Artisan/practitioners and the rise of the new sciences, 1400-1600
By: Pamela O. Long
Series: Horning visiting scholar lecture series
Publisher: Oregon State University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Corvallis, OR
Language: eng
Number of pages: 208
ISBN-13: 9780870716096
Subjects: History; SCIENCE / History; Science; Medieval Science; HISTORY / Medieval; HISTORY / Modern / 16th Century
Description: "This book provides the historical background for a central issue in the history of science: the influence of artisans, craftsmen, and other practitioners on the emergent empirical methodologies that characterized the "new sciences" of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Long offers a coherent account and critical revision of the "Zilsel thesis," an influential etiological narrative which argues that such craftsmen were instrumental in bringing about the "Scientific Revolution." Artisan/Practitioners reassesses the issue of artisanal influence from three different perspectives: the perceived relationships between art and nature; the Vitruvian architectural tradition with its appreciation of both theory and practice; and the development of "trading zones"--arenas in which artisans and learned men communicated in substantive ways. These complex social and intellectual developments, the book argues, underlay the development of the empirical sciences. This volume provides new discussion and synthesis of a theory that encompasses broad developments in European history and study of the natural world. It will be a valuable resource for college-level teaching, and for scholars and others interested in the history of science, late medieval and early modern European history, and the Scientific Revolution"--

"Explores the influence of craftsmen and practitioners such as farmers and navigators in the development of the new sciences during the period in the title"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.