Revolution in Science
Published on 15. March 1987
Book
Paperback/Softback
732 pages
978-0-674-76778-2 (ISBN)
Description
Only a scholar as rich in learning as I. Bernard Cohen could do justice to a theme so subtle and yet so grand. Spanning five centuries and virtually all of scientific endeavor, Revolution in Science traces the nuances that differentiate both scientific revolutions and human perceptions of them, weaving threads of detail from physics, mathematics, behaviorism, Freud, atomic physics, and even plate tectonics and molecular biology, into the larger fabric of intellectual history.
How did "revolution," a term from the physical sciences, meaning a turning again and implying permanence and recurrence-the cyclical succession of the seasons, the "revolutions" of the planets in their orbits-become transformed into an expression for radical change in political and socioeconomic affairs, then become appropriated once again to the sciences?
How have political revolutions-French, American, Bolshevik-and such intellectual forces as Darwinism further modified the concept, from revolution in science as a dramatic break with the past to the idea that science progresses by the slow accumulation of knowledge? And what does each transformation in each historical period tell us about the deep conceptual changes in our image of the scientist and scientific activity?
Cohen's exploration seeks to uncover nothing less than the nature of all scientific revolutions, the stages by which they occur, their time scale, specific criteria for determining whether or not there has been a revolution, and the creative factors in producing a revolutionary new idea. His book is a probing analysis of the history of an idea and one of the most impressive surveys of the history of science ever undertaken.
How did "revolution," a term from the physical sciences, meaning a turning again and implying permanence and recurrence-the cyclical succession of the seasons, the "revolutions" of the planets in their orbits-become transformed into an expression for radical change in political and socioeconomic affairs, then become appropriated once again to the sciences?
How have political revolutions-French, American, Bolshevik-and such intellectual forces as Darwinism further modified the concept, from revolution in science as a dramatic break with the past to the idea that science progresses by the slow accumulation of knowledge? And what does each transformation in each historical period tell us about the deep conceptual changes in our image of the scientist and scientific activity?
Cohen's exploration seeks to uncover nothing less than the nature of all scientific revolutions, the stages by which they occur, their time scale, specific criteria for determining whether or not there has been a revolution, and the creative factors in producing a revolutionary new idea. His book is a probing analysis of the history of an idea and one of the most impressive surveys of the history of science ever undertaken.
Reviews / Votes
Everyone, no matter how well informed, will be able to learn some new things from this book... There is nothing else like it for a panorama of what people have chosen to call revolution in science. * New York Review of Books * [The author] has perfected a spacious study of the whole idea of revolution... Monumental scholarship... In sheer variety of riches this book has few parallels. * Nature * [Cohen] is a scholar of extraordinary erudition... He may well know more history of science than any scholar now alive. * Science * Professor Cohen's Revolution in Science offers an impressive survey-with his own critical insights and interpretations-of the concept of revolutions. Only someone with his prodigious erudition and knowledge of the history of science could undertake such a project. In short, Professor Cohen's book is wide-ranging in scope, packed with details of substance and interpretation, and will appeal to a similarly wide-ranging readership. It is a masterful study. -- Joseph W. DaubenMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
illustrations
Dimensions
Thickness: 36 mm
Weight
907 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-674-76778-2 (9780674767782)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
I. Bernard Cohen was Victor S. Thomas Professor of the History of Science, Emeritus, at Harvard University, and one of the founders of the modern study of the history of science.
Content
Preface Acknowledgments I. Science and Revolution 1. Introduction 2. The Stages of Revolutions in Science 3. Evidence for the Occurrence of Revolutions in Science II. Historical Perspective on 'Revolution' and 'Revolution in Science' 4. Transformations in the Concept of Revolution 5. The Scientific Revolution: The First Recognition of Revolution in Science 6. A Second Scientific Revolution and Others? III. Scientific Revolutionaries of the Seventeenth Century 7. The Copernican Revolution 8. Kepler, Gilbert, and Galileo: A Revolution in the Physical Sciences? 9. Bacon and Descartes 10. The Newtonian Revolution 11. Vesalius, Paracelsus, and Harvey: A Revolution in the Life Sciences? IV. Changing Concepts of Revolution in the Eighteenth Century 12. Transformations during the Enlightenment 13. Eighteenth-Century Conceptions of Scientific Revolution 14. Lavoisier and the Chemical Revolution 15. Kant's Alleged Copernican Revolution 16. The Changing Language of Revolution in Germany 17. The Industrial Revolution V. Scientific Progress in the Nineteenth Century 18. By Revolution or Evolution? 19. The Darwinian Revolution 20. Faraday, Maxwell, and Hertz 21. Some Other Scientific Developments 22. Three French Views: Saint-Simon, Comte, and Cournot 23. The Influence of Marx and Engels 24. The Freudian Revolution VI. The Twentieth Century, Age of Revolutions 25. The Scientists Speak 26. The Historians Speak 27. Relativity and Quantum Theory 28. Einstein on Revolution in Science 29. Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics: A Revolution in Earth Science 30. Conclusion: Conversion as a Feature of Scientific Revolutions Supplements A Note on Citations and References Notes References Index