The Invention of Science with David Wootton

I interview David Wootton on "The Invention of Science". We talk about what science is and how science came about in the 16th century. We look at the rise of perspective painting; Columbus's discovery of America; and the invention of the printing press. We discuss the significance of Galileo's discovery of the phases of Venus and David's notion of "killer facts"; and we discuss the impact of David's arguments for contemporary academic history of science as well as the Kuhnian legacy.

After the interview I focus on two concepts that we look at in the interview: the issue of incommensurability in Kuhn and David's notion of path dependency. For more discussion of "The Invention of Science", check out the Forum page on the website: https:// ...