A Geohistorical Study of ‘The Rise of Modern Science’: Mapping Scientific Practice Through Urban Networks, 1500–1900

Using data on the ‘career’ paths of one thousand ‘leading scientists’ from 1450 to 1900, what is conventionally called the ‘rise of modern science’ is mapped as a changing geography of scientific practice in urban networks. Four distinctive networks of scientific practice are identified. A primate network centred on Padua and central and northern Italy in the sixteenth century expands across the Alps to become a polycentric network in the seventeenth century, which in turn dissipates into a weak polycentric network in the eighteenth century. The nineteenth century marks a huge change of scale as a primate network centred on Berlin and dominated by German-speaking universities. These geographies are interpreted as core-producing processes in Wallerstein’s modern world-system; the rise of modern scientific practice is central to the development of structures of knowledge that relate to, but do not mirror, material changes in the system.

明代博学思潮发生论

明代"博杂"之学术特色根源于当时的博学思潮,而博学思潮之所以在明代发生又绝非偶然,究其原因,主要包括三个方面:思想文化渊源、科举制度和明代的政治思想现实及风气.其中,学术传统中的博学思想为博学思潮的发生奠定了坚实的思想基础;明代的科举制度和政治思想现实及风气在为空疏不学之风的滋长提供条件和制度保障的同时,也为博学思潮的发生准备了批判、反思的目标和对象,并提供了理论和实践以及学者群体上的保障,而这两个方面又是促成博学思潮在明代这一特定历史时期发生的决定性因素.