Sciences and Economies in the Scientific Revolution: Concepts, Materials, and Commensurable Fragments

Debates about the nature of the so-called Scientific Revolution can be treated as a touchstone describing many of the fundamental changes in the field of the history of science. The establishment of the history and philosophy of science in the second half of the twentieth century occurred at a time when leading academic scientists among the victorious Western allies were intent on keeping the sciences apart from direct political and economic entanglements. In contradistinction to the Marxist-inspired scientists of the 1930s, they sought to raise scientific ideas to the rank of the highest expression of the human spirit, standing alongside Shakespeare and the like. A history of “pure” scientific ideas therefore motivated the field. By the 1970s, attention to ideologies, social relations, and practices began to open up other analytical possibilities. But other analytical approaches began to look for ways to understand mind and body as joined rather than as separate. The material objects to which scientists attend can be made commensurable, flowing like coins across many borders, suggesting that scientific processes are not confined to one branch of human history or one region of the world. The sciences have economies that are larger than moral economies alone.