Defining Science: William Whewell, Natural Knowledge and Public Debate in Early Victorian Britain

ISBN-13: 9780521431828 / Angielski / Twarda / 1993 / 298 str.

Richard R. Yeo

Opis

Defining Science deals with the major role of the historian and philosopher of science, William Whewell, in early Victorian debates about the nature of science and its moral and cultural value. Richard Yeo also examines the different forms or genres in which science was discussed in the public sphere--most crucially in the Victorian review journals, but also in biographical, historical and educational works. Analysis of the whole corpus of Whewell's work suggests that it be seen not only as an attempt to define science, but to clarify his own vocation as its leading critic.

Recenzje

'… at once a seminal vocational biography of the most prominent Victorian metascientist, and a penetrating study of the complex debate about the nature of science in nineteenth century Britain. It is a book no student of Victorian intellectual history can afford to ignore.' Isis

Spis treści

Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Science and the public sphere; 3. Metascience as a vocation; 4. Reviewing science; 5. Moral scientists; 6. Using history; 7. Moral science; 8. Science, education and society; 9. The unity of science.