Objectivity in the making
Subtitle: Francis Bacon and the politics of inquiry
By: Julie Robin Solomon.
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Baltimore
Language: eng
Number of pages: 321
Subjects: Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.; Objectivity -- History -- 17th century.
Description: In Objectivity in the Making Julie Robin Solomon describes how disinterestedness became a dominant principle of intellectual modernity by examining Bacon's notion of scientific self-distancing against the background of early modern political ideology, socioeconomic behavior, and traditions of learning. Solomon places Bacon between two cultures - Jacobean monarchical mercantilism and the self-distancing strategies of early-seventeenth-century traders and travelers.

She shows that - by virtue of his prominent political position within the Jacobean court, familiarity with prevailing commercial practices, and humanistic learning - he made signal contributions to natural philosophy. While arguing how much the rise of scientific objectivity owed to sociohistorical circumstances, Solomon nonetheless challenges the single-minded reliance upon the explanatory power of social-construction theory within the context of literary and cultural studies of science.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 229-309) and index.