Why read A Social History of Truth?

Book cover of A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England

Book description

How do we come to trust our knowledge of the world? What are the means by which we distinguish true from false accounts? Why do we credit one observational statement over another? This study engages these universal questions through a recreation of a crucial period in the history of early…

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The history of science

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Why read it?

1 author picked A Social History of Truth as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

David N. Livingstone

Author

What I love about this book is the way it challenges the taken-for-granted thought that ‘truth’ is easily discovered. With compelling examples from the past, Shapin works through the ways in which scientific knowledge is made–the struggles that its practitioners have to engage in to construct and consolidate credibility.

What the author reveals is that trust is as fundamental in science as it is in everyday life. A revolutionary thought: who do we trust, and why?

From David's list on the history of ideas.