The Social Origins of Modern Science

by Zilsel, Edgar; Raven, Diederick; Krohn, Wolfgang; Cohen, R. S.

• ISBN13: 9780792364573
• ISBN10: 0792364570
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

The most outstanding feature of this book is that here, for the first time, is made available in a single volume all the important historical essays Edgar Zilsel (1891-1944) published during WWII on the emergence of modern science. This edition also contains one previously unpublished essay and an extended version of an essay published earlier. In these essays, Zilsel developed the now famous thesis, named after him, that science came into being when, in the late Middle Ages, the social barriers between the intellectuals and the artisans were eroded, due to the fact that the rapidly expanding commercial classes of that period had a keen interest in improvements in technology. This class was city-based and stimulated a social environment in which men of learning came to regard the craftsmen and technicians with a new respect, in which they no longer felt any contempt for manual work and in which theory and practice were eventually combined to produce modern science. This critical edition also carries a long introduction in which much new material about Zilsel's life and work is presented. It suggests that a radical new look at Zilsel's project needs to be taken. Zilsel's essays on the history of science look like a standard case study to substantiate a particular position on the origins of modern science, but they were also an attempt to show that lawlike explanation in history and social theory is possible. It is claimed that Zilsel's historical essays were a part of another project he was working on which focused on the idea that social phenomena were open to causal explanation as much as physical phenomena. Hence the volume also contains the essays Zilsel wrote in relation to this other project. Previously there have been published a German and an Italian edition of the Zilsel essays. This edition is the first in English; compared to the other two editions this one is the first that includes unpublished material and the first to undertake a serious effort to research Zilsel's life and work. What is special about this volume is the well-articulated social perspective it takes on the origins of modern science. Audience: Students in early modern social history/history of science as well as professional philosophers, historians, and sociologists of science.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Robert S. Cohen
Foreword	xi
Joseph Needham
Origin of the Essays	xv
A Note of the Use of Archive Material	xvi
Acknowledgements	xvii
Editorial Policy	xviii
Introduction: Edgar Zilsel: His Life and Work (1891-1944)	xix
Diederick Raven
Wolfgang Krohn
Photo of Edgar Zilsel	lxi
PART I: THE SOCIAL ORIGINS OF MODERN SCIENCE
The Social Roots of Science	3	(4)
The Sociological Roots of Science	7	(15)
The Methods of Humanism	22	(43)
Remarks on Zilsel's `The Methods of Humanism'	65	(6)
Paul O. Kristeller
The Origins of William Gilbert's Scientific Method	71	(25)
The Genesis of the Concept of Physical Law	96	(27)
Copernicus and Mechanics	123	(5)
The Genesis of the Concept of Scientific Progress and Cooperation	128	(43)
PART II: PHYSICAL LAW AND SOCIO-HISTORICAL LAW
Problems of Empiricism	171	(29)
Physics and the Problem of Historico-sociological Laws	200	(9)
Phenomenology and Natural Science	209	(5)
Concerning `Phenomenology and Natural Science'	214	(2)
History and Biological Evolution	216	(5)
Science and the Humanistic Studies	221	(32)
PART III: APPENDICES
Appendix I: The Sociological Roots of Science	227	(6)
Appendix II: Laws of Nature and Historical Laws	233	(2)
Appendix III: Bibliography of Works Cited by Zilsel	235	(8)
Appendix IV: Bibliography of Edgar Zilsel's Works With a Bibliography of Secondary Literature Concerning Zilsel	243	(10)
Index of names	253	(6)
Index of topics	259