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Philosophical threads: natural philosophy and public experiment among the weavers of Spitalfields

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Larry Stewart  and
Paul Weindling
Larry Stewart
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, CanadaS7N 0W0.
Paul Weindling
Affiliation:
Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, 45–47 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6PE.
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Extract

In the overwhelmingly public world of the twentieth century, science often seems simultaneously remote and ubiquitous. There are many complex reasons for this, of course, not the least being the capacity of technology for material transformation and the apparent inability of scientific discourse to communicate its practice to the unanointed. In some ways, our current predicament appears similar to that of the late eighteenth century when so many promises had already been made of what natural philosophy might accomplish, and when many clamoured for access to the power of natural philosophical practice. At that point, on the verge of the stunning dislocations of the industrial revolution, many of the literate and mechanical public took considerable steps to bridge the gap otherwise policed by social distinction.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , March 1995 , pp. 37 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1995

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