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 Harold J. Cook scrutinizes a wealth of historical documents relating to the study of medicine and natural history in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe, Brazil, South Africa, and Asia during this era, and his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
Results 1-5 of 74
... reasons for its appearance. It all suggests a world composed of forces hardly noticed in our comfortable lives of custom and habit. The voyage of imagination that led to this book began when I was a student when, for some reason, I ...
... reasons lie in having spent much of that period preoccupied with university service and academic administration, first in Madison, Wisconsin, and then in London, England, which kept me from libraries and archives far more than I would ...
... reason. On the contrary, it was through and through an anti-intellectualist movement. —alfred north whitehead, Science and the Modern World Like most works of history, this book offers an account of how we got to be the way we are. It ...
... reasons, such statements have often been put aside in recent generations by historians who have given much more attention to the social, linguistic, and cultural causes of the construction of scientific knowledge. By the middle of the ...
... reasons. If taste registers a negative reaction to something, it is notable to say why. But it experiences it with the greatest certainty.''37 The knowledge that comes with taste is, then, very real, but the knower cannot explain why he ...
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 |