Servants of Nature: A History of Scientific, Institutions, Enterprises & Sensibilities - Softcover

Lewis Pyenson; Susan Sheets-Pyenson

3.22

18 ratings by Goodreads

9780756767778: Servants of Nature: A History of Scientific, Institutions, Enterprises & Sensibilities

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0756767776 ISBN 13: 9780756767778

Publisher: Harper Collins Pub. Ltd., 1998

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Major scientific advances stem from changes in 3 areas: the social institutions that promote science, the sensibilities of scientists themselves, & the goal of the scientific enterprise. Examining the institutions that have shaped science -- the academies of Ancient Greece, universities, the growth of museums of science, technology & natural history, botanical & zoological gardens, & the advent of modern specialized research labs -- this volume also analyses changing scientific sensibilities through time, such as the relationship between religion & science or the interplay between the growth of democracy & the growth of scientific knowledge. Covers the changing nature of scientific enterprise & considers how the goals of science have evolved.

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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 is professor of history and mathematics at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, where the late Susan Sheets-Pyenson was professor of history. Lewis Pyenson is the author of the landmark trilogy about science and imperialism: Civilizing Mission, Empire of Reason, and Cultural Imperialism and Exact Sciences. Susan Sheets-Pyenson is the author of Cathedrals of Science.

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