Summary Of General History of Sciences By Paul Tannery | General History of Sciences Summary

General History of Sciences Summary

Paul Tannery, in his lecture in the form of an introduction to a book, talks about the history of science, its meanings, the need for a general history and specific histories of the sciences and synthesize the " History of science on the basis of the evidence available to us.

Science is from its origin an essential factor in the progress of human civilization. Therefore, one must study as the history of art or the history of literature. But unlike other stories, the history of science has not been properly studied. It is difficult to find a historian of science as a scientist capable of explaining science as a whole is rare because researchers only know the specific stories needed about them. But there have been examples of the same scientist trying to compose History of Science.

Tannery takes examples from French. Laplace's "Exposition of the World System" is one example. The French mathematician, "Historical overview of the origin and development" of Michel Chasles is another example. Engine The work of Marcellin Berthelot on the origins of alchemy reveals an entirely unknown past. These examples prove that to be a good historian of science, one must not only be a scientist, but devote oneself to history and develop a historical sensibility, another than scientific sensibility. Special types of knowledge are necessary for a historian, which makes it difficult to compose the history of science. The scientist of science is interested only in particular history and specializes only in their themes.

General History of Sciences By Paul Tannery Short Notes And Analysis

The pure historian who has no scientific temperament can not therefore make a general history of science. The philosopher who tries to answer the question and why science would want more technical details than a pure historian. Attempts have been made in France to compose the history and philosophy of science. When we look for the answer to the question, "What is the general history of science?" We find that the various books on science can not answer this question.
Paul Tannery tries to synthesize a history of science. Synthesis - means etymologically the composition. Tannery attempts to create a general history of science through analysis or decomposition. He believes that a historian usually gets the elements he wants to use by following his own tastes and neglecting others. History should be independent of personal choice. When different chemicals combine, we get different products depending on the quality and quantity of the chemicals used. Similarly, the history of science should be composed in a balanced way, giving equal importance to all elements. Thus, the general history of science should be synthesized from specific stories that took raw materials from original sources. 

Short Story Of General History of Sciences 

The specific stories of pure mathematics, astronomy and rational mechanics are sufficiently developed and medicine is studied, but not the history of physics, chemistry and biological sciences. Science is progressing rapidly and technology is updated every second. It is therefore difficult to synthesize particular histories. It is the ability to generalize from existing evidence. We have to check them and come to conclusions. A historian must be aware of his composition and demerits when composing a story. A story is the articulation of an individual. A historian must therefore pay attention to his work. When selecting the material from a general source, he should know that an original or

1) General details on a subject that each person can understand

2) Special intelligible details for those who are familiar with the subjects

But if a secondary source is used to compose the story, we know that the details are taken up by another and are less analytical than the original. The specific histories are thus formed of details necessary to prove a scientific phenomenon, but a general history of the science of a particular civilization organized chronologically, explains the general history of a civilization.

The general history of science would give a different perspective of science, an overview of science and its progress. In addition to the biographies of scientists, ideas that result in a discovery and the influences of intellectual, economic and social factors on science should also be subjects of study.

General history would give a chronological order of understanding of the development of human civilization and the recreation of specific histories aims at reconstructing history from a different point of view. Thus, the study of the general history of science and the specific history of science is distinct.