LAUSR

Ignore themisleading cover claim that advertises this book as “the first systematic account of the history of science from antiquity through the Scientific Revolution inmany decades.”Better to concentrate on its qualities with respect to what it truly is—the latest in a quite considerable range of books on the origins of modern science. While many of these books lend themselves well to classroom treatment, this one is specifically dedicated to it. I shall consider it first from an imagined student’s and then from a not-so-imaginary teacher’s point of view. The Origins of Modern Science: From Antiquity to the Scientific Revolution opens with the prototypical medieval cathedral. Ofer Gal discusses at length what it was and how it was built, because he has found here the perfect metaphor for conveying to the aimed-for beginner what science, and its history, are about. The metaphor works fourfold. Gal makes the cathedral stand for theman-made nature of science. He lets its construction represent the (in his outspoken view) unreservedly contingent nature of science and of its advance over time. He makes the building of a cathedral an exemplar of how all human actions take place in the context of some historically given situation—nothing ever happens out of nowhere. Finally, he makes the ideal model of a cathedral and the process of actually building it mark the fundamental distinction between “knowing that” and “knowing how to.”This fourfold conception of science asman-made, as contingent, as arising in some given situation, and as a blend of theoretical and practical knowledge (in short, as socially constructed) serves as the cornerstone of Gal’s explanation to his student readers of how the history of science ought to be cultivated. It is a lesson he keeps reminding them of throughout the book. Whereas most history books, textbooks included, operate along lines of “Show, don’t tell,”Gal has instead opted for a “Tell in advance; and while showing, keep telling” procedure. The book’s tone blends the informal with the high minded, in ways that here and there jar with certain other features. For instance, Gal dwells on many of his chosen topics (e.g., an outline of Plotinus’s biography or an explanation of how exactly to print a book) at greater length than seems warranted by his principal aim: to make the origin of science clear to his student