History of Science

<p>Science is one of the main features of the contemporary world, and shapes our lives to an extent that has no precedents in history. Yet science as we know it today is the outcome of contingent social processes, and its global success is far from self-explanatory. How did it happen? How did science emerge in history and became the most authoritative source of knowledge available in late modern societies? This set of volumes address these crucial questions through a selection of exemplary publications spanning antiquity to the present day. The reader will find an effective survey of the best scholarship in this rapidly growing field, and a map of the main revolutions as well as the long-term continuities that have characterized our understanding the world and our attempts to control it. The volumes bring together areas of inquiry that have become increasingly distant and specialized - such as the history of antique science or Cold War studies - within broader narratives of the making of the modern world. They also reassess the traditional assumption of the exclusively Greek and Western origins of modern science, situating relevant knowledge, practices, and artifacts within the global networks that sustained them – in ancient as well as in modern times. The contributions will address key historiographical issues such as the relationship between science, magic, and religion; the role of science in nation-building processes; and the relationship between science and technology. Throughout the volumes, authors will also engage with broader theoretical issues such as the distribution of agency in the making of science; the way scientific knowledge is made universal; and the interplay of science, technology, and politics. </p> <p>1. David Pingree, ‘Hellenophilia vs the History of Science’, <i>Isis</i>, 83, 1992, 30-39. </p><p>2. Heinrich von Staden, ‘Affinities and Elisions: Helen and Hellenocentrism’, <i>Isis,</i> 1992, 578-595. </p><p>3. Francesca Rochberg, ‘The Historiography of Mesopotamian Science’, in <i>Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy, and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture</i> (Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 14-43. </p><p>4. Annette Imhausen, ‘Egyptian Mathematical Texts and Their Context’, <i>Science in Context</i>, 16, 2003, 367-389. </p><p>5. Alexander Jones, ‘The Adaptation of Babylonian Methods in Greek Numerical Astronomy’, <i>Isis</i>, 82, 1991, 440-453.</p><p>6. Geoffrey Lloyd, ‘Science in Antiquity: The Greek and Chinese Cases and Their Relevance to the Problems of Culture and Cognition’, in M. Biagioli (ed.),<i> The Science Studies Reader</i> (London: Routledge 1999), pp. 302-316. Originally published in D. R. Olson and N. Torrence, <i>Modes of Thought: Explorations in Culture and Cognition</i> (Cambridge University Press, 1996). </p><p>7. Markus Asper, ‘Making Up Progress - in Ancient Greek Science Writing’, in <i>Writing Science. Medical and Mathematical Authorship in Ancient Greece </i>(De Gruyter, 2013), pp. 411-430. </p><p>8. Raviel Netz, ‘Imagination and Layered Ontology in Greek Mathematics’, <i>Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology</i>, 2009, 17, 19-50. </p><p>9. Karin Tybjerg, ‘Hero of Alexandria's Mechanical Geometry’, <i>Apeiron, </i>2004, 37, 29-56. </p><p>10. Serafina Cuomo, ‘A Roman Engineer’s Tales’, <i>Journal of Roman Studies,</i> 101, 2011, 143-165.</p><p>11. Emma Gee, ‘Cicero’s Astronomy’, <i>Classical Quarterly,</i> 51, 2001, 520-536.</p><p>12. Andrew Wilson, ‘Machines, Power and the Ancient Economy’, <i>Journal of Roman Studies</i>, 92, 2002, 1-32.</p><p>13. Rebecca Flemming, ‘Women, Writing, and Medicine in the Classical World’, <i>Classical Quarterly</i>, 2007, 57, 257-279. </p><p>14. Daryn Lehoux, ‘Observers, Objects, and the Embedded Eye; or Seeing and Knowing in Ptolemy and Galen’, <i>Isis</i>, 98, 2007, 447-467. </p><p>15. Geoffrey Lloyd and Nathan Sivin, ‘The Fundamental Issues of the Chinese Sciences’, in<i> The Way and the Word: Science and Medicine in Early China and Greece</i> (Yale University Press, 2002), pp. 188-238.</p><p>16. Maud W. Gleason, ‘Shock and Awe: The Performance Dimension of Galen’s Anatomy Demonstrations’, in C. Gill, T. Withmarsh, J. Wilkins (eds.), <i>Galen and the World of Knowledge</i> (Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 85-114. </p>