Science and the Shape of Orthodoxy

Download or read book Science and the Shape of Orthodoxy written by Michael Hunter and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 1995 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his introduction Michael Hunter draws on these studies to propound a new theory of intellectual change in this key period. Traditionally it has been seen in terms of simple polarisations - modernity against obfuscation, orthodoxy against subversion. Here, it is argued that such polarisations represent influential but idealised extremes, to which thinkers individually responded; scholars must in future have due regard to the balance between ideal types and individual complexities thus revealed.