Objectivity in the Making: Francis Bacon and the Politics of Inquiry - Softcover

Solomon, Julie Robin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801872499 ISBN 13: 9780801872495

Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002

Synopsis

How we arrived at a capacity for taking cold, hard looks at the facts of natureÑand whether we ever truly have done soÑare questions that continue to engage both historians of science and students of culture. Historians of modern European intellectual history commonly credit Francis Bacon with laying the groundwork for a mode of study that begins without presuppositions, religious or otherwise, the kind of searching we know as research and long have credited as being "disinterested." In Objectivity in the Making, Julie Robin Solomon shows how "disinterestedness" became a dominant principle of intellectual modernity by examining Bacon's notion of scientific self-distancing against the background of early modern political ideology, socioeconomic behavior, and traditions of learning. Solomon places him between two culturesÑJacobean monarchical mercantilism and the self-distancing strategies of early-seventeenth-century traders and travelers. She shows that BaconÑby virtue of his prominent political position within the Jacobean court, familiarity with prevailing commercial practices, and humanistic learningÑmade his signal contributions to natural philosophy because of where he stood at a critical juncture.

About this title

About the Author

Julie Robin Solomon is an associate professor of literature at American University.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801872499
• ISBN 13: 9780801872495
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 348