The Selling of Newton
Science and Technology in Early Eighteenth-Century England
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10065626 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Larry Stewart (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1986 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 178-192 |
| Publication date | 1986-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of British Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-9371 • E-ISSN: 1545-6986 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1086/385860 |
| OpenAlex | W2001787467 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 18 |
In the past decade the role of science in the early eighteenth century has come in for close scrutiny and increasing debate. There is specifically one rather large and problematic issue, that is, the relationship between science and technology in England in the first half of the eighteenth century when, it is generally agreed, the Industrial Revolution had not yet made any discernible impact. There are those historians who have insisted that the Newtonian natural philosophy had nothing whatever to do with the mechanical creations and innovations of artisans and craftsmen. This may be understandable because Newtonian science has come to be regarded as fundamentally mathematical and experimental—and not even comprehensible, except in the broadest terms, to the Augustan virtuosos. This has often created the version of science as a purely rational and cerebral activity distanced from and above technology, a science unsullied perhaps by the grime of mechanics' hands. One might speculate on the ideological origins of such a universe, but it seems that one can at least see that such a version of events is determined in part by the question that proposes a direct causal relation between cerebral science and rank technology. The argument evidently is that, if one cannot find the historical evidence that establishes a precise link between Newton's interparticulate forces and the partial vacuum of the Savery engine, then one must conclude that no relationship existed. But historical associations are never quite so simple. One could easily demonstrate that the Newtonian natural philosophy was deliberately propagated among men whose interests tended to be more practical than philosophical
Argument (complex analysis · Epistemology · Ideology · Natural (archaeology · Natural Philosophy · Nothing · Philosophy of science · Political science · Politics · Rank (graph theory · Relation (database · Scrutiny · Simple (philosophy · Chemistry · Computer Science · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical Philosophy and Science · History · History of Science and Medicine · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy
Augustan England
Gulliver and the Engineers
The 1715 and other Newcomen Engines at Whitehaven, Cumberland
William Whiston
Benjamin Martin
Constructed Science and the Seventeenth Century 'Revolution
Studies in Scottish Business History
Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution
North Country Life in the Eighteenth Century. The North-East, 1700-50
The Transformation of England. Essays in the Economic and Social History of England in the Eighteenth Century
Stephen Hales
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,26 |
| Citation span | 2003 - 2020 (18) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |