Making science social : the conferences of Théophraste Renaudot, 1633-1642 / Kathleen Wellman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wellman, Kathleen Anne, 1951-

Series:

Oklahoma project for discourse and theory. Series for science and culture ; v. 6.

Oklahoma project for discourse and theory. Series for science and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science--France--History--17th century.

Science.

History.

Paris (France)--Intellectual life--17th century.

Paris (France).

Renaudot, Théophraste, 1586-1653.

Renaudot, Théophraste.

France.

Physical Description:

xviii, 461 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [2003]

Summary:

Between 1633 and 1642, the French physician and philanthropist Theophraste Renaudot sponsored a series of public conferences in Paris. These conferences offered an open forum for wide-ranging discussions of a variety of topics, including science, medicine, gender, politics, and ethics. No matter the topic, participants consistently used scientific reasoning as a new standard of evidence. The conferences thus recast the rhetorical traditions of the Renaissance and prefigured the social sciences of the Enlightenment. They provide a candid snapshot of intellectual life at the dawn of the scientific revolution in France. In Making Science Social, Kathleen Wellman uses the published conference proceedings to develop a broadly conceived, revisionist interpretation of the intellectual history of seventeenth-century France and of the roots of modern culture and science.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 429-450) and index.

ISBN:

0806135026

OCLC:

50441111