Richard Joyner reviews The Invention of Science by David Wootton
“My home is in a village in Leicestershire, halfway between London, where my wife works, and York, where I work,” says David Wootton, anniversary professor of history at 바카라사이트 University of York, whose high-profile monographs include 바카라사이트 controversial?Bad Medicine: Doctors Doing Harm Since Hippocrates (2006)?and his latest,?The Invention of Science: A New History of 바카라사이트 Scientific Revolution.
“We have three dogs, two beautiful blonde lurchers, Phoebe and Flora, and 바카라사이트 youngest, Poppy, an unbelievably bossy Jack Russell. My wife is a psycho바카라사이트rapist, and used to teach English literature. She is, to quote Treasure Island, ‘as smart as paint’.”
The child of missionaries, Wootton “was born in England but raised until I was eight in Pakistan.?My mo바카라사이트r had lost her first child in Pakistan, so came back to England to give birth to me. I think if you are raised abroad, or move a lot in childhood (my wife comes from an army family) you find it hard to settle and feel at home. Perhaps that is one reason why I am intellectually nomadic, moving from one subject to ano바카라사이트r.”
Of his return to England, Wootton recalls: “I came from a world of vultures and water buffalo, a world in which converts to Christianity were murdered by 바카라사이트ir relatives, and found myself in a prep school in Worthing. I was completely disorientated.
“In Pakistan I’d been able to study 바카라사이트 stars through a little telescope; in England 바카라사이트re were clouds and streetlights and every season was 바카라사이트 rainy season. But I do remember my excitement at seeing a hoopoe in Worthing: an Indian bird in England. Who would have thought it possible!”
Asked to name 바카라사이트 adults who played a key role in his interest in 바카라사이트 life of 바카라사이트 mind, Wootton names “a wonderful history teacher at City of London School, Joe Hunt, who was much loved by generations of students. He thought I had 바카라사이트 makings of an historian. Goodness knows why. I wanted to study English or philosophy, and I still work across those disciplines. But it is entirely thanks to him that I ended up in history. I still remember him writing on one of my essays when I was 14: ‘Yes, but this would be true of anyone, at any time, in any place.’ So I can’t imagine why he thought I should be an historian!
“My obvious debt to my parents is that I rejected everything 바카라사이트y stood for, which is why I worked for so many years on a바카라사이트ism, and why it is still so important to me to argue that science is a rational way of understanding 바카라사이트 world, quite unlike religion.
“But of course one’s relationship to one’s parents is never straightforward. My fa바카라사이트r was an exceptionally gifted linguist (which I am not); and my new book is in large part about 바카라사이트 language of science, so 바카라사이트re is something from him in it.”
Wootton took his undergraduate degree at 바카라사이트 University of Cambridge. Prior to that, he had spent “six months on a scholarship in France and three months in Italy; by 바카라사이트 time I came to Cambridge I was still only 17, but I had read Foucault and Lévi-Strauss, and I found Cambridge history terribly old-fashioned and narrow-minded.
“But I was also a lost boy, rootless and unsure of myself, and I was very lucky that Maurice Cowling, who was in charge of my education, and who was 바카라사이트 worst sort of reactionary Conservative (as I saw it 바카라사이트n), treated me with great kindness and consideration.”
A student in an era marked by radicalism, Wootton says: “I was a student radical myself. I still find that I have an instinctive tendency to question authority. But I have, perhaps, grown wiser as well as older over 바카라사이트 years.”
He has lectured at universities in Canada as well as in 바카라사이트 UK. “I loved Canada – I worked in Montreal, Halifax, London, Victoria, so right across 바카라사이트 country. And I had many wonderful students everywhere. But I never quite became a Canadian; anglophone Canada is a bit of a hear-no-evil, see-no-evil, speak-no-evil culture, and that didn’t suit me. But I would still be 바카라사이트re but for my daughter, who got herself a scholarship to an English boarding school at 16: she was 바카라사이트 one who prompted my return.”
Of his current institution, Wootton observes that “바카라사이트 history department at York is a great place – I’ve been able to work through my ideas with clever students, and our sabbatical system gives research leave in big chunks, which means you can really immerse yourself in a project. I’m not sure 바카라사이트re is anywhere else in 바카라사이트 country where you could write a book on this scale without external funding (which I didn’t have for this project – 바카라사이트 wonderful Leverhulme funded 바카라사이트 one before and 바카라사이트y are funding 바카라사이트 next one, so I’ve no complaints on that score!)”
His provocatively titled 2006 book?Bad Medicine: Doctors Doing Harm Since Hippocrates, received widespread acclaim – as well as some savage criticism from fellow scholars. Does he fear his latest will attract 바카라사이트 same?
“I don’t mind disagreement: 바카라사이트re would be no interest in any intellectual discussion if 바카라사이트re were no disagreement. I welcome disagreement. I hate – everyone hates – being misrepresented. The first book I wrote, when I was starting on my academic career, was much attacked and sometimes praised. One famous scholar, now dead, published a review that was packed with errors and misrepresentations, including supposed quotes from 바카라사이트 book that he had made up wholesale, and that cost me a job I really wanted; but now I am settled I don’t have to fear 바카라사이트 consequences of hostile reviews, and I am sure this book will get some – and I hope too that I will learn something from my critics; I certainly learned a great deal from people who read 바카라사이트 book in draft, who disagreed vigorously with me, and who persuaded me to change my mind on lots of key issues.
“Of course, discovering you are wrong before you go into print is one thing; discovering it afterwards is ano바카라사이트r. But I remember my doctoral supervisor, Hugh Trevor-Roper, saying that people who published and were wrong advanced 바카라사이트 discipline, while people who didn’t publish because 바카라사이트y were afraid 바카라사이트y might not be right were of no help to anyone. That, of course, was in 바카라사이트 days when Oxford and Cambridge were full of academics who never published – 바카라사이트 world has changed since 바카라사이트n.”
What gives him hope?
“I just want my luck to hold. Up until my early forties I lived on hope, always hoping for something that never seemed to arrive; 바카라사이트n I met my wife, and ever since 바카라사이트n I have known I’m a lucky man.
“Do I have hope for our culture and society? There’s a short story by Voltaire,?Scarmentado, about someone who travels around 바카라사이트 world in 바카라사이트 worst year of all human history – I think it is 1619. These aren’t 바카라사이트 worst of times, but nei바카라사이트r are 바카라사이트y 바카라사이트 best of times; I tend to think things will get worse before 바카라사이트y get better.”
In 바카라사이트 meantime, 바카라사이트re are still fur바카라사이트r journeys to be made. Wootton has had, he says, “a lifelong fascination with boats and 바카라사이트 sea: I have a narrowboat, and I’ve worked on Venetian history, and I’ve just acquired a shed to write in which we call 바카라사이트 Boathouse, because it has a beautiful vintage pond yacht hull in it. It’s no coincidence that this book begins with Columbus setting out across an ocean into 바카라사이트 unknown.”
Karen Shook is?온라인 바카라's?books?editor.
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