Handwork and Brainwork: Beyond the Zilsel Thesis

This chapter challenges the traditional historiography of the scientific revolution, arguing that skilled artisans and mathematical practitioners were essential for a transformation of natural knowledge, the so-called ‘scholar-craftsman’ debate. Beginning with a new articulation of Edgar Zilsel’s thesis, which argued for an essential role for mathematical practitioners (or as he would have called them, “superior artisans”) in the scientific revolution, this chapter argues that historians need to take into account social, cultural, political and economic factors, rather than the simpler Marxist explanations of Zilsel. Cormack thus presents the case for the importance of social, economic, and cultural influences on the changing face of nature studies, particularly seeing the importance of mathematical practitioners in putting forward an agenda of utility, measurement, and inductive methodology. This is an argument for the important influence of both social factors and the practitioners themselves. Using English geography in the sixteenth century, and particularly the work of Edward Wright and Thomas Harriot, she argues that geography and mathematics allowed communication between theory and practice, provided new spaces for such exchanges, and changed attitudes towards mathematization, practicality and utility.