Wrestling with Nature

From Omens to Science

Peter Harrison, Ronald L. Numbers, Michael H. Shank, Peter Harrison, Ronald L. Numbers, Michael H. Shank

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9780226317830
  9780226317816
• eBook ISBN:
  9780226318035
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: Biological Sciences

When and where did science begin? Historians have offered different answers to these questions, some pointing to Babylonian observational astronomy, some to the speculations of natural philosophers of ancient Greece. Others have opted for early modern Europe, which saw the triumph of Copernicanism and the birth of experimental science, while yet another view is that the appearance of science was postponed until the nineteenth century.

Rather than posit a modern definition of science and search for evidence of it in the past, the contributors to Wrestling with Nature examine how students of nature themselves, in various cultures and periods of history, have understood and represented their work. The aim of each chapter is to explain the content, goals, methods, practices, and institutions associated with the investigation of nature and to articulate the strengths, limitations, and boundaries of these efforts from the perspective of the researchers themselves. With contributions from experts representing different historical periods and different disciplinary specializations, this volume offers a fresh perspective on the history of science and on what it meant, in other times and places, to wrestle with nature.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Natural Knowledge in Ancient Mesopotamia / Francesca Rochberg
• 2. Natural Knowledge in the Classical World / Daryn Lehoux
• 3. Natural Knowledge in the Arabic Middle Ages / Jon McGinnis
• 4. Natural Knowledge in the Latin Middle Ages / Michael H. Shank
• 5. Natural History / Peter Harrison
• 6. Mixed Mathematics / Peter Dear
• 7. Natural Philosophy / John L. Heilbron
• 8. Science and Medicine / Ronald L. Numbers
• 9. Science and Technology / Ronald R. Kline
• 10. Science and Religion / Jon H. Roberts
• 11. Science, Pseudoscience, and Science Falsely So-Called / Daniel P. Thurs and Ronald L. Numbers
• 12. Scientific Methods / Daniel P. Thurs
• 13. Science and the Public / Bernard Lightman
• 14. Science and Place / David N. Livingstone
• Contributors
• Index