The Scientific Life: A Moral History of a Late Modern Vocation

Abstract

"Who are scientists? What kind of people are they? What capacities and virtues are thought to stand behind their considerable authority? They are experts - indeed, highly respected experts - authorized to describe and interpret the natural world and widely trusted to help transform knowledge into power and profit. But are they morally different from other people? The Scientific Life is historian Steven Shapin's story about who scientists are, who we think they are, and why our sensibilities about such things matter."--BOOK JACKET.