Title: On the shoulders of giants
Subtitle: a Shandean postscript
First published: 1965
Description: With playfulness and a large dose of wit, Robert Merton traces the origin of Newton's aphorism, "If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Using as a model the discursive and digressive style of Sterne's Tristram Shandy , Merton presents a whimsical yet scholarly work which deals with the questions of creativity, tradition, plagiarism, the transmission of knowledge, and the concept of progress.
Subjects: Aphorisms and apothegms, Learning and scholarship, History, Science, History and criticism, Methodology, Quotations, Anecdotes, English Quotations, Anecdotes, facetiae, satire, Wetenschapssociologie, Newton, isaac, sir, 1642-1727, Science, methodology
People: Isaac Newton Sir (1642-1727)