The Art of Science - Softcover

Castel and Sismondo's discussion will certainly please all philosophers, sociologists, and historians with an interest in scientific practice, while the broad range of case studies and illustrations in each chapter will take students and general readers on a wonderful journey of discovery. -- Tecnoscienza

The result of an unusual collaboration between a physicist with a strong interest in the histories of art and science, and a philosopher with a broad knowledge of science as a human activity, The Art of Science gives readers an appreciation of the activities of science: the hands-on work of experimentation, the struggle to convince people of the validity of novel findings, and the excitement of "eureka" moments. In so doing, the book shows how scientific knowledge is made, and occasionally unmade. The Art of Science steers a course between two important and contradictory images that have a myth-like status: that of the scientist as computer, and that of the scientist as genius. If we abandon these images to focus on what scientists really do, we see that the sciences are also arts. To show the artistry of science, text and images are woven together, so that the book makes its arguments not just through stories of science, but through vibrant and arresting illustrations that help to bring the activity of science to life. The Art of Science shows science not as austere and other-worldly, but as textured and wonderfully human.