text in all the disciplines. And in all the indisciplines, too."—Adam Phillips, London Review of Books

"Shapin's treatise on the currents that engendered modern science is a combination of history and philosophy of science for the interested and educated layperson."—Publishers Weekly

"Superlative, accessible, and engaging. . . . Absolute must-reading."—Robert S. Frey, Bridges

"This vibrant historical exploration of the origins of modern science argues that in the 1600s science emerged from a variety of beliefs, practices, and influences. . . . This history reminds us that diversity is part of any intellectual endeavor."—Choice

"Most readers will conclude that there was indeed something dramatic enough to be called the Scientific Revolution going on, and that this is an excellent book about it."—Anthony Gottlieb, The New York Times Book Review

About this title

About the Author

Steven Shapin is professor emeritus of the history of science at Harvard University. His books include Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life (with Simon Schaffer); The Scientific Life: A Moral History of a Late Modern Vocation; The Scientific Revolution; A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England; and Never Pure: Historical Studies of Science as if It Was Produced by People with Bodies, Situated in Time, Space, Culture, and Society, and Struggling for Credibility and Authority.

Reviews

"There was no such thing as the Scientific Revolution, and this is a book about it," says Shapin, a professor of sociology at U.C., San Diego in his introduction, "There was, rather, a diverse array of cultural practices aimed at understanding explaining, and controlling the natural world." Shapin's treatise on the currents that engendered modern science is a combination of history and philosophy of science for the interested and educated layperson, and it is indeed considerably more readable than many of the other philosophy of science books currently available. Several puzzling aspects of the writings of 16th- and 17th-century scientists are put into new perspective in his section titled: "Science as Religion's Handmaid." There are three basic sections of the book: "What Was Known?" covers major differences between the "new knowledge" of the scientific revolution and received wisdom of the ancients. "How Was It Known?" covers sources of authority (e.g., books or experience) and some of the experimental groundwork of major players such as Boyle and Galileo. And "What Was The Knowledge For?" explores the interactions of the new science with the political, religious and cultural dimensions of the European society in which it was embedded. This slim book would have benefited from a deeper consideration of the rivalry between English and Continental science (and scientists) and the relationship of the new science to the design and production of war machines. But Shapin does help the reader understand the direct intellectual link between that time and our own. Illustrations, all taken from original sources, add a nice touch.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A short but dense exposition arguing that there really wasn't a dramatic shift in how scholars went about discovering truth about the world in the 17th century. In other accounts of the science of the period, differences in points of view among scientists have certainly been noted, but only Shapin has been willing to argue that there was no sudden, clear break from the past, no single revolutionary change in the scientific viewpoint. Shapin's (Sociology/Univ. of California, San Diego) point is that there were many threads making up the fabric of 17th-century thought. To be sure, there were some fundamental principles in the study of science (or, as it was then known, natural philosophy). But while there was general agreement in the turn toward an exploration of the practical (mechanical/material) causes for observed phenomena, the methods of pursuit varied greatly. For some scientists and philosophers, inductive approaches via experimental data seemed the right path; others embraced deduction via rational theorizing. For most, natural philosophy was never divorced from a belief in the divine, although here too opinions differed. The divine for some was an all-present, all-potent force; for others, the divine was the distant prime mover who set the clockwork world in motion. Shapin singles out key players like Boyle, Hooke, Bacon, and Newton in England, Galileo in Italy, and Descartes in France. He emphasizes the need to set them in their specific cultural contexts as well as to see them as heirs to the inventions and discoveries that expanded the dimensions of space and time. Because of the rise of scientific societies and the printing press, communication of ideas could also flourish, increasing the arena for debate and controversy. In this revisionist text, Shapin offers a provocative new reading of a formative period in the history of science. (30 illustrations, not seen) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Most history texts teach that the "birth" of modern science occurred between Copernicus in the mid-16th century and Newton in the late 17th century. Shapin (social science, Univ. of California, San Diego) synthesizes a broad collection of scholarship in concluding that what happened during that period was profound but hardly so jarring and abrupt as to be called a "scientific revolution." Rather, the development of a new, naturalistic philosophy was part of a continuous process with antecedents in the Middle Ages, one that still affects how we think about the world today. The author focuses in particular on some of the key figures of the era?Bacon, Descartes, Galileo, and Newton, for example?in showing how their attitudes toward science manifested these values. Accessible to a general reader, this book would be valuable for any history of science collection.?Gregg Sapp, Univ. of Miami Lib., Coral Gables, Fla.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0226750205
• ISBN 13: 9780226750200
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 232