I’m an easy grader, but this book is a true six star volume. Let’s start with the fact that the notes are at the bottom of the page not in the back, only bibliographic notes at the end. I won’t dwell on this pet peeve, but it is much more readable than the current format of sticking them in the rear where one needs a separate, ever moving bookmark. (I’ve read this has to do with computer typesetting but it seems to me that technique would facilitate layout, not get in the way: I digress) Though described as “encyclopediac”, the book is only 500+ pages of text with some explanatory digressions appended. There is an attractive section of color plates which illustrates the growth of perspective in art which Wootton ties to the mathematization of nature.
“Encyclopedic”, a word used to describe thuis book, suggested to me a long and loosely connected list of facts. Wootton’s work is anything but. I would call it deep and richly referenced. He describes the scientific revolution first by an analysis of the words “science” and revolution”. Each chapter or section deals with a single topic historically illustrated and the work builds as it goes along. Inventing Discovery, The Terrestrial Globe, Mathematization, Telescope/Microscope, Fact, Experiment and so on. The reader will want to have a decent background in physical science and philosophy and history of science won’t hurt either. At the end of the book a truly masterful synthesis has been presented. With the added attraction that a wealth of detailed history has been served up. To give even a brief summary would involve more than I can currently give time to. Wootton not only knows his history but has thought thru the concepts involved in our post revolutionary scientific culture in ways that are to me both revealing and original. I cant recommend it highly enough.
I will briefly remark on an agenda which is threaded thru the text. Wootton sets himself against what he sees as the predominant (philosophic) theme of our time: scientific relativity. This unified the work to some degree but it seemed to me to be fighting a bogeyman. The view that that Ptolemy is in some way is as valid as Newton or that (to reference a book in my own library) that there is such a thing as feminist physics doesn’t seem any more urgent than the old fights about the ontological status of Freudian psychology or the historical validity of Marxism. Or, right now, Terrorism as an existential threat to Western Civilization.
On the other hand, as Wootton’s book itself shows, there’s a lot be said for understanding science within a particular culture…or Discourse, as we might say.
And to get a little into the weeds, Wootton seems to me to relying on a default of Scientific Realism, philosophical speaking. I know this is all the rage late 20th and early 21st century but I do not believe it is without serious drawbacks (consciousness). Maybe I’m wrong, but I believe we will need a further advance in our conceptual apparatus before we are done with our search for a unified theory of reality.
I'm so pleased with this book that I hope to have time to flesh out this review, At this posting, the others aren't very helpful. For a quick synopsis, you might check out the section and chapter headings in the book itself. Meantime, take my word; interested in the history of ideas? Read this book.
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Reviews with images
Unnecessarily long
Lot of information but it's too long. I would have written the same in 100 pages. Also, he gets caught up in some abstract concepts like 'inventing discovery' for too many pages.
Top reviews from other countries
Claudio 56
Per capire come la scienza sia un habit diverso dall'invenzione
Reviewed in Italy on December 22, 2017
Timothy Bates
Scholarly, clear and readable explanation of the invention of the scientific revolution and the idea of progress.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 23, 2015
André Herzog
Edição empobrecida
Reviewed in Brazil on March 30, 2021
André Herzog
Reviewed in Brazil on March 30, 2021
O papel da capa é pouco resistente, menos que uma cartolina, e não apresenta sequer "orelhas". A arte é mal impressa, parecendo uma impressão em impressora doméstica caseira.
Houve também uma reescala em relação ao livro de Capa Dura, tornando-o pouco maior 20cm...
As páginas são de papel pouco resistente e naturalmente amarelecido, sem margens para pequenas notas.
Não sei se suporta sequer a leitura, mas o armazenamento certamente está comprometido. Parece descartável. Uma lástima para uma obra desse valor.
Sugiro buscar uma edição usada Hardcover.
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