Servants of Nature: A History of Scientific Institutions, Enterprises and Sensibilities (Fontana History of Science) - Softcover

Lewis Pyenson; Susan Sheets-Pyenson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006862179 ISBN 13: 9780006862178

Publisher: Fontana Press, 2000

Synopsis

The authors identify that the major advances in science stem from changes in three distict areas of society: the social institutions that promote science; the sensibilities of scientists themselves and the goal of the scientific enterprise. The book begins by examining the institutions that have shaped science: the academics of Ancient greece, universities, the growth of museums of science, technology and natural history, botanical and zoological gardens and the advent of popular specialized research laboratories. It is equally comprehensive when it analyzes changing scientific sensibilities - for example the relationship between religion and science, or the interplay between the growth of democracy and the growth of scientifc knowledge. The final section of the book on the changing nature of scientific enterprise, considers how the goals of science have evolved, from the earliest examples of the written word, to the increasingly cosy relationships between scientists, militarists and industrialists in the modern world.

About this title

Review:

Perhaps the most pernicious myth about science is that of the bright loner, the Einstein who single-handedly revolutionizes how we think about the world. Scientists, just like the rest of us, are social animals, say Lewis Pyenson and Susan Sheets-Pyenson in their eloquent history of learned societies, Servants of Nature. From classical Greece and ancient China to modern technical institutes, they show us the cultural apparatus used to discover (or create) and then transmit knowledge through the generations, usually mirroring local political institutions, though sometimes on the vanguard of social change, as in the student-run colleges of late medieval Europe.

Scholarly yet lively, Servants of Nature is organized in chapters dealing with specific aspects of knowledge: "Teaching," "Measuring," and "Knowing" are a few of the activities whose meanings have changed over the centuries and have been debated and refined by academies, royal societies, and universities to the present day. Though the stories of personalities are, of course, subordinated to those of the institutions to which they contributed, the narratives are still fresh and compelling. In the end, we are reminded that while we perceive individuals as the source of discoveries and knowledge, it is really their connections that channel and perpetuate their learning--after all, it's not what you know, it's who you know. --Rob Lightner

About the Author:

Lewis Pyenson and Susan Sheets-Pyenson are a husband-and-wife team from Louisiana. Susan Sheets-Pyenson is Associate Professor of History at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Lewis Pyenson is Professor of History and Mathematics, and Dean of the Graduate School, at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fontana Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0006862179
• ISBN 13: 9780006862178
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 700