The Sciences in Enlightened Europe (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780226109404)

Radically reorienting our understanding of the Enlightenment, this book explores the complex relations between "enlightened" values and the making of scientific knowledge. Here monsters and automata, barometers and botanical gardens, polite academies and boisterous clubs are all given their due place in the landscape of enlightened Europe.

The contributors examine the production of new disciplines through work with instruments and techniques; consider how institutions of public taste and conversation helped provide a common frame for the study of human and nonhuman natures; and explore the regional operations of scientific culture at the geographical fringes of Europe.

Implicated in the rise of both fascism and liberal secularism, the moral and political values that shaped the Enlightenment remain controversial today. Through careful scrutiny of how these values influenced and were influenced by the concrete practices of its sciences, this book gives us an entirely new sense of the Enlightenment.

Author: William Clark
ISBN-10: 0226109402
ISBN-13: 9780226109404
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 07/01/1999
Pages: 580
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.70lbs
Size: 9.01h x 6.09w x 1.26d

Review Citation(s):
Scitech Book News 06/01/2000 pg. 15