Scientific Revolution



Scientific Revolution

Introduction

Merton believed that rise of Science in England during the late seventeenth century was actually due to the conducive social behaviors of the people. To study the linkage between rise of science and social behaviors of English people was the topic of Merton's doctoral thesis, which was later published in the form of a book. This book has been considered as the pioneering work in American sociology as it related Science with the social behaviors and other social aspects. This essay presents analytical summary of the Merton's book, “Science, Technology & Society in Seventeenth-Century England”. In addition, the importance of this book for the scientific revolution and winners/losers of scientific revolution are also identified.

Summary of the Book

The major idea presented by Merton in his book is that culture and worldview encouraged the emergence of modern science in England. Merton considered the society of England during seventeenth century as a ripe fruit for studying the relationship between society and development of science. Merton identified various social factors which play role for encouraging the development of science and technology in any society; religion is described as one such social factor. It was the time when great scientists such as Newton, Hook and Halley laid the foundations of Modern England. It was a wide spread perception that the scientific evolution was culminated by Newton; Thus, Merton wanted to study how does the Science develop under societal pressures. According to Merton's thesis, societal influences affect the intellectual fields of science and arts. Science is particularly discussed in the book, but the same concepts can be applied to other intellectual fields as well.

The composition of book can be split into 3 sections. In the first section, Merton describes and defends his data sources. This is mainly done due to the reasons that conclusions drawn at the end directly depend on the data. Second section of the book focuses on the strong influences of religion over Science which were present in that era. Finally, the third section describes the impact of other societal factors on the promotion of modern science in England.

Merton obtained the major sets of data for his research from The Dictionary of National Biography; this series particularly helped Merton's research as it included rich biographies of most successful and noted people of England. Hence, it became easier for Merton to select the biographies and do the analysis according to his hypothesis about relationship of science and social behaviors/factors. Merton presented his data arranged according to the years, names and professions of the people; this arrangement helps the reader to understand that what the interest of society remained during various ranges of years. For example, the reader may have an idea that what were the years when major interest of people in England was politics; similarly it is easy to identify that when the interest of English people shifted toward the art, medicine and science and technology. The charts and tables included in the first section of the book provide ...