Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden AgeA new and unexpected history of the Dutch pursuit of commerce in the 16th and 17th centuries and how it triggered the Scientific Revolution In this wide-ranging and stimulating book, a leading authority on the history of medicine and science presents convincing evidence that Dutch commerce—not religion—inspired the rise of science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Harold J. Cook scrutinizes a wealth of historical documents relating to the study of medicine and natural history in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe, Brazil, South Africa, and Asia during this era, and his conclusions are fresh and exciting. He uncovers direct links between the rise of trade and commerce in the Dutch Empire and the flourishing of scientific investigation. Cook argues that engaging in commerce changed the thinking of Dutch citizens, leading to a new emphasis on such values as objectivity, accumulation, and description. The preference for accurate information that accompanied the rise of commerce also laid the groundwork for the rise of science globally, wherever the Dutch engaged in trade. Medicine and natural history were fundamental aspects of this new science, as reflected in the development of gardens for both pleasure and botanical study, anatomical theaters, curiosity cabinets, and richly illustrated books about nature. Sweeping in scope and original in its insights, this book revises previous understandings of the history of science and ideas. |
From inside the book
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... to the changes that were the same throughout Europe as well as England and vowed to myself to explore them further. Although I had access to plenty of comparative material for France, a comment of a former professor, James Allen. xi ...
... material on which it is based to be of interest. When I began the project, most of the work on which it depended was written in Dutch, and although over the past two decades an enormous amount of the best current work has been published ...
... material or political advancement but also for entertainment, edification, and pleasure, not only for utilitarian advantage but also for exploring the unknown and finding things out. I am not trying to overdetermine why people acted or ...
... material goods, social manners, cultural symbols, or intellectual pursuits, also came to dominate the lives of other people. The culture of the exchange economy was not the only culture vying for influence, even in the home countries of ...
... material betterment. Knowledge of concepts became ''speculation''; certainty, or at least highly probabilistic knowledge, was tied to real objects and specimens. What this book takes up that Sarton and his like did not, then, are two ...
Contents
1 | |
42 | |
82 | |
Four Commerce and Medicine in Amsterdam | 133 |
Five Truths and Untruths from the Indies | 175 |
Descartes in the Republic | 226 |
Seven Industry and Analysis | 267 |
Eight Gardens of the Indies Transported | 304 |
The Medicine of East Asia | 339 |
Sticking to Simple Things | 378 |
Eleven Conclusions and Comparisons | 410 |
Notes | 417 |
Bibliography | 473 |
Index | 537 |
Other editions - View all
Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age Harold John Cook No preview available - 2007 |