The airpump experiments shaped scientific knowledge from "summary" of Leviathan and the Air-Pump by Steven Shapin,Simon Schaffer
The air-pump experiments were not just about the mechanical contrivance itself. They were about what the air-pump could reveal about the natural world and about the way that knowledge was made. Those experiments were not just technical but deeply philosophical. They were not just about air but about the nature of truth. The air-pump was a tool, a machine, but it was also a symbol of power and authority – the power to reveal the hidden truths of nature. Through the air-pump experiments, the scientists were not just manipulating air within a glass container. They were manipulating the boundaries of knowledge and the boundaries of credibility. They were shaping the very foundations of scientific authority. The experiments were not just about facts but about the social construction of knowledge. They were about how knowledge was produced, validated, and disseminated in the early modern world. The air-pump experiments were not just about Boyle or Hobbes themselves. They were about the larger social and political context in which those two men operated. They were about the t...
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