Title
Science : a four thousand year history / Patricia Fara.
Edition
1st ed.
ISBN
9780199226894
019922689X
Publication Details
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009.
Language
English
Description
xv, 408 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
Call Number
Q125 .F27 2009
Dewey Decimal Classification
509
Summary
In this book the author rewrites science's past to provide new ways of understanding and questioning our modern technological society. Aiming not just to provide information but to make people think, it explores how science has become so powerful by describing the financial interests and imperial ambitions behind its success. Sweeping through the centuries from ancient Babylon right up to the latest hi-tech experiments in genetics and particle physics, the book also ranges internationally, challenging notions of European superiority by emphasising the importance of scientific projects based around the world, including revealing discussions of China and the Islamic Empire alongside the more familiar stories about Copernicus's sun-centered astronomy, Newton's gravity, and Darwin's theory of evolution. We see for instance how Muslim leaders encouraged science by building massive libraries, hospitals, and astronomical observatories. We rediscover the significance of medieval Europe, long overlooked, where religious institutions ensured science's survival, as the learning preserved in monasteries was subsequently developed in new and unique institutions: universities. Instead of focussing on esoteric experiments and abstract theories, the author explains how science belongs to the practical world of war, politics and business. And rather than glorifying scientists as idealized heroes, she tells true stories about real people, men and some women who needed to earn their living, who made mistakes, and who trampled down their rivals. Finally, this volume challenges scientific supremacy itself, arguing that science is successful not because it is always indubitably right, but because people have said that it is right. Science dominates modern life, but perhaps the globe will be better off by limiting science's powers and undoing some of its effects.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1: Origins
Sevens
Babylon
Heroes
Cosmos
Life
Matter
Technology
2: Interactions
Eurocentrism
China
Islam
Scholarship
Europe
Aristotle
Alchemy
3: Experiments
Exploration
Magic
Astronomy
Bodies
Machines
Instruments
Gravity
4: Institutions
Societies
Systems
Careers
Industries
Revolutions
Rationality
Disciplines
5: Laws
Progress
Globalization
Objectivity
God
Evolution
Power
Time
6: Invisibles
Life
Germs
Rays
Particles
Genes
Chemicals
Uncertainties
7: Decisions
Warfare
Heredity
Cosmology
Information
Rivalry
Environment
Futures.
