The Invention of Science
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
The Invention of Science
| Author | David Wootton |
|---|---|
| Published | 2015 |
| Pages | 769 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | David Wootton’s history of the Scientific Revolution, arguing that what was invented between roughly 1500 and 1700 was not a set of discoveries but the conceptual equipment for having them — discovery, fact, experiment, hypothesis, evidence and laws of nature acquire their modern senses because the practices they name did not previously exist. Against relativist historiography, he insists the change was real and cumulative. |
Where I heard about it
- Brendan McCord — on his Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, March 2026, in Science, Technology, and Epistemology alongside Popper, Kuhn and Polanyi, supplying the historical case for what the others treat philosophically. Full list: The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.
Connections
- The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this card came from.
- Science — the thing the book says was invented rather than uncovered.
- Epistemology — new vocabulary as new machinery for justifying belief.
- Progress — Wootton’s defence of the claim that this change was genuine advance.
- Innovation — the argument that method precedes discovery.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.