Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life

(Paperback, Revised edition)

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Leviathan and the Air-Pump examines the conflicts over the value and propriety of experimental methods between two major seventeenth-century thinkers: Thomas Hobbes, author of the political treatise Leviathan and vehement critic of systematic experimentation in natural philosophy, and Robert Boyle, mechanical philosopher and owner of the newly inve

Reviews

"Shapin and Schaffer work out the implications of these debates [between Hobbes and Boyle] for the history of science with great skill of interpretation and exposition. They use their findings and their analysis to give an explanation of the experimental enterprise in general, which, although it is not philosophical in nature, always takes philosophy most seriously. This is simply one of the most original, enjoyable and important books published in the history of science in recent years."--Owen Hannaway, Technology and Culture "If any proof of the intellectual buoyancy or intrinsic worth of the history and philosophy for science was needed, nothing better could be provided than this study by Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer... Their findings suggest the futility of wrenching science from its ideological context, and not only with respect to the seventeenth century; they also detect parallels with the crisis of confidence affecting contemporary science."--Charles Webster, The Times Literary Supplement Praise for Princeton's previous editions: "Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer have ventured beyond ordinary history of science or history of ideas to produce a novel 'exercise in the sociology of scientific knowledge.' ... a historical study rich in new interpretations and notable for the use of sources of a kind not hitherto fully exploited by scholars."--Clive Holmes, American Historical Review "[T]he most influential text in our field since Thomas Kuhn'sStructure of Scientific Revolutions."--James Secord, Isis "This is simply one of the most original, enjoyable, and important books published in the history of science in recent years."--Owen Hannaway, Technology and Culture "[A]n unparalleled vignette of the birth pangs of a new style of reasoning."--Ian Hacking, British Journal for the History of Science "Before Shapin and Schaffer, other historians of science had studied scientific practice; other historians had studied the religious, political and cultural context of science. No one, before Shapin and Schaffer, had been capable of doing both at once."--Bruno Latour, author ofWe Have Never Been Modern "There is every reason to regard this as one of the most important achievements in science studies in the late twentieth century."--John H. Zammito, author ofA Nice Derangement of Epistemes "One of the most influential books in the modern history of science."--Melinda Baldwin, Physics Today

Author Bio

Steven Shapin is the Franklin L. Ford Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. Simon Schaffer is professor of history of science at the University of Cambridge.