The Age of Scientific Naturalism

Physicist John Tyndall and his contemporaries were at the forefront of developing the cosmology of scientific naturalism during the Victorian period. They rejected all but physical laws as having any impact on the operations of human life and the universe. Contributors focus on the way Tyndall and his correspondents developed their ideas through letters, periodicals and scientific journals and challenge previously held assumptions about who gained authority, and how they attained and defended their position within the scientific community.

More Praise

An important and timely volume, providing significant insight into the conflicts and agreements within nineteenth-century science. All the chapters make useful contributions, while two or three should become staples on future reading lists.

Journal of Historical Geography

Provides a striking view of various scientific naturalists and their interactions with opponents.

Endeavour

This rich collection of essays concentrates on underexplored aspects of the development of scientific naturalism in the nineteenth century . . . an excellent book, and one can confidently expect that the arguments played out in this volume will continue to be replayed in changing social, political and religious settings.

British Journal for the History of Science

288 Pages, 6 x 9.2 in.

December, 2020

isbn : 9780822966401

Series

Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century

Subjects

about the editors

Bernard Lightman is distinguished research professor in the Humanities Department at York University and past president of the History of Science Society. He is the editor of Rethinking History and Science and Religion and coeditor of Science Periodicals in Nineteenth-Century Britain and Identity in a Secular Age. He also serves as a general editor for The Correspondence of John Tyndall and the Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century series at the University of Pittsburgh Press.

learn more

Michael S. Reidy is professor of history at Montana State University. He is author of Tides of History: Ocean Science and Her Majesty’s Navy and coauthor, with Alan G. Gross and Joseph E. Harmon, of Communicating Science: The Scientific Article from the 17th Century to the Present.