Problems with the Word Made Flesh: The Great Tradition of the Scientific Revolution in Europe (2017)
The Great Tradition of writing about what came to be called The Scientific Revolution developed in the mid-twentieth century and helped to shape what came to be termed “early modern” Europe. At least two fundamental structural elements of the framework were that a small group of independent minds had been set free to grasp new truths, and that rivalries among many groups in Europe never allowed “European civilization” to achieve homeostasis, thus continuing to encourage innovation in conditions of freedom. It is worth noting, however, that the first of these structural elements had religious overtones that were important in the early stages of the Cold War, and that the second placed innovation within a tradition of great texts rather than material culture and practice. Both changed the earlier conversation of the 1930s, which had been about political economies, connecting the new history of science to a history that offered to explain European superiority on the basis of the search for truth. Recent developments in global history, which are rooted in economic histories, challenge such a framing. The brand-name of The Scientific Revolution is common and will remain a useful short-hand, but its meaning requires major revision and should not be limited to the history of Europe.
...MoreArticle J. B. Shank (2017) Special Issue: After the Scientific Revolution: Thinking Globally about the Histories of the Modern Sciences. Journal of Early Modern History (pp. 377-393).
Similar Citations
Article
Kapil Raj;
(2017)
Thinking Without the Scientific Revolution: Global Interactions and the Construction of Knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB276711198/)
Article
J. B. Shank;
(2017)
Special Issue: After the Scientific Revolution: Thinking Globally about the Histories of the Modern Sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB216560364/)
Article
Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra;
(2017)
On Ignored Global “Scientific Revolutions”
(/isis/citation/CBB557863061/)
Book
H. Floris Cohen;
(2015)
The Rise of Modern Science Explained: A Comparative History
(/isis/citation/CBB557444466/)
Book
Johannes Feichtinger;
Anil Bhatti;
Cornelia Hülmbauer;
(2020)
How to Write the Global History of Knowledge-Making: Interaction, Circulation and the Transgression of Cultural Difference
(/isis/citation/CBB429978866/)
Book
Weinert, Friedel;
(2009)
Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud: Revolutions in the History and Philosophy of Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001033005/)
Book
Ball, Philip;
(2012)
Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything
(/isis/citation/CBB001252286/)
Article
Carla Nappi;
(2017)
Paying Attention: Early Modern Science Beyond Genealogy
(/isis/citation/CBB373564709/)
Book
Steven Weinberg;
(2015)
Para explicar o mundo: A descoberta da ciência moderna
(/isis/citation/CBB683100554/)
Book
Hanegraaff, Wouter J.;
(2012)
Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture
(/isis/citation/CBB001201630/)
Book
Stuckrad, Kocku von;
(2010)
Locations of Knowledge in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Esoteric Discourse and Western Identities
(/isis/citation/CBB001201627/)
Article
Fernando Rodríguez Mediano;
(2016)
Sacred Calendars: Calculation of the Hegira as a Historiographical Problem in Early Modern Spain
(/isis/citation/CBB037689647/)
Book
Knight, David M.;
(2015)
Voyaging in Strange Seas: The Great Revolution in Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001551963/)
Book
Cohen, H. Floris;
(2010)
How Modern Science Came Into the World: Four Civilizations, One 17th-Century Breakthrough
(/isis/citation/CBB001200539/)
Article
Nicholas Popper;
(2016)
Archives and the Boundaries of Early Modern Science
(/isis/citation/CBB949959104/)
Book
Rehav Rubin;
(2019)
Portraying the Land: Hebrew Maps of the Land of Israel from Rashi to the Early 20th Century
(/isis/citation/CBB589984320/)
Book
Silvio Bergia;
Giorgio Dragoni;
(2018)
Fisica: Scienza, storia e società
(/isis/citation/CBB359636481/)
Book
Jonathan Reinarz;
(2014)
Past Scents: Historical Perspectives on Smell
(/isis/citation/CBB025338985/)
Book
Cohen, H. Floris;
(2010)
How Modern Science Came into the World: Four Civilizations, One 17th-Century Breakthrough
(/isis/citation/CBB001035174/)
Book
Burns, William E.;
(2016)
The Scientific Revolution in Global Perspective
(/isis/citation/CBB001551069/)
Be the first to comment!