Ask HN: Any recommendation for a good History of Science book? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Any recommendation for a good History of Science book?

#71

Post by wolverine876 » Mon, Feb 28, 2022, 1:50 AM UTC

dev-3892 wrote: post #66

wolverine876 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A seminal, perspective-shifting book, but not a general history of science. Also, one historian of science that I spoke to said it was a bit outdated now (as of ~10 years ago).

I'd be very interested in hearing about a more recent synthesis on the topic, if you know of one! A lot of the other suggestions in this thread seem to be more about science popularization than directly about philosophy of science.

In another comment, I pointed out the Open Syllabus Project, which collects and surveys college class syllabuses. There you can find what professors in the field think are the best and most important books, which may be the best recommendations you'll find.

https://blog.opensyllabus.org/about-the-open-syllabus-projec...

Re: Ask HN: Any recommendation for a good History of Science book?

#72

Post by easytiger » Mon, Feb 28, 2022, 3:42 AM UTC

Anything by P J Bowler is worth a look. He and Morus wrote the first "textbook" on history of science. "Making Modern Science: A Historical Survey" - disclaimer I was their student when they were writing this.

Full bibliography here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_J._Bowler

Iwan Rhys Morus also has some good books on Faraday/Tesla and his own illustrated history of science and way back to his "Bodies/Machines" from 2002.

They take a general view that is cynical of the "revoluions" fallacy in historigraphical approaches to the history of sciences.

Re: Ask HN: Any recommendation for a good History of Science book?

#73

Post by easytiger » Mon, Feb 28, 2022, 3:45 AM UTC

antwerp1 wrote: post #6

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn

With the caveat that it has been well argued that "scientific revolutions" are an artefact of historical compression rather than real phenomenon that was experienced by participants in said "revolution"

Re: Ask HN: Any recommendation for a good History of Science book?

#74

Post by divbzero » Mon, Feb 28, 2022, 4:21 AM UTC

For chemistry specifically I would recommend A Short History of Chemistry by JR Partington.

Re: Ask HN: Any recommendation for a good History of Science book?

#75

Post by adhesive_wombat » Mon, Feb 28, 2022, 4:37 AM UTC

Jxl180 wrote: post #68

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The actual quote is "whether it actually exists is a matter for 21st century physics," so he was completely correct. It was, indeed, a matter for 21st century physics: the Higgs boson was proven to exist in 2012: about 9 years after the book was published.

To be fair, I didn’t say he was wrong, I said it’s out of date.

Well, you kind of made it sound like he was predicting it wouldn't be found for a century (though I suppose is he'd written the book just 4 years earlier, he'd then be right).

It actually goes into some detail about why the Higgs boson is important, it just says "it hasn't been found yet". If you fill in the epilogue of "the Higgs boson was found in 2012" yourself, those pages are still consistent, correct and useful.

It would really be out of date if the Higgs had been disproved, as it would have two pages of, essentially, a branch predictor failure.

Re: Ask HN: Any recommendation for a good History of Science book?

#76

Post by stillblue » Mon, Feb 28, 2022, 4:43 AM UTC

This thread was like walking into a candy store on a Monday morning! Hearty thanks for all your recommendations. Time to go hoard!!!!!!

Re: Ask HN: Any recommendation for a good History of Science book?

#77

Post by wmncewwi » Mon, Feb 28, 2022, 5:09 AM UTC

The Grand Contraption by David Park. One of the most beautifully written non-fiction books I've ever read. Park was a professor of physics at Williams College. Published by Princeton University Press.

Re: Ask HN: Any recommendation for a good History of Science book?

#78

Post by inospeak1 » Mon, Feb 28, 2022, 5:47 AM UTC

Not a book but a podcast from Stephen Wolfram. Leaving it here in case it is useful.

1. A Brief History of Science with Stephen Wolfram - https://soundcloud.com/stephenwolfram/sets/a-brief-history-o...

2. A Very Brief History of Mathematics - https://soundcloud.com/stephenwolfram/a-very-brief-history-o...

3. An Informal History of Physics - https://soundcloud.com/stephenwolfram/history-of-physics

There maybe more here - https://soundcloud.com/stephenwolfram

Re: Ask HN: Any recommendation for a good History of Science book?

#79

Post by solarmist » Mon, Feb 28, 2022, 6:22 AM UTC

I highly highly highly recommend The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. It's where the term paradigm shift is from.

This book had the large effect on my way of thinking of any book I've read in at least the last decade.

Re: Ask HN: Any recommendation for a good History of Science book?

#80

Post by solarmist » Mon, Feb 28, 2022, 6:25 AM UTC

easytiger wrote: post #73

antwerp1 wrote: post #6

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn

With the caveat that it has been well argued that "scientific revolutions" are an artefact of historical compression rather than real phenomenon that was experienced by participants in said "revolution"

I'm pretty sure his conclusion was that new paradigms take hold by the previous generation dying/retiring. So I'm not sure how much compression that really is.