Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution
A Global Perspective
$34.99 (G)
- Author: Toby E. Huff, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
- Date Published: October 2010
- availability: Available
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521170529
$
34.99
(G)
Paperback
Other available formats:
Hardback, eBook
Looking for an examination copy?
This title is not currently available for examination. However, if you are interested in the title for your course we can consider offering an examination copy. To register your interest please contact collegesales@cambridge.org providing details of the course you are teaching.
-
Seventeenth-century Europe witnessed an extraordinary flowering of discoveries and innovations. This study, beginning with the Dutch-invented telescope of 1608, casts Galileo’s discoveries into a global framework. Although the telescope was soon transmitted to China, Mughal India, and the Ottoman Empire, those civilizations did not respond as Europeans did to the new instrument. In Europe, there was an extraordinary burst of innovations in microscopy, human anatomy, optics, pneumatics, electrical studies, and the science of mechanics. Nearly all of those aided the emergence of Newton’s revolutionary grand synthesis, which unified terrestrial and celestial physics under the law of universal gravitation. That achievement had immense implications for all aspects of modern science, technology, and economic development. The economic implications are set out in the concluding epilogue. All these unique developments suggest why the West experienced a singular scientific and economic ascendancy of at least four centuries.
Read more- Provides detailed comparative descriptions of scientific advances in Europe and, where possible, similar accounts for China, India, and the Ottoman Empire
- Contains over thirty illustrations
- Covers astronomy, microscopy, anatomy, pneumatics, electrical studies and more
Reviews & endorsements
“A magisterial comparative sociology of the relationship between specific social contexts and scientific creativity in seventeenth-century Europe, the Ottoman Empire, Mughal India, and China. With a remarkable eye for detail, Huff elegantly poses the big questions about the past, present, and possible future of modern science in a globalized world.” – Zaheer Baber, University of Toronto
See more reviews“Using the invention and dispersal of the telescope as a probe, Toby Huff examines the initial impact of this discovery machine in Europe compared with the Ottoman and Mughal empires and Ming China. He then turns to other scientific discoveries of the West and their surprisingly absent influence elsewhere. Huff’s carefully documented research brings this material together in an altogether new way. His fascinating and lucid historico-sociological investigation casts brilliant light on the preeminence of the West today.” – Owen Gingerich, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
“Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution disseminates genuine information about the crucial role played by the West in the history of science, showing that after many centuries of near scientific inactivity, the West, beginning in the twelfth century, saw the virtue of absorbing science and natural philosophy from Greco-Islamic sources. For the numerous reasons Huff presents, the culture of the West, with its corporations, universities, and other features, made it feasible for science to emerge as a powerful force. Huff presents this entire process in a lucid and engaging manner, using the telescope as the instrument that most vividly reveals the striking differences between Europe and the civilizations of China, the Mughals, and the Ottomans. I believe his book will have a significant impact on the history of science, and on history generally.” – Edward Grant, Indiana University
“This is a well-researched, objectively written, eminently readable book. Anyone interested in any dimension of modern science and technology will find it useful.” – Rajesh Kochhar, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali
"Recommended." -Choice
"...essential reading for all historians of science..." -James Hannam, Quodlibeta
"Toby E. Huff’s project in Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution: A Global Perspective is to explore what happened after 1500 to trigger this singular convergence and climax." -J. B. Shank, Journal of World History
Customer reviews
Not yet reviewed
Be the first to review
Review was not posted due to profanity
×Product details
- Date Published: October 2010
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521170529
- length: 368 pages
- dimensions: 230 x 155 x 20 mm
- weight: 0.5kg
- contains: 36 b/w illus. 1 map 3 tables
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Part I. Something New Under the Sun:
1. Introduction: outline of a new perspective
2. Inventing the discovery machine
3. The new telescopic evidence
4. The 'far seeing looking glass' goes to China
5. 'Galileo's glass' goes to the Muslim world
Part II. Patterns of Education:
6. Three ideals of higher education: Islamic, Chinese, and Western
Part III. Science Unbound:
7. Infectious curiosity I: anatomy and microbiology
8. Infectious curiosity II: weighing the air and atmospheric pressure
9. Infectious curiosity III: magnetism and electricity
10. Prelude to the grand synthesis
11. The path to the grand synthesis
12. The scientific revolution in comparative perspective
Epilogue: science, literacy and economic development.Instructors have used or reviewed this title for the following courses
- Everyday science
- Science and Society in Early Modern Europe
- Scientific Revolutions
- Social and Cultural Change
- World History ll: Worlds Connecting
Related Books
related journals
also by this author
Sorry, this resource is locked
Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email lecturers@cambridge.org
Register Sign in» Proceed
You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.
Continue ×Are you sure you want to delete your account?
This cannot be undone.
Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.
If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.
×