Status Updates From The Scientific Revolution

:This is the paradox [at the heart of modern science]: the more a body of knowledge is understood to be objective and disinterested, the more valuable it is as a tool in moral and political action.

[I]f we want ultimately to understand the appeal of mechanical metaphors in the new scientific practices—and the consequent rejection of the distinction between nature and art—we shall ultimately have to understand the power relations of an early modern European society. . .