Perspectives on Science 25 (4):521-550 (2017)
Authors | |
Abstract |
This paper aims to assess the credibility of the legitimation thesis; the claim
that the development of experimental science involved a legitimation of certain
aspects of artisanal practice or craft knowledge. My goal will be to provide a
critique of this idea by examining Francis Bacon’s notion of ‘mechanical history’
and the influence it exerted on attempts by later generations of scholars to
appropriate the knowledge of craft traditions. Specifically, I aim to show how
such projects were often premised upon socio-epistemological ideals that served to
reinforce, rather than relinquish boundaries between artisans and natural
philosophers. It will be my claim that a closer examination of the presuppositions
underlying attempts by early modern natural philosophers to appropriate
craft knowledge reveals, not a desire to legitimize aspects of artisanal
practice, but rather strategies aimed at demonstrating the inferiority of the
local ways of knowing upon which it was based.
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Keywords | Francis Bacon Technology Historical Epistemology Skill Local Knowledge Royal Society Craft Knowledge Tacit Knowledge |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
Reprint years | 2017 |
DOI | 10.1162/posc_a_00252 |
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References found in this work BETA
Thinking Through Technology: The Path Between Engineering and Philosophy.Carl Mitcham - 1994 - University of Chicago Press.
A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy.John F. W. Herschel - 1830 - University of Chicago Press.
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