Science and the Wider Culture

Abstract

Throughout this brief survey we have noted the cultural and social context which is so often necessary to our understanding of developments in science. From wider cultural influences such as religion, and the magical world-view, to more specific aspects of social organization, such as those which form the background to developments in the status of mathematical [12; 238] or medical [35; 174; 18; 19; 94] practitioners, from the links between views of God’s relationship to the world, correct forms of kingship and legitimate forms of scientific method [196; 140; 160; 124], to the newly perceived need for the pragmatic innovations of elite craftsmen as a background to experimentalism [9; 180; 225; 245], we have seen how developments in early modern science are aspects of changes in the wider culture. In this final chapter we will look at a number of other topics which have been seen as important background elements in the Scientific Revolution.