The Invention of Science Quotes

“for the production of individual copies of printed books: of necessity, they are merely sophisticated estimates. The Printing Revolution was a very large-scale but at the same time very drawn-out process which neatly coincides with the Scientific Revolution (see below, p. 95). In 1500 it was only just beginning to pick up speed:”
― David Wootton, The Invention of Science: The Scientific Revolution from 1500 to 1750

“The problem, it is claimed, with grand narratives is that they privilege one perspective over another; the alternative is a relativism which holds that all perspectives are equally valid.”
― David Wootton, The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution

“Quid vitae sectabor iter?”
― David Wootton, The Invention of Science: The Scientific Revolution from 1500 to 1750

“The social and technological process by which we establish facts becomes invisible to us because we naturalize it. Language-dependent and institutional facts come to seem like brute facts to us: this is true for social institutions, like money, but even more so for claims about the natural world which are, in truth, theory dependent: we have naturalized the idea that the heights of mountains should be measured from sea level, an idea that would have made no sense in the Middle Ages.”
― David Wootton, The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution

“furnaces for dyers and brewers, which when known will be used without”
― David Wootton, The Invention of Science: The Scientific Revolution from 1500 to 1750