Servants of Nature: A History of Scientific Institutions, Enterprises, and Sensibilities

by Lewis Pyenson, Susan Sheets-Pyenson

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393317367
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	10/17/2000
Series:	Norton History of Science Series
Edition description:	American ed.
Pages:	524
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

Editorial Reviews

This volume presents an amalgam of historical and philosophical discussions, from the founding of the first scientific societies in the 17th century, to whether the end of the 20th century is more influenced by postmodernism or relativity.

Kirkus Reviews