The Changing Image of the Sciences

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Albert Van Helden

   Pages 1-7

3. In Our Own Image: Creating the Computer

   • Michael S. Mahoney

   Pages 9-27

4. Changing Images of Chemistry

   • Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent

   Pages 29-41

5. The Changing Image of Biology in the Twentieth Century

   • Garland E. Allen

   Pages 43-83

6. The Image of Physics

   • Abraham Pais

   Pages 85-103

7. Re-Imag(in)ing Women in Science: Projecting Identity and Negotiating Gender in Science

   • Sally Gregory Kohlstedt, Donald L. Opitz

   Pages 105-139

8. Science in the Mirror of “Big History”

   • David Christian

   Pages 141-169

9. The Changing Images of Unity and Disunity in the Philosophy of Science

   • Steve Fuller

   Pages 171-194

10. Back Matter

    Pages 195-226

    PDF

The title of our book would lead the reader to believe that in speaking ofthe chang­ ing image of the sciences, we are taking for granted the multiplicity of sciences, as these are practiced, for instance, in modern universities. That was, of course, not always the case. Although we can point to some subjects, for instance mathematical astronomy, as being demarcated to some extent from other subjects as far back as Antiquity, the current division into individual sciences can hardly be traced back fur­ ther than the nineteenth century. Moreover,the further we go back inhistory, the more we must subsume science under general knowledge or scholarship:scientia. Some of the earliest imagesofepisteme or scientia, are those of forbidden knowledge - often related to technology - on the one hand, and the absent-minded scholar on the other. These are powerful metaphors - in word as well as image - that have been appro­ priated in various ages for different purposes. The Greeks gave Western society its first images ofthe power ofknowledge and those who produced it. Prometheus ridiculed the gods, stole their fire, and brought it down to Earth. For this, Zeus had him chained to a rock on Mount Caucasus, where a vulture fed on his liver during the day, while it grew back at night. He was finally freed by Herac1es.

• Base
• Mary Somerville
• Natural Sciences
• constructivism
• philosophy of science
• science
• theory

• Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  Ida H. Stamhuis, Teun Koetsier, Cornelis Pater

• Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands

  Albert Helden

Policies and ethics