Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life. Including a translation of Thomas Hobbes, Dialogus physicus de natura aeris, by Schaffer, Simon (1985)
Shapin, Steven B. (Author)
Schaffer, Simon (Author)
Princeton University Press
Physical Details: xiv + 440 pp.; illus.; bibl.; index
In the aftermath of the English Civil War, as people were groping for new forms of political order, Robert Boyle built an air-pump to do experiments. Does the story of Roundheads and Restoration have something to do with the origins of experimental science? Schaffer and Shapin believed it does. Focusing on the debates between Boyle and his archcritic Thomas Hobbes over the air-pump, the authors proposed that "solutions to the problem of knowledge are solutions to the problem of social order." Both Boyle and Hobbes were looking for ways of establishing knowledge that did not decay into ad hominem attacks and political division. Boyle proposed the experiment as cure. He argued that facts should be manufactured by machines like the air-pump so that gentlemen could witness the experiments and produce knowledge that everyone agreed on. Hobbes, by contrast, looked for natural law and viewed experiments as the artificial, unreliable products of an exclusive guild. The new approaches taken in Leviathan and the Air-Pump have been enormously influential on historical studies of science. Shapin and Schaffer found a moment of scientific revolution and showed how key scientific givens--facts, interpretations, experiment, truth--were fundamental to a new political order. Shapin and Schaffer were also innovative in their ethnographic approach. Attempting to understand the work habits, rituals, and social structures of a remote, unfamiliar group, they argued that politics were tied up in what scientists did, rather than what they said.
...MoreReview Beretta, M. (1996) Review of "Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life. Including a translation of Thomas Hobbes, Dialogus physicus de natura aeris, by Schaffer, Simon". Nuncius: Annali di Storia della Scienza (pp. 451-52).
Review Pascual, M.J. (1988) Review of "Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life. Including a translation of Thomas Hobbes, Dialogus physicus de natura aeris, by Schaffer, Simon". Sylva Clius: Revista de Historia de la Ciencia (pp. 81-82).
Review Jennings, R.C. (1988) Review of "Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life. Including a translation of Thomas Hobbes, Dialogus physicus de natura aeris, by Schaffer, Simon". British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (pp. 403-10).
Review Martinich, A.P. (1989) Review of "Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life. Including a translation of Thomas Hobbes, Dialogus physicus de natura aeris, by Schaffer, Simon". Journal of the History of Philosophy (pp. 308-9).
Review Heilbron, J.L. (1989) Review of "Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life. Including a translation of Thomas Hobbes, Dialogus physicus de natura aeris, by Schaffer, Simon". Medical History (pp. 256-57).
Review Chabaud, G. (1996) Review of "Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life. Including a translation of Thomas Hobbes, Dialogus physicus de natura aeris, by Schaffer, Simon". Revue d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine (pp. 382-84).
Review Bernhardt, J. (1996) Review of "Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life. Including a translation of Thomas Hobbes, Dialogus physicus de natura aeris, by Schaffer, Simon". Revue d'Histoire des Sciences (pp. 368-69).
Review Hankins, T.L. (1986) Review of "Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life. Including a translation of Thomas Hobbes, Dialogus physicus de natura aeris, by Schaffer, Simon". Science (pp. 1040-42).
Review Hackmann, W.D. (1986) Review of "Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life. Including a translation of Thomas Hobbes, Dialogus physicus de natura aeris, by Schaffer, Simon". Nature (p. 480).
Review Sargent, R.-M. (1988(1)) Review of "Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life. Including a translation of Thomas Hobbes, Dialogus physicus de natura aeris, by Schaffer, Simon". PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association (pp. 53-63).
Review Stewart, L. (1988) Review of "Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life. Including a translation of Thomas Hobbes, Dialogus physicus de natura aeris, by Schaffer, Simon". Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences (pp. 193-97).
Article H. Floris Cohen (2017) A Second Look: Leviathan and the Air-pump: Editor’s Introduction. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 107-107).
Article Azadeh Achbari (2017) The Reviews of Leviathan and the Air-Pump: A Survey. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 108-116).
Article Dominique Pestre (2017) Comment: The Making of a Reference Book. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 119-121).
Article Alex Wellerstein (2017) Comment: The Epistemology of Civility and the Civility of Epistemology. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 140-142).
Article Lijing Jiang (2017) Comment: Taking Experiments Afresh Again. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 133-135).
Article Thomas L. Hankins (2017) Comment: Reviewing a Review. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 117-118).
Article Jeroen Bouterse (2017) Comment: On Rereading a Classic. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 130-132).
Article Vivette García-Deister (2017) Comment: El Leviathan y la bomba de vacío, an Enduring Epistemological Intervention. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 136-139).
Article Paul Wood (2017) Comment: Behemoth v. the Sceptical Chymist, Revisited. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 124-126).
Article Trevor Pinch (2017) Comment: All Pumped Up about the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 127-129).
Article J. L. Heilbron (2017) Comment: A Last Judgment. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 122-123).
Article Simon Schaffer; Steven Shapin (2017) Final Comment: Authors’ Response. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 143-144).
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