17th century
A01=Steven Shapin
Author_Steven Shapin
Category=JBCC9
Category=JHM
Category=PDA
Category=PDX
certainty
civility
conversation
cultural studies
culture
decorum
england
english
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
eq_society-politics
ethical
ethics
false
gentlemen philosophers
historical
identity
integrity
knowledge
knowledge-making
morality
morals
narrative
observation
order
philosophy
practical
questions
robert boyle
science
scientific practice
social history
true
truth
truthfulness
understanding
Product details
- ISBN 9780226750194
- Weight: 765g
- Dimensions: 15 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 15 Nov 1995
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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How do we come to trust our knowledge of the world? What are the means by which we distinguish true from false accounts? Why do we credit one observational statement over another? This study engages these universal questions through a recreation of a crucial period in the history of early modern science: the social world of gentlemen-philosophers in 17th-century England. The author paints a picture of the relations between gentlemanly culture and scientific practice. He argues that problems of credibility in science were practically solved through the codes and conventions of genteel conduct: trust, civility, honour, and integrity. These codes formed, and arguably still form, an important basis for securing reliable knowledge about the natural world. Shapin uses detailed historical narrative to argue about the establishment of factual knowledge both in science and in everyday practice. Accounts of the mores and manners of gentlemen-philosophers are used to illustrate Shapin's broad claim that trust is imperative for constituting every kind of knowledge.
Knowledge-making is always a collective enterprise: people have to know whom to trust in order to know something about the natural world.
