Autonomous Nature: Problems of Prediction and Control From Ancient Times to the Scientific Revolution (2015)
Merchant, Carolyn (Author)
Routledge
Physical Details: 211 pages
Language: English
Autonomous Nature investigates the history of nature as an active, often unruly force in tension with nature as a rational, logical order from ancient times to the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. Along with subsequent advances in mechanics, hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, and electromagnetism, nature came to be perceived as an orderly, rational, physical world that could be engineered, controlled, and managed. Autonomous Nature focuses on the history of unpredictability, why it was a problem for the ancient world through the Scientific Revolution, and why it is a problem for today. The work is set in the context of vignettes about unpredictable events such as the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, the Bubonic Plague, the Lisbon Earthquake, and efforts to understand and predict the weather and natural disasters. This book is an ideal text for courses on the environment, environmental history, history of science, or the philosophy of science.
...MoreReview Daniel Burton‐Rose (2018) Review of "Autonomous Nature: Problems of Prediction and Control From Ancient Times to the Scientific Revolution". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (pp. 70-71).
Review Lydia Barnett (October 2017) Review of "Autonomous Nature: Problems of Prediction and Control From Ancient Times to the Scientific Revolution". Environmental History (pp. 757-759).
Review Ximo Guillem-Llobat (2017) Review of "Autonomous Nature: Problems of Prediction and Control From Ancient Times to the Scientific Revolution". Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (pp. 194-195).
Review J. Donald Hughes (2017) Review of "Autonomous Nature: Problems of Prediction and Control From Ancient Times to the Scientific Revolution". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 868-869).
Similar Citations
Book
Vincent Ialenti;
(2020)
Deep time reckoning: How future thinking can help Earth now
(/isis/citation/CBB345154320/)
Article
Michael Fry;
(2018)
Predictive Hypotheses Are Ineffectual in Resolving Complex Biochemical Systems
(/isis/citation/CBB002665433/)
Article
Remington J. Moll;
Daniel Steel;
Robert A. Montgomery;
(2016)
AIC and the challenge of complexity: A case study from ecology
(/isis/citation/CBB078857465/)
Article
Thomas, John Meurig;
(2001)
Predictions
(/isis/citation/CBB000101347/)
Article
Israel, Giorgio;
(2005)
The Science of Complexity: Epistemological Problems and Perspectives
(/isis/citation/CBB000651669/)
Article
Brush, Stephen G.;
(2007)
Predictivism and the Periodic Table
(/isis/citation/CBB000771912/)
Article
Cleland, Carol E.;
(2011)
Prediction and Explanation in Historical Natural Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001230041/)
Article
Frank Cabrera;
(2020)
Evidence and Explanation in Cicero's On Divination
(/isis/citation/CBB028919561/)
Article
Chris Campbell;
Karoliina Pulkkinen;
(2020)
How Mendeleev issued his predictions: comment on Andrea Woody
(/isis/citation/CBB534312169/)
Article
Douglas, Heather E.;
(2009)
Reintroducing Prediction to Explanation
(/isis/citation/CBB001031637/)
Article
Kragh, Helge;
(2012)
The Isotope Effect: Prediction, Discussion, and Discovery
(/isis/citation/CBB001210781/)
Article
Hitchcock, Christopher;
Sober, Elliott;
(2004)
Prediction versus Accommodation and the Risk of Overfitting
(/isis/citation/CBB000410745/)
Book
Barnes, Eric C.;
(2008)
The Paradox of Predictivism
(/isis/citation/CBB000831092/)
Article
Jan J. Boersma;
Antonello La Vergata;
Geneviève Artigas-Menant;
(2014)
Introduction Générale / General Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB875050216/)
Chapter
Paolo Grillo;
(2022)
Introduzione: fra storia umana e storia della natura
(/isis/citation/CBB277660648/)
Article
David P. D. Munns;
(2021)
The age of biology: When plant physiology was in the center of American life science
(/isis/citation/CBB656427237/)
Book
Wohl, Ellen;
(2010)
A World of Rivers: Environmental Change on Ten of the World's Greatest Rivers
(/isis/citation/CBB001201858/)
Book
Alessandro Dini;
(2020)
Immagini della natura nell'età moderna
(/isis/citation/CBB066938049/)
Book
Catherine E. Rigby;
(2015)
Dancing with Disaster: Environmental Histories, Narratives, and Ethics for Perilous Times
(/isis/citation/CBB403431011/)
Article
Carlos Estellita-Lins;
Flavio Coelho Edler;
(2018)
Charting Links between Life, Science, and Technique: Georges Canguilhem and Lucien Febvre
(/isis/citation/CBB619848233/)
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
Science in Context
Be the first to comment!