Overview

This volume, honoring the renowned historian of science, Allen G. Debus, explores ideas of science - ""experiences of nature"" - from within an historiographical tradition that Debus has done much to define. As his work shows, the sciences do not develop exclusively as a result of a progressive and inexorable logic of discovery. A wide variety of extra-scientific factors, deriving from changing intellectual contexts and differing social millieus, play crucial roles in the overall development of scientific thought. These essays represent case studies in a broad range of scientific settings - from 16th-century astronomy and medicine, through 19th-century biology and mathematics, to the social sciences in the 20th-century - that show the impact of both social settings and the cross-fertilization of ideas on the formation of science. Aimed at a general audience interested in the history of science, this book closes with Debus's personal perspective on the development of the field.

Full Product Details

Author:   P. Theerman ,  Karen Hunger Parshall
Publisher:   Springer
Imprint:   Springer
Edition:   1997 ed.
Volume:   58
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   1.420kg
ISBN:  

9780792344773

ISBN 10:   0792344774
Pages:   312
Publication Date:   30 April 1997
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Experiencing Nature in Intellectual Contexts.- The Body Politic before and after the Scientific Revolution.- The Geometrical Kabbalahs of John Dee and Johannes Kepler: The Hebrew Tradition and the Mathematical Study of Nature.- The Theological Foundations of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.- Chemistry through Invariant Theory? James Joseph Sylvester’s Mathematization of the Atomic Theory.- Experiencing Nature in Social Contexts.- Religion, Science, and the Public Imagination: The Restoration of Order in Early Modern France.- Dancing with Spiders: Tarantism in Early Modern Europe.- Nature and Culture in the Discourses of the Virtuosi of France.- Dionysius Lardner’s American Tour: A Case Study in Antebellum American Interest in Science, Technology, and Nature.- Establishing an Historiographical Tradition.- From the Sciences to History: A Personal and Intellectual Journey.- Selected Bibliography.- Notes on Contributors.

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