Making Natural Knowledge

In Making Natural Knowledge: Constructivism and the History of Science, Jan Golinski reviews recent writing on the history of science and shows how it has been dramatically reshaped by a new understanding of science itself. In the last few years, scientific knowledge has come to be seen as a product of human culture, an approach that has challenged the tradition of the history of science as a story of steady and autonomous progress. New topics have emerged in historical research, including: the identity of the scientist, the importance of the laboratory, the role of language and instruments, and the connections with other realms of culture and society. Golinski has written a sympathetic but critical survey of this exciting field of research, at a level that can be appreciated by students or anyone else who wants an introduction to contemporary thinking in the development of the sciences.

• First up-to-date, single-author survey of recent research and methodology in the history of science
• A critical discussion of the perspective that views sciences as a human construction and is accessible to undergraduate and general readers
• Counters recent attacks by Sokal and by Gross and Levitt on social construction of science