Thomas Browne and the Writing of Early Modern Science

Claire Preston is Fellow and Lecturer in English, Sidney Sussex College, and Newton Trust Lecturer, Faculty of English, Cambridge University.

出版者:Cambridge University Press

作者:Claire Preston

页数:264

出版时间:2005-3-28

价格:USD 124.99

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9780521837941

图书标签:sciUKSTSNaturalHistoryEmpiricismEarlyModernEurope

Claire Preston argues that Thomas Browne's work can be fully understood only within the range of disciplines and practices associated with natural philosophy and early modern empiricism. Early modern methods of cataloguing, collecting, experimentation and observation organised his writing on many subjects from medicine and botany to archaeology and antiquarianism. Browne framed philosophical concerns in the terms of civil behaviour, with collaborative networks of intellectual exchange, investigative selflessness, courtesy, modesty and ultimately the generosity of the natural world itself, all characterising the return to 'innocent' knowledge, which, for Browne, is the proper end of human enquiry. In this major evaluation of Browne's oeuvre, Preston examines how the developing essay form, the discourse of scientific experiment, and above all Bacon's model of intellectual progress and cooperation determined the unique character of Browne's contributions to early modern literature, science and philosophy.