Author

Publication

2000-12-05 - Anchor

Language

English

Word Count

116,000 words, Guess

Page Count

464 pages

Identifiers

  • Open LibraryOL7441813M
  • ISBN-139780385720014
  • ISBN-100385720017
  • OCLC Control Number45616885
  • Goodreads561275
and 1 more
  • LibraryThing14521

Classifications

  • LCCD231

Description

Today the two cultures of "art" and "science" have come to be treated as fundamentally opposed, their aims incompatible. In this remarkable book, Lisa Jardine makes clear that this distinction is both artificial and historically inaccurate. Ingenious Pursuits focuses on a series of virtuoso advancements -- among them the discovery of the circulation of blood, the perfection of the mechanical clock, enhanced astronomical observation, fundamental developments in mathematics, selective animal and plant breeding, and the development of chemical substance analysis -- that transformed the thinking of the early modern world and inaugurated forces for change that laid the very foundations for modern thought. - Jacket flap.

First Sentence

Two comets in such quick succession caused as much astonishment among London's professional star-gazers as they did with the general public.

Description

"In this fascinating look at the European scientific advances of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, historian Lisa Jardine demonstrates that the pursuit of knowledge occurs not in isolation, but rather in the lively interplay and frequently cutthroat competition between creative minds. The great thinkers of that extraordinary age, including Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, and Christopher Wren, are shown in the context in which they lived and worked. We learn of the correspondences they kept with their equally passionate colleagues and come to understand the unique collaborative climate that fostered virtuoso discoveries in the areas of medicine, astronomy, mathematics, biology, chemistry, botany, geography, and engineering. Ingenious Pursuits brilliantly chronicles the true intellectual revolution that continues to shape our very understanding of ourselves and of the world around us. Book jacket."--Jacket.

Subjects

Other Editions

  • Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific RevolutionAnchor2000-12-05

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