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Chapter 8 - Scientific Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2019

By
Dean Keith Simonton
Edited by
Todd L. Pittinsky
Todd L. Pittinsky
Affiliation:
Stony Brook University, State University of New York
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Summary

Early philosophers of science, such as Francis Bacon and René Descartes, often viewed scientific inquiry as a largely individualistic enterprise. The individual needed only apply the appropriate method – whether empirical induction or logical deduction – to obtain valid knowledge or “truths” about the natural world. Although such investigators still expected to share their discoveries through publication, even publication started out as a largely individualistic activity, the discoverer arranging for communication through regular book publishers. Bacon and Descartes communicated their main ideas through monographs, as did Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, and other pioneers of the scientific revolution. The dissemination of scientific findings lacked any systematic social organization. In this way, science, or rather what was then called “natural philosophy,” did not differ that much from other forms of writing, such as literature or theology.

Type
Chapter
Information
Science, Technology, and Society
New Perspectives and Directions
 , pp. 176 - 202
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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