What do we talk about when we talk about premodern science? A review of Shapin, Steven, The Scientific Revolution, University of Chicago Press, 1996

وقتي از علم پيشامدرن حرف مي‌زنيم از چه حرف مي‌زنيم؟ نقدي بر كتاب انقلاب علمي استيون شيپين

هرچند شيپين ادعا مي‌كند كه در كتاب انقلاب علمي دچار امرور محوري يا زمان‌پريشي نشده است، اين اثر از تمايلات امروزمحور هالي نيست. شيپين حداقل گاهي نتوانسته علوم پيشا مدرن را الهياتي، اسطوره‌زده، غيرتجربي، غيرمكانيكي، غير رياضي و شديداً تحت تأثير گفتمان ديني جلوه ندهد. به نظر مي‌رسد نمي‌تواند از مقايسۀ علوم مكانيكي مدرن و علوم قديم خودداري كند. اين مقايسه معمولاً به دست‌كم گرفتن ارزش علوم پيشامدرن حداقل براي خوانندگان غيرمتخصص منجر مي‌شود. شيپين معارف عوامانه را طوري در رقابت با علم مدرن قرن هفدهم معرفي مي‌كند كه انگار فرقي بين علوم پيشامدرن و آن معارف وجود نداشته است.

Although Shapin in his book claims a freedom from anachronism, it is not without anachronistic orientations. He cannot hesitate, at least occasionally, to represent the sciences of the Middle Ages as teleological, mythic, non-experimental, non-mechanical knowledge and strongly under the influence of the religious discourses. It seems he is not able to hesitate about a comparison between modern mechanical science and ancient sciences. This comparison, I believe, usually leads to underestimate the premodern sciences, at least for the young readers. In some places, Shapin follows a completely partial approach. He presents the rivals of the modern science in seventeenth century as a vulgar knowledge, which leads the reads to see no difference between ancient sciences and the vulgar knowledge of the nature. Although Shapin is aware of the rhetoric of those times, he never tries to represent a pure image of the scientific-mathematical knowledge of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries