Customer Reviews

The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, Prehistory to A.D. 1450, Second Edition

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I read the Beginnings of Western Sceince as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where I had the extreme priviledge of taking two history of science courses from the author, who is also an absolutely outstanding professor. (And also one of the two or three most knowledgeable people in the world in the history of medieval science) This is by far the most comprehensive text on the history of ancient and medieval science that is out there. You might not believe it, but there aren't even a lot of other texts that cover half of what is discussed here period, let alone any that are this polished and concise. This book not only covers the development of western science from ancient times throught the Middle Ages, but it also considers the religious, and philosophical roots of this development. This book is masterfully written in that it provides a tremendous amount of detail, and yet is accessible to anyone that is an educated and interested reader. I cannot recommend this text highly enough.

Also Recommended: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn

In his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn discusses the importance of history and its relationship to science, the changing views of how historians view past scientific achievements, the role of scientific method in science, and the nature and foundations of scientific revolutions.

I read this book as a student for my History of Scientific Thought Class. This text was an excellent addition to the course work that included discussions about scientific thinking, discovery and revolutions, Greek philosophy and nature, Medieval cosmology and it's assimilation of Plato and Aristotle. Lindberg also pictured works of art that helped discuss the science and thinking of the times. The other texts that, as a class, were discussed along with Lindberg were Leonard Schlain's Art and Physics and Arthur Koestler's The Sleepwalkers and Thomas Kuhn's THe Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

I have read many, many histories of science, but this is far and away the best I have read.