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Overview
Drawing on an astonishing breadth of research, Shapiro probes the fact's changing identity from an alleged human action to a proven natural or human happening. The crucial first step in this transition occurred in the sixteenth century when English common law established a definition of fact which relied on eyewitnesses and testimony. The concept widened to cover natural as well as human events as a result of developments in news reportage and travel writing. Only then, Shapiro discovers, did scientific philosophy adopt the category "fact." With Francis Bacon advocating more stringent criteria, the witness became a vital component in scientific observation and experimentation. Shapiro also recounts how England's preoccupation with the fact influenced historiography, religion, and literature—which saw the creation of a fact-oriented fictional genre, the novel.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780801436864 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Cornell University Press |
| Publication date: | 11/17/1999 |
| Series: | 8/27/2007 |
| Pages: | 296 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.06(d) |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
What People are Saying About This
A Culture of Fact is a superb realization of a great idea. Erudite, conceptually rich, and thought provoking, it also constitutes an important supplement to several areas of scholarship in early modern English intellectual history.
Fascinating work... Shapiro admirably achieves her aim, which is to shed light on questions relating to disciplinary development and permeability. She emphasizes the legal origins of 'fact' without overestimating legal influences in the development of other disciplines. She shows how this critical element of our language of empiricism was shaped out of legal practices and how a concept of 'fact' grounded in human acts and testimony became a commonplace of Anglo-American cultural practice.
A Culture of Fact is clearly written and lucidly arranged... The work rests upon an impressive amount of reading in the vernacular printed books of the period, and also makes use of some archival material from the Royal Society.
Commanding both a formidable range of reference and a lucid prose style, Shapiro has something interesting to say about almost every topic she touches... Shapiro's book can be recommended as essential reading for anyone concerned with the intellectual history of early modern England.
Barbara Shapiro's original account of the concept of fact in early-modern English culture moves outward from law to virtually every area of professional and lay intellectual curiosity and endeavor. Thoughtful, learned, and admirably lucid, A Culture of Fact is an important contribution to the study of post-Medieval Western culture in general.