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(2002) The changing image of the sciences, Dordrecht, Springer.
The title of our book would lead the reader to believe that in speaking of the changing image of the sciences, we are taking for granted the multiplicity of sciences, as these are practiced, for instance, in modern universities. That was, of course, not always the case. Although we can point to some subjects, for instance mathematical astronomy, as being demarcated to some extent from other subjects as far back as Antiquity, the current division into individual sciences can hardly be traced back further than the nineteenth century. Moreover, the further we go back in history, the more we must subsume science under general knowledge or scholarship: scientia. Some of the earliest images of episteme or scientia, are those of forbidden knowledge — often related to technology — on the one hand, and the absent-minded scholar on the other. These are powerful metaphors — in word as well as image — that have been appropriated in various ages for different purposes.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-010-0587-6_1
Full citation:
van Helden, A. (2002)., Introduction, in T. Koetsier, I. H. Stamhuis, C. De Pater & A. Van Helden (eds.), The changing image of the sciences, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 1-7.
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