10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17213
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2038-3460
17213
2
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Marco Bresadola
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Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Mario Biagioli and Jessica Riskin (eds.), Nature Engaged. Science in Practice from the Renaissance to the Present, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012
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Book Reviews
2015-01-29
2023-06-14
2015-01-29
2023-07-27
94-95
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Marco Bresadola
2014
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17213
94
University of Ferrara
2038-3460
2
en
95
Mario Biagioli and Jessica Riskin (eds.), Nature Engaged. Science in Practice from the Renaissance to the Present, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/17213/16093
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94                                                            Tecnoscienza – 5 (2)

     Mario Biagioli and Jessica Riskin (eds.)
Nature Engaged. Science in Practice from the Renaissance to the Present
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, pp. 301

Marco Bresadola University of Ferrara

    This collection of essays edited by Mario Biagioli and Jessica Riskin
includes the contributions of some of today’s major historians of early
modern and modern science. These authors have at least two things in
common: they all acknowledge that their work has been influenced by the
historical approach developed by the American historian of science John
Heilbron, to whom the book is dedicated, and they all adopt a pragmatic
view of the history of science. As Riskin claims in her introduction to the
book, historical pragmatism has emerged as a third way out of the opposi-
tion between two radical conceptions of science: a “rationalist” or “real-
ist” view against a “relativist” or “constructivist” one. Here Riskin refers
to the so-called “science wars” that involved many, but by no means all,
practitioners of science studies at the end of the last century, after the
emergence of cultural and social trends in the interpretation of science
and scientific knowledge. These wars, which concerned issues such as the
source of scientific credibility and trust, the truth value of knowledge
claims and the alleged specificity of scientific activity, were a new devel-
opment of a lasting confrontation between scientific and humanistic cul-
tures, indicated as the “two cultures problem” after Charles P. Snow’s
famous essay of 1959.
    Historical pragmatism aims at overcoming the opposition between ir-
reconcilable ways of looking at science, either as a specific epistemic en-
terprise quite distinct from other forms of human culture, or as an activity
with no peculiarities or differences with other kinds of social practices.
For the contributors to this book, science is a mingled yarn, “no more
separable into discrete parts (natural vs. social, objective vs. subjective)
than the thread of life” (p. 3). Their approach is profoundly historical in
terms of focusing on the contextual and contingent aspects of scientific
knowledge, and it is pragmatic in terms of understanding the mutual en-
gagement and permeation of scientific activity with society and culture at
large. Hence the great variety of topics dealt with in the essays contained
in the book.
    The book is divided into four parts, which focus on different aspects
of the mutual engagement of scientific activity with other dimensions of
human life such as social conventions, legal affairs, historical practices,
and worldly objects. Part I, titled “Conventions”, includes a contribution
by Ken Adler on the political and social aspects of the transition from 18th
century cosmopolitism, realized by the idea and reality of a Republic of
Letters, to 19th century scientific internationalism. The papers by Hasok
Chang and Michael Gordin offer an original reconstruction of the history
Book Review                                                               95
of two scientific results – the establishment of the boiling point of water
and the birth of the periodic table – showing not only their conventional
character, but also the complex and contingent nature of their history. In
his contribution, Dominique Pestre relates the development of infor-
mation-processing practices in Britain during World War II to the specif-
ic needs of the military and their collaboration with academic scientists.
    Part II is dedicated to “Laws” and its essays examine the mutual shap-
ing of legal and scientific concepts and practices. Matthew Jones deals
with the origins of modern patent law through the case of Leibniz’s calcu-
lating machine, which played a major role in challenging traditional legal
conventions related to scientific inventions. Mario Biagioli’s paper re-
traces the legal roots and rhetorical value of Kepler’s notion of eye-
witnessing, as it emerged from his familiarity with inquisitorial law and
was displayed in his astronomical observations. Focusing on a much more
recent subject, Daniel Kevles examines the present regulation of property
rights to genes, for which he makes a striking comparison with the history
of a regulatory regime for railroads established in 19th century America.
Remaining in the American context, Tal Golan deals with the mutual in-
fluence between epidemiology and law in courtrooms of the late 20th cen-
tury.
    Part III, titled “Histories”, is less rich in number of contributions but
not in interest for the reader. It includes a paper by Anthony Grafton,
who focuses on how astronomy and history mingled in Mercator’s work
in the field of Renaissance chronology, and one by Paula Findlen, who re-
examines the well-known history of Galileo’s trial from an original angle,
namely the correspondence between one of his disciples and a Jesuit
mathematician about the biography of Galileo and the meaning of this
tragic event.
    Finally, Part IV is devoted to “Things” and the material culture of sci-
ence. Jessica Riskin deals with the role and epistemic scope of automata
in Descartes’ mechanical philosophy, while Jim Bennett focuses on an-
other type of early modern objects, the sundials, and describes how the
design and construction of these instruments affected the knowledge and
practice of cosmography. The last chapter of this part, and of the book, is
written by Giuliano Pancaldi, who shows the complex and hybrid nature
of William Thomson’s work in electricity and magnetism through the re-
construction of the history of his mirror galvanometer.
    Taken together, these essays reveal the variety of topics and interests
cultivated by current historians of science who share a historical and
pragmatic approach to the discipline. In this regard, Nature Engaged is
primarily addressed to young practitioners of science history, as well as to
a broader readership interested in science and technology, who can have
a grasp of what doing history of science means after the example of schol-
ars like John Heilbron and after what Hans-Jörg Rheinberger (in his book
On Historicizing Epistemology. An Essay) has recently called a “practical
turn” in the study of science and its history.
