The Scientific Revolution

I have studied science and the history of science for a long time. I taught experimental methodology at Emory University also. This book is a must-read for it's unique insights into the culture and mindset of the times when science arose and how it related to the politics of the era (revolutions, protestant reformation, and freedom etc.). I enjoyed how the author shows the relationship of religious ideas of the time to science -- they were reading the "other holy book" or "the book of nature" which was available for all to read. An especially interesting aspect of this book for me was that at the end of it he shows that practical ideas or purposes were not the motive for the research that was done, and that much of the best practical applications of the research which was done around the 16-1700's did not come into play until much later -- hundreds of years later in many instances. The abstract pursuit of truth about the world, the reading of "the other holy book" was the thing. (I emphasize this aspect of science in my own book also)The Textbook of the Universe: The Genetic Ascent to God. It also brings to light other important differences with other cultures -- such as why science never took off in asia before western ideas invaded over there. Oriental philosophy and thinking tends to be resolutely practical to the point that it could be considered a form of blindness for them. Their history of philosophy is filled with practical conundrums, not abstract theories of universal truths. They never had any individualistic freedom movements either. That difference is an extremely important insight into the western impetus to science. We did it naturally, and it was originally a fundamentally religious pursuit for us. The other main insight in this book is that our urges for freedom and individualism were bound up inextricably with our desire to read the "book of nature". This is the core of western thinking in general which gave rise to science. It defines us. I can think of no greater insight to the nature of western European thinking than this. Science, freedom, individualism, and our natural ideas of religion -- they go together. I have read no other book that illustrates and elucidates this supremely important point and foundation of science better than this one little book. It is small, but it is a powerhouse. Other than that, it is a great read, hard to put down. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the scientific revolution.

Perhaps the best, concise review by an established scholar. Worth it for the first chapter alone, which reviews the intellectual background and the philosophy of the revolution.

The Scientific Revolution represented a profound change in the way that we try to understand nature. The influence of science today, and its prestite, is pervasive. So this is an interesting topic. But Shapin's book is only an introduction. You'll get some names (Boyle, Galileo, Descartes, Bacon, Newton) and some interesting quotes and summaries of their thought. The issues of experiment, measurement and mathematization are treated. But none of it is in much depth. You won't learn any of the specifics of Copernicus, Galileo or Newton. If this is your first intro to the subject, it's fine. But for someone like me who already has somewhat of a background, most of this was stuff I already knew. It's well written, easy to read and has somewhat of a critical perspective, which is nice. But it's somewhat superficial and shallow. But it serves it purpose, I suppose. Greg Feirman ([email protected])

I am amazed by the review written by the reader from Sydney. This book does not pretend to give a chronological narrative of who did what when in the making of modern science. There are many books that do that job. Instead, Shapin is interested in what difference the Scientific Revolution made to how people at the time, and how we, think about the natural world. The major changes may have been the new idea that nature could be investigated and understood, not merely regarded with awe and fear; that careful, repeatable experiments could yield information about how nature works; and that this new approach to nature changed how human beings regarded our relation to the natural world and our place in it. If nature is something that we can explore and understand, then we have a new power; we are no longer on a par with the natural world, because we can see into it. The ways in which knowledge is acquired, or made, and why it matters that we pursue and develop this knowledge are part of Shapin's central theme. These are not small questions, and to my mind they are addressed elegantly in this short but very substantial book.

Shapin opens his 'Scientific Revolution' with the paradoxical statement, "there was no such thing as the Scientific Revolution, and this is a book about it." Shapin proceeds to use the next 150 or so pages to explain himself. The book is firmly structured in three sections, addressing the what, how, and why of scientific knowledge in the seventeenth century; the contents of each section are similarly well-structured, but seem to discuss more than the simple titles suggest. Examining the very foundations of scientific thought and the manner in which the modern distinction between legitimate science and voodoo came about, Shapin uses the Scientific Revolution as a venue for introducing his and other scholars' views on both the essential nature of modern science and the way in which ideas evolve. Explanatory notes where appropriate make the reading accessible to those unfamiliar with science history or philosophy.