Servants of Nature

by Pyenson, Lewis; Sheets-Pyenson, Susan

• ISBN13: 9780393046144
• ISBN10: 0393046141
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-05-01
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

A penetrating account of how science, perhaps above all other human endeavors, has shaped --and been shaped by --the world that we inhabit today. Servants of Nature explores the fascinating interaction between scientific practice and public life from antiquity to the present. The authors reveal how, in Asia, Europe, and the New World, advances in science have been closely allied to 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. The book proceeds to trace how the bodies that shape scientific tradition and guide innovation have acquired their authority. And in conclusion the authors consider how scientific goals have changed, as they examine the relationship between science, the military, and industry in modern times. Servants of Nature probes the culture of science from its origins to the present and promises to be an indispensable contribution to the history of science.

Author Biography

Lewis Pyenson is Professor of History and Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
List of Plates	xv
Introduction: Science and Its Past	1	(4)
The discipline of history of science	5	(5)
Inspiration and method	10	(5)
The end of science	15	(10)
PART I INSTITUTIONS
Teaching: Before the Scientific Revolution	25	(23)
The Mediterranean world	27	(6)
Eastern cultures	33	(6)
Islam	39	(3)
The Middle Ages	42	(6)
Teaching: From the Time of the Scientific Revolution	48	(26)
The Scientific Revolution	49	(4)
The rise of the German university	53	(4)
The German research university in context	57	(7)
Universities elsewhere	64	(10)
Sharing: Early Scientific Societies	74	(27)
Engines of the Scientific Revolution	77	(11)
The rise of the scientific correspondent	88	(2)
Eighteenth-century expansion	90	(5)
Nineteenth-century consolidation	95	(2)
The emergence of specialized societies	97	(4)
Watching: Observatories in the Middle East, China, Europe and America	101	(24)
The Islamic observatory	103	(6)
Chinese astronomy	109	(4)
Innovation in instruments	113	(4)
Time and prediction	117	(1)
Astronomy and related disciplines	118	(7)
Showing: Museums	125	(25)
The development of modern museums	126	(5)
The British Museum and the `new museum idea'	131	(2)
Museums in Europe and the United States	133	(2)
Colonial museums	135	(3)
Colonial and metropolitan museums: some comparisons	138	(3)
Descriptions of colonial museums	141	(2)
Museums in Canada, South America, and Australasia	143	(7)
Growing: Botanical Gardens and Zoos	150	(25)
The development of botanical gardens	151	(9)
Kew Gardens	160	(3)
The evolution of zoological gardens	163	(6)
The rise of public zoos	169	(6)
PART II ENTERPRISES
Measuring: The Search for Precision	175	(36)
Measurement in antiquity	178	(3)
Syncretism and measuring instruments	181	(2)
Newtonian measurement	183	(4)
Timepieces	187	(3)
Standardization	190	(2)
The ideology of precision	192	(2)
Measurement and industrial progress	194	(2)
Absolute measurement and error analysis	196	(2)
The transformation of mechanical precision	198	(2)
Old programme, new effects	200	(2)
Philosophy and practice	202	(2)
Precision regnant	204	(4)
Precision and the human spirit	208	(3)
Reading: Books and the Spread of Ideas	211	(25)
From script to print	211	(4)
Facilitating the birth of modern science	215	(2)
The rise of the scientific journal	217	(9)
New forms for new audiences	226	(3)
Showing science: the art of illustration	229	(7)
Travelling: Discovery, Maps and Scientific Expeditions	236	(28)
Who discovered whom?	237	(1)
Travellers in antiquity	238	(2)
Maps	240	(2)
Progression of people and ideas in the Malay Archipelago	242	(1)
European expansion	243	(3)
A century of wonders	246	(2)
The new encyclopaedia	248	(3)
Classifying nature	251	(3)
The scientific expeditions	254	(10)
Counting: Statistics	264	(24)
The odds	265	(5)
Precision and numbers	270	(2)
Surveying and statistics	272	(2)
Terrestrial means	274	(2)
Statistics physical and social	276	(1)
Doctrine of certainty	277	(1)
Twentieth-century uncertainty	278	(4)
Average lives	282	(2)
The popular triumph of averages	284	(4)
Killing: Science and the Military	288	(31)
Gunpowder	289	(3)
The vocabulary of military science	292	(4)
French military builders	296	(3)
Naval stars	299	(1)
The star chart	300	(5)
Military mappers	305	(4)
Military weathermen	309	(2)
Applications and prestige	311	(8)
PART III SENSIBILITIES
Participating: Beyond Scientific Societies	319	(31)
The rise of literary and philosophical Societies	321	(1)
Associations for the advancement of science	322	(3)
The common scientist	325	(3)
Scientific clubs for everyone	328	(2)
The overseas extension of European models	330	(5)
Women in science	335	(7)
The example of Madame du Chatelet	342	(2)
Women elsewhere	344	(6)
Appropriating: Science in Nations Beyond Europe	350	(31)
Colonial scientific societies	350	(5)
Early colonial universities	355	(3)
Independent universities	358	(3)
The research university in the United States	361	(2)
Scientific migration	363	(3)
Australasia	366	(2)
Scientist missionaries in South America	368	(5)
Science at American universities	373	(1)
Science at Japanese universities	374	(2)
British India and Dutch Indonesia	376	(5)
Believing: Science and Religion	381	(26)
Science in the Counter-Reformation	382	(4)
The Merton thesis	386	(4)
The Webster thesis: millenarianism and science	390	(2)
The Enlightenment	392	(4)
Deism	396	(1)
Natural theology	397	(3)
The argument against Darwinian evolution	400	(4)
Twentieth-century developments	404	(3)
Knowing: Progressing and Proclaiming	407	(17)
Magic and science	408	(2)
Baconianism	410	(4)
Encyclopaedism	414	(4)
Materialism	418	(1)
Positivism	419	(2)
The polemical positivism of Auguste Comte	421	(2)
The eclipse of positivism	423	(1)
Knowing: Relativizing	424	(17)
The century of relativity	425	(4)
Mach and Einstein	429	(4)
The reception of Einstein's thought	433	(3)
Eclecticism and hope	436	(5)
Notes	441	(12)
Further Reading	453	(25)
Picture Credits	478	(1)
Index	479