Nicholas Jardine

The Scenes of Inquiry advocates a radical shift of concern in philosophical, historical, and sociological studies of the sciences, from answers and doctrines to questions and problems, and explores the consequences of such a shift. In his Conclusion Nicholas Jardine writes: 'The time has come for scientists to break with science. What started life as a creative programme, liberating inquirers from limited scenes of inquiry, has become itself a limitation on scenes of inquiry. Freed of the mythology of science, scientists might become more perceptive of their varied practices and of the workings of their own social and political institutions. They might recover their lost literary and aesthetic consciousness. They might re-engage in historical reflection. Then we should surely see a wonderful proliferation and enrichment of the sciences and of the lived experience of all who partake in them.' Professor Jardine has expanded the book considerably for this paperback edition, adding a substantial preface, an extensive bibliography, and three new essays which develop its themes and pursue its aims further. These renew the book's interest and value for anyone interested in the workings of science and its role in our world.

This book presents a series of essays, each specially written by an expert in the area, which focus on the role of Romantic philosophy and ideology in the sciences, and on the role of the sciences in Romantic literature. The contributions are designed to give a systematic coverage of the whole field. They are written at a popular level; they are well illustrated; and are accompanied by suggestions for further reading suitable for undergraduates and others. Divided into four sections under the titles 'Romanticism', 'Sciences of the Organic', 'Sciences of the Inorganic', and 'Literature and the Sciences', the book discusses various themes, movements and theories, as well as individual scientists and writers (including Schelling, von Humboldt, Goethe, Ritter, Davy, Oersted, Kleist, Coleridge, and Buchner). There is an editorial introduction prefiguring some of the concerns of the books. This original collection, designed to provide a balance of literary and scientific interests for students in both humanistic and scientific disciplines and occupies an important place in a previously under-explored field.

Nicholas Jardine offers here an edition and the first translation into English of Johannes Kepler's A Defence of Tycho against Ursus. He accompanies this with essays on the provenance of the treatise - the circumstances which provoked Kepler to write it, an analysis of its strategy, style and historical sources and of the contents of Ursus' Treatise on Astronomical Hypotheses to which Kepler was replying. Dr Jardine also provides three extended interpretive essays on the intrinsic interest and historical significance of the work.