The Changing Image of the Sciences

The title of our book would lead the reader to believe that in speaking ofthe chang­ ing image of the sciences, we are taking for granted the multiplicity of sciences, as these are practiced, for instance, in modern universities. That was, of course, not always the case. Although we can point to some subjects, for instance mathematical astronomy, as being demarcated to some extent from other subjects as far back as Antiquity, the current division into individual sciences can hardly be traced back fur­ ther than the nineteenth century. Moreover,the further we go back inhistory, the more we must subsume science under general knowledge or scholarship:scientia. Some of the earliest imagesofepisteme or scientia, are those of forbidden knowledge - often related to technology - on the one hand, and the absent-minded scholar on the other. These are powerful metaphors - in word as well as image - that have been appro­ priated in various ages for different purposes. The Greeks gave Western society its first images ofthe power ofknowledge and those who produced it. Prometheus ridiculed the gods, stole their fire, and brought it down to Earth. For this, Zeus had him chained to a rock on Mount Caucasus, where a vulture fed on his liver during the day, while it grew back at night. He was finally freed by Herac1es.

In Our Own Image: Creating the Computer.- From "Giant Brain" to Information Appliance.- The Transparency of Software.- The World of the Computer.- Changing Images of Chemistry.- Creating Life.- The Wonderful World of Chemistry.- The Ways Back to Nature.- The Changing Image of Biology in the Twentieth Century.- The Nineteenth Century Background.- Biology and the Physical Sciences: Experimentalism and Reductionism.- The Technological and Institutional Imperative.- Integrative Processes.- The Economic, Social and Technological Context in the Development of an Experimentally and Mechanistically Based Biology in the Twentieth Century.- Conclusion.- The Image of Physics.- by the Editors.- Einstein's and Bohr's Views on Philosophy.- On Relativity Theory.- On Complementarity.- Some Final Comments.- Re-imag(in)ing Women in Science: Projecting Identity and Negotiating Gender in Science.- Margaret Cavendish - Defiant Natural Philosopher with an Independent Voice.- Maria Sibylla Merian - Innovative Entomologist Working within Conventions.- Mary Somerville - Queen of Celestial (and Domestic) Science.- Ada Lovelace - Mathematician Calculating Body Image.- Agnes Pockels - Surface Chemist and "Hausfrau".- Jantina Tammes - Geneticist Defining Her Own "Weak Constitution".- Marie Curie - Independent and Eminent Collaborator.- Conclusions.- Science in the Mirror of "Big History".- Science in the Mirror of "Big History".- Big History.- Science as Creation Myth.- Systems of Knowledge.- Pre-Human Knowledge Systems.- Human Knowledge Systems of the Palaeolithic.- Science as a System of Knowledge.- Science and the Future?.- Conclusion.- Appendix: A Modern Creation Story.- The Changing Images of Unity and Disunity in the Philosophy of Science.- TheMisrecognition of Unity in Recent History and Philosophy of Science.- Unity and Disunity as Expressions of Constructivism and Realism.- Historical Conditions for the Unity and Disunity of Science.- Conclusion: Beyond Misrecognizing to Rediscovering the Unity of Science.- Authors and Editors.