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Maria G. Mandourari
The nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries
The Premier Age of British Public Science
Seminal discoveries
Theoretical achievements
Application of new technology to
transportation and manufacture
New physical landscape
Improved quality of everyday material
life
A) The First Period:
1800 – 1851 (Great Exhibition)
Public scientists as…
Sir Humphry Davy (17 December 1778 – 29 May 1829) was an English
chemist and inventor
Sir David Brewster (11 December 1781 – 10 February 1868) was a Scottish
physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, writer and university
principal
Charles Babbage (26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. He was a mathematician, philosopher, inventor
and mechanical engineer, who is best remembered now for originating the concept
of a programmable computer
The importance of science as:
Mode of useful knowledge
Instrument of self-
improvement
Aid to profitable, rational and
individualistic economic activity
Pillar of natural religion
British Association, in 1851, the astronomer George Airy
"In Science, as well as in almost
everything else, our national genius
inclines us to prefer voluntary
associations of private persons to
organizations of any kind dependent
on the State"
i. Britain's early industrial advance
ii. Gospel of free trade
Utilitarianism*
Natural Religion**
Social attitudes of scientists
* Utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics holding that the proper course of action is the one thatmaximizes utility, usually defined as maximizing happiness and reducing suffering (Anscombe, G. E. M.,‘ModernMoral Philosophy’ in Philosophy, Vol. 33, No. 124. (Jan., 1958), pp. 12)**Natural religion most frequently means the "religion of nature," in which God, the soul, spirits, and allobjects of the supernatural are considered as part of nature and not separate from it.
Emphasized:
a) Self-adjustment of the social
mechanism
b) Social problems as matters
for technical solution
B) The second period:
mid-1840s - late 1870s
Great Victorian scientific
publicists
Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29June 1895) was an English biologist(comparative anatomist), known as"Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy ofCharles Darwin's theory of evolution
John Tyndall (2 August 1820 – 4 December1893) was a prominent 19th centuryphysicist. His initial scientific fame arose inthe 1850s from his study of diamagnetism
William Kingdon Clifford (4 May 1845 – 3March 1879) was an English mathematicianand philosopher
Evolution
Atomism
Conservation
Clergy
Religion
metaphysics
Self-conscious
professional
scientific
community
New material
comfort
Better health and
physical well being
Intellectual liberty
Incorporated into
the educational
system
Social mobility
Early 1870s British scientists:
Independent Professionally Self-defined
community
Little influence inthe civic arena.
The state refusedto patronize themin a regularfashion
Industry ignoredthem
Educationalsystem marginallyincorporated them
C) The third period:
More civic minded and state-oriented
Values of:
a. Collectivism
b. Nationalism,
c. Military Preparedness
d. Patriotism
e. Political Elitism
f. Social Imperialism
Science:
a. Create & educate better citizens for state
service and stable politics
b. Ensure military security & economic
efficiency of the nation.
Politicians and manufacturers replaced
priests and clergy as the primary perceived
enemy of the progress and application of
scientific knowledge