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Servants of Nature: A History of Scientific Institutions, Enterprises, and Sensibilities available in Hardcover, Paperback
- ISBN-10:
- 0393317366
- ISBN-13:
- 9780393317367
- Pub. Date:
- 10/17/2000
- Publisher:
- Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.

Servants of Nature: A History of Scientific Institutions, Enterprises, and Sensibilities
by Lewis Pyenson, Susan Sheets-PyensonLewis Pyenson
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Overview
"Servants of Nature explores the interaction between scientific practice and public life from antiquity to the present. Drs. Lewis Pyenson and Susan Sheets-Pyenson show how, in Asia, Europe and the New World, scientific expression has been allied closely with changes in three distinct areas of society: the institutions that sustain science; the moral, religious, political and philosophical sensibilities of scientists themselves; and the goal of the scientific enterprise."
A penetrating account of how science, perhaps above all other human endeavors, has shaped-and been shaped by-society. The Norton History of Science in Society explores the interaction between scientific practice and public life from antiquity to the present, showing how advances in science are allied to changing social institutions and attitudes, and examining how the bodies that shape scientific tradition and innovation have acquired their authority. It also considers how scientific goals have changed and explores the relationship between science, industry, and the military in modern times. This is an indispensable volume in the history of science.
A penetrating account of how science, perhaps above all other human endeavors, has shaped-and been shaped by-society. The Norton History of Science in Society explores the interaction between scientific practice and public life from antiquity to the present, showing how advances in science are allied to changing social institutions and attitudes, and examining how the bodies that shape scientific tradition and innovation have acquired their authority. It also considers how scientific goals have changed and explores the relationship between science, industry, and the military in modern times. This is an indispensable volume in the history of science.
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Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780393317367 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc. |
Publication date: | 10/17/2000 |
Series: | Norton History of Science Series |
Pages: | 512 |
Product dimensions: | 6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d) |
Table of Contents
Preface | xiii | |
List of Plates | xv | |
Introduction: Science and Its Past | 1 | |
The discipline of history of science | 5 | |
Inspiration and method | 10 | |
The end of science | 15 | |
Part I | Institutions | |
1 | Teaching: Before the Scientific Revolution | 25 |
The Mediterranean world | 27 | |
Eastern cultures | 33 | |
Islam | 39 | |
The Middle Ages | 42 | |
2 | Teaching: From the Time of the Scientific Revolution | 48 |
The Scientific Revolution | 49 | |
The rise of the German university | 53 | |
The German research university in context | 57 | |
Universities elsewhere | 64 | |
3 | Sharing: Early Scientific Societies | 74 |
Engines of the Scientific Revolution | 77 | |
The rise of the scientific correspondent | 88 | |
Eighteenth-century expansion | 90 | |
Nineteenth-century consolidation | 95 | |
The emergence of specialized societies | 97 | |
4 | Watching: Observatories in the Middle East, China, Europe and America | 101 |
The Islamic observatory | 103 | |
Chinese astronomy | 109 | |
Innovation in instruments | 113 | |
Time and prediction | 117 | |
Astronomy and related disciplines | 118 | |
5 | Showing: Museums | 125 |
The development of modern museums | 126 | |
The British Museum and the 'new museum idea' | 131 | |
Museums in Europe and the United States | 133 | |
Colonial museums | 135 | |
Colonial and metropolitan museums: some comparisons | 138 | |
Descriptions of colonial museums | 141 | |
Museums in Canada, South America, and Australasia | 143 | |
6 | Growing: Botanical Gardens and Zoos | 150 |
The development of botanical gardens | 151 | |
Kew Gardens | 160 | |
The evolution of zoological gardens | 163 | |
The rise of public zoos | 169 | |
Part II | Enterprises | |
7 | Measuring: The Search for Precision | 175 |
Measurement in antiquity | 178 | |
Syncretism and measuring instruments | 181 | |
Newtonian measurement | 183 | |
Timepieces | 187 | |
Standardization | 190 | |
The ideology of precision | 192 | |
Measurement and industrial progress | 194 | |
Absolute measurement and error analysis | 196 | |
The transformation of mechanical precision | 198 | |
Old programme, new effects | 200 | |
Philosophy and practice | 202 | |
Precision regnant | 204 | |
Precision and the human spirit | 208 | |
8 | Reading: Books and the Spread of Ideas | 211 |
From script to print | 211 | |
Facilitating the birth of modern science | 215 | |
The rise of the scientific journal | 217 | |
New forms for new audiences | 226 | |
Showing science: the art of illustration | 229 | |
9 | Travelling: Discovery, Maps and Scientific Expeditions | 236 |
Who discovered whom? | 237 | |
Travellers in antiquity | 238 | |
Maps | 240 | |
Progression of people and ideas in the Malay Archipelago | 242 | |
European expansion | 243 | |
A century of wonders | 246 | |
The new encyclopaedia | 248 | |
Classifying nature | 251 | |
The scientific expeditions | 254 | |
10 | Counting: Statistics | 264 |
The odds | 265 | |
Precision and numbers | 270 | |
Surveying and statistics | 272 | |
Terrestrial means | 274 | |
Statistics physical and social | 276 | |
Doctrine of certainty | 277 | |
Twentieth-century uncertainty | 278 | |
Average lives | 282 | |
The popular triumph of averages | 284 | |
11 | Killing: Science and the Military | 288 |
Gunpowder | 289 | |
The vocabulary of military science | 292 | |
French military builders | 296 | |
Naval stars | 299 | |
The star chart | 300 | |
Military mappers | 305 | |
Military weathermen | 309 | |
Applications and prestige | 311 | |
Part III | Sensibilities | |
12 | Participating: Beyond Scientific Societies | 319 |
The rise of literary and philosophical societies | 321 | |
Associations for the advancement of science | 322 | |
The common scientist | 325 | |
Scientific clubs for everyone | 328 | |
The overseas extension of European models | 330 | |
Women in science | 335 | |
The example of Madame du Chatelet | 342 | |
Women elsewhere | 344 | |
13 | Appropriating: Science in Nations Beyond Europe | 350 |
Colonial scientific societies | 350 | |
Early colonial universities | 355 | |
Independent universities | 358 | |
The research university in the United States | 361 | |
Scientific migration | 363 | |
Australasia | 366 | |
Scientist missionaries in South America | 368 | |
Science at American universities | 373 | |
Science at Japanese universities | 374 | |
British India and Dutch Indonesia | 376 | |
14 | Believing: Science and Religion | 381 |
Science in the Counter-Reformation | 382 | |
The Merton thesis | 386 | |
The Webster thesis: millenarianism and science | 390 | |
The Enlightenment | 392 | |
Deism | 396 | |
Natural theology | 397 | |
The argument against Darwinian evolution | 400 | |
Twentieth-century developments | 404 | |
15 | Knowing: Progressing and Proclaiming | 407 |
Magic and science | 408 | |
Baconianism | 410 | |
Encyclopaedism | 414 | |
Materialism | 418 | |
Positivism | 419 | |
The polemical positivism of Auguste Comte | 421 | |
The eclipse of positivism | 423 | |
16 | Knowing: Relativizing | 424 |
The century of relativity | 425 | |
Mach and Einstein | 429 | |
The reception of Einstein's thought | 433 | |
Eclecticism and hope | 436 | |
Notes | 441 | |
Further Reading | 453 | |
Picture Credits | 478 | |
Index | 479 |
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