Science in the Public Sphere: Natural Knowledge in British Culture 1800-1860 / Edition 1

by Richard Yeo

Overview

The common focus of the essays in this book is the debate on the nature of science - often referred to by contemporaries as ’natural knowledge’ - in Britain during the first half of the 19th century. This was the period before major state support for science allowed its professionalization; indeed, it was a time in which the word ’scientist’ (although coined in 1833 by William Whewell) was not yet widely used. In this context, the questions about the nature of science were part of a public debate that included the following topics: scientific method and intellectual authority, the moral demeanour of the man of science, the hierarchy of specialised scientific disciplines, and the relation with natural theology. These topics were discussed both within scientific circles - in correspondence and meeting of societies - as well as in the wider public sphere constituted by quarterly journals and encyclopaedias. A study of these debates allow us to see how British science of this period began to cast loose some of its earlier theological supports, but still relied on a moral framework to affirm its distinctive method, ethos and cultural value.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780860788652
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/12/2001
Series:	Variorum Collected Studies
Pages:	324
Product dimensions:	5.88(w) x 8.81(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Contents: Introduction; Scientific Method and the Ethos of Science: Scientific method and the image of science, 1831-1891; An idol of the market-place: Baconianism in 19th-century Britain; Reviewing Herschel's Discourse; Scientific method and the rhetoric of science in Britain, 1830-1917; Natural Theology and the Practice of Science: William Whewell, natural theology and the philosophy of science in mid-19th-century Britain; The principle of plenitude and natural theology in 19th-century Britain; Science in the Public Sphere: Genius, method and morality: images of Newton in Britain, 1760-1860; William Whewell on the history of science; Reading encyclopedias: science and the organization of knowledge in British dictionaries of arts and sciences, 1730-1850; Alphabetical lives: scientific biography in historical dictionaries and encyclopaedias; Science and intellectual authority in mid-19th-century Britain: Robert Chambers and Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation; Index.

Editorial Reviews

A collection of previously published essays written between 1979 and 1996 that address the cultural status of science in early Victorian Britain. In the essays he focuses on how the scientific method came to the fore out of more general epistemological discussions conducted by writer in the tradition of British empiricism. A second major theme of the essays is the role of natural theology as a framework for early 19th century discussions of science, specifically focusing on the writings of William Whewell and his assumptions that the success of science indicated that humanity shared in the Divine mind. Finally, a group of essays consider how ideas of science were encountered in the public sphere, including an examination of the image of the man of science as moral exemplar and a discussion of the concept of intellectual authority. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)