The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution

by David Wootton

Overview

This “fantastic revisionist history . . . captures the excitement of the scientific revolution and makes a point of celebrating the advances it ushered in” (Financial Times).

We live in a world transformed by scientific discovery. In The Invention of Science, historian David Wootton reveals why the Scientific Revolution was truly the greatest event in our history. Spanning continents and centuries, Wootton chronicles the factors that led to this crucial transformation, and the fascinating people who made it happen.

Wootton argues that the Scientific Revolution was actually five separate yet concurrent events that merged to create a new worldview. Here are the brilliant iconoclasts—Galileo, Copernicus, Brahe, Newton, and many more curious minds from across Europe—whose studies of the natural world challenged centuries of religious orthodoxy and ingrained superstition.

From gunpowder technology, the discovery of the new world, movable type printing, perspective painting, and the telescope to the practice of conducting experiments, the laws of nature, and the concept of the fact, Wootton shows how these discoveries codified into a social construct and a system of knowledge. Ultimately, he makes clear the link between scientific discovery and the rise of industrialization—and the birth of the modern world we know.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062199256
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/27/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	1170
Sales rank:	232,702
File size:	25 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

David Wootton is the Anniversary Professor at the University of York. His previous books include Paolo Sarpi, Bad Medicine, and Galileo. He gave the Raleigh Lectures at the British Academy in 2008, the Carlyle Lectures at the University of Oxford in 2014, and the Benedict Lecture at Boston University in 2014.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

Introduction

1 Modern Minds 3

2 The Idea of the Scientific Revolution 15

Part 1 The Heavens and the Earth

3 Inventing Discovery 57

4 Planer Earth 110

Part 2 Seeing is Believing

5 The Mathematization of the World 163

6 Gulliver's Worlds 211

Part 3 Making Knowledge

7 Facts 251

8 Experiments 310

9 Laws 361

10 Hypotheses/Theories 380

11 Evidence and Judgement 400

Part 4 Birth of the Modern

12 Machines 431

13 The Disenchantment of the World 449

14 Knowledge is Power 476

Conclusion: The Invention of Science

15 In Defiance of Nature 511

16 These Postmodern Days 544

17 'What Do I Know?' 556

Some Longer Notes 573

A Note on Greek and Medieval 'Science' 573

A Note on Religion 575

Wittgenstein: No Relativist 577

Notes on Relativism and Relativists 580

A Note on Dates and Quotations 591

A Note on the Internet 592

Acknowledgements 595

Endnotes 599

Bibliography 655

Index 723

Editorial Reviews

10/19/2015
This substantive narrative of human progress is engaging and well constructed for the general science or history reader. Wooton (Galileo: Watcher of the Skies), professor of history at the University of York, makes a powerful, though currently unpopular, case against a Wittgensteinian historical relativism that sees science as entirely a social construct, changing gradually and continuously since antiquity. Wooton argues instead for viewing the period between 1572 and 1704 as a scientific revolution in a true sense, during which multiple strands of thought, technology, and culture came together in unexpected ways to transform human understanding of the physical world—the “triumph of Newtonianism,” which still informs modern research and dialogue. Analysis of primary texts from key philosophers as well as chronological details of their development and use of instrumentation sit beside broader-reaching approaches that explore linguistic change over time, how perspective-drawing techniques influenced astronomy, the ways the printing press helped form critical communities, and social analyses of the “mathematization of nature” and the decline of the appeal to authority, among other topics. Wooton’s arguments stand effectively on their own, making the final chapters directed at his historian colleagues feel like bloated academic infighting. Illus. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Wootton is a dazzling explicator of difficult ideas whose relish for his material is evident.” — Matthew Price, the Boston Globe

“Wootton tells his tales well and portrays characters vividly. He writes with wit, and his book is full of surprises.” — Robert P. Crease, The Wall Street Journal

“Masterly. . . .  A fantastic revisionist history, an intellectual feat and a marvelous attack on those academics who believe that “retrospective history” — written with the outcome in mind — is wrong. It’s utterly refreshing to read a grand, whooping narrative that is also exhaustively researched. It will, I am certain, become a landmark in the discipline of the history of science." — Financial Times' Best Books of 2015

“New, encyclopedic history.” — Adam Gopnik, the New Yorker

“Full of insights…even jaded scholars will find it fresh and compelling.” — The Economist

"Perceptive, thought-provoking, deeply erudite and beautifully written.” — Nature

“Vibrant and impressive…The Invention of Science is a marvel of expositional clarity” — Steve Donoghue, The Christian Science Monitor

“Not only a history of science but a revisionist historiography of science” — Steven Poole, The New Statesman

“A big bang moment” — Lorraine Daston, The Guardian

“Extremely well researched and documented…This is bound to become a basic reference in the future.” — Adhemar Bultheel, the European Mathematical Society

“A bracing rediscovery of the marvel that is science” — Booklist, starred review

“David Wootton’s The Invention of Science is outstanding. It details how, when and why the philosophical, intellectual and practical frameworks of modern science arose, and it sees off relativism in the process. While dealing wonderfully in broad sweeps, it offers a wealth of entertaining details.” — Richard Joyner, Times Higher Education

“Fascinating and original … Wootton is a marvellous writer with an enviously encyclopaedic knowledge, and he has exciting things to say … a stimulating, well-informed and imaginative account.” — Patricia Fara, Literary Review

“A superbly lucid examination of a dramatic revolution in human thought that deserves a place on the shelf with Thomas Kuhn and David Deutsch.” — Kirkus Starred Review

From the Publisher

New, encyclopedic history.

Adam Gopnik

Vibrant and impressive…The Invention of Science is a marvel of expositional clarity

Steve Donoghue

Full of insights…even jaded scholars will find it fresh and compelling.

The Economist

Wootton is a dazzling explicator of difficult ideas whose relish for his material is evident.

Matthew Price

"Perceptive, thought-provoking, deeply erudite and beautifully written.

Nature Lib

Not only a history of science but a revisionist historiography of science

Steven Poole

Wootton tells his tales well and portrays characters vividly. He writes with wit, and his book is full of surprises.

Robert P. Crease

Masterly. . . .  A fantastic revisionist history, an intellectual feat and a marvelous attack on those academics who believe that “retrospective history” — written with the outcome in mind — is wrong. It’s utterly refreshing to read a grand, whooping narrative that is also exhaustively researched. It will, I am certain, become a landmark in the discipline of the history of science."

Financial Times' Best Books of 2015

Extremely well researched and documented…This is bound to become a basic reference in the future.

Adhemar Bultheel

A big bang moment

Lorraine Daston

A bracing rediscovery of the marvel that is science

starred review Booklist

David Wootton’s The Invention of Science is outstanding. It details how, when and why the philosophical, intellectual and practical frameworks of modern science arose, and it sees off relativism in the process. While dealing wonderfully in broad sweeps, it offers a wealth of entertaining details.

Richard Joyner

Fascinating and original … Wootton is a marvellous writer with an enviously encyclopaedic knowledge, and he has exciting things to say … a stimulating, well-informed and imaginative account.

Patricia Fara

"Perceptive, thought-provoking, deeply erudite and beautifully written.

Nature

11/15/2015
This highly linguistic take on the scientific revolution is not for the easily daunted. Wootton (history of science, Univ. of York; Galileo) paints an intriguing picture of how language and science evolved together from 1572 to 1704. He points out that the concept of "discovery" was largely unknown before Christopher Columbus's journey to America, and that specialized terms such as scientist, fact, or experiment didn't take hold until the 16th century. The book begins chronologically, but readers without a firm grounding in early modern science may get lost. Another flaw is the almost complete lack of women in the narrative. Although the major players in the scientific revolution were male, Wootton mentions quite a number of obscure male contributors, so it would have been nice to include at least a few women. Most critically, this work doesn't address modern debates about science in day-to-day life (the reliability of scientific proof of global warming, evolution, etc.) and is focused instead on debunking the relativist perspective of the history of science. VERDICT Although academics, who will catch the foreshadowing, will have no trouble following Wootton's argument, casual readers are likely to quit before they reach the payoff.—Cate Hirschbiel, Iwasaki Lib., Emerson Coll., Boston

Library Journal

Wootton’s dense but often fascinating account of the beginnings of science is given a likable and generally helpful narration by James Langton. His pleasant British accent; light, informal tone; and lively pace keep the audiobook from bogging down. His intonation and emphases help interpret the sense, though at times his pace is a bit too quick for the complex arguments and his somewhat shaky pronunciation of foreign languages can make quotations hard to follow. His great strength is his ability to translate Wootton’s evident joy in his subject into an engaging, even friendly and upbeat, tone that still respects the seriousness of the material. This is a daunting book in audio, but Langton’s reading helps it succeed. W.M. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2016 - AudioFile

★ 2015-10-04
Not exactly a history of science but of our idea of science: a shrewd, thoughtful analysis of how our view of finding truth held steady throughout history and then, over a century, changed and produced the dazzling progress we often take for granted.Until the 16th century, most people believed that everything worth knowing was already known and that all questions could be answered with deep thought. Aristotle, the ultimate authority in the West, taught that one found truth through logical deductions from incontestable premises. Thus, since the heavens are unchanging and the only permanently unchanging movement is circular, all heavenly movements are circular. According to that worldview, observations are irrelevant. Columbus shattered this concept in 1492; no deduction could have predicted a new continent. Within decades, men—e.g., Copernicus in astronomy and Vesalius in anatomy—were examining phenomena with a new curiosity, claiming their findings were true even if they contradicted the official views of those in power. Many boasted of their achievements. Wootton (History/Univ. of York; Galileo: Watcher of the Skies, 2010, etc.) describes this as "a quite new type of intellectual culture: innovative, combative, competitive, but at the same time obsessed with accuracy." The author maintains that modern science took form between 1572, when Tycho Brahe saw a nova, or new star, and 1704, when Isaac Newton published Opticks, which demonstrated that white light consists of all colors of the rainbow and that color inheres in light rather than in objects. Except for denouncing modern philosophers who teach that truth is culturally determined, so all explanations of reality are equally valid, Wootton's account, as massive and sweeping as it is, stops with Newton. A superbly lucid examination of a dramatic revolution in human thought that deserves a place on the shelf with Thomas Kuhn and David Deutsch.

Kirkus Reviews