Science in Translation – Movements of Knowledge Through Cultures & Time - Hardcover

Montgomery, Scott

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226534804 ISBN 13: 9780226534800

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2000

Synopsis

Throughout recorded history, the exchange of scientific knowledge across cultures has been crucial in shaping human civilization. For instance, without the Greek and Roman works that were translated into Arabic and later reintroduced into Europe, the Renaissance as we know it would not have occured. Yet, until now, the enormous importance of translation to the history of science has remained largely unexamined. In this innovative work, Scott L. Montgomery explores the diverse roles that translation has played in the development of Western science from antiquity to the present. Beginning with an in-depth consideration of astronomy, he presents case histories of science in translation from a variety of disciplines and cultural contexts, both Western and non-Western (such as the origin and evolution of modern science in Japan). Montgomery highlights key historical and philosophical issues, including the instability of the scientific text, what is lost and gained in the process of translating science, and the impossibility of a truly universal technical language.

About this title

About the Author

Scott L. Montgomery is an author and affiliate faculty member in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. A consulting geologist for more than 25 years, he has written many technical papers and monographs on energy-related subjects and is the author or coauthor of numerous books, most recently The Shape of the New: Four Big Ideas and How They Made the Modern World and Does Science Need a Global Language? English and the Future of Research, the latter published by the University of Chicago Press. He lives in Seattle.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226534804
• ISBN 13: 9780226534800
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 296