A Culture of Fact: England, 1550–1720

by Barbara J. Shapiro

Barbara J. Shapiro traces the surprising genesis of the "fact," a modern concept that, she convincingly demonstrates, originated not in natural science but in legal discourse. She follows the concept's evolution and diffusion across a variety of disciplines in early modern England, examining how the emerging "culture of fact" shaped the epistemological assumptions of each intellectual enterprise. Drawing on an astonishing breadth of research, Shapiro probes the fact's changing identity from an alleged human action to a proven natural or human happening. The crucial first step in this transition occurred in the sixteenth century when English common law established a definition of fact which relied on eyewitnesses and testimony. The concept widened to cover natural as well as human events as a result of developments in news reportage and travel writing. Only then, Shapiro discovers, did scientific philosophy adopt the category "fact." With Francis Bacon advocating more stringent criteria, the witness became a vital component in scientific observation and experimentation. Shapiro also recounts how England's preoccupation with the fact influenced historiography, religion, and literature―which saw the creation of a fact-oriented fictional genre, the novel.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Philosophy, History Of Science, British Literature, Science

296 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1999

Reviews

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mag je een boek als gelezen ingeven wanneer je 150 pagina’s van de theorie geanalyseerd hebt voor je thesis?

[Tauno]

a book recommended by Neal Stephenson:
https://youtu.be/0JDFd_BoN1k (53 min)

[Jlawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Academic work revealing the history behind our modern use of the English word 'fact', and how its origin was the legal domain instead of the scientific. Shapiro shows its roots in 16th century England's evolving legal practices: the phrase at that time was 'a matter of fact' -- a claim that could be proven true or false via the process of a legal trial, so at the end of a trial, you could have a 'false matter of fact' or a 'true matter of fact'.

The new practices of prioritizing impartial judges and jury-members, as well the growing importance of first-hand witnesses and verifiable documents as evidence, created a 'culture of practice' of how best to establish the truth of a 'matter of fact', and then this culture spread to other disciplines, like travel reporting and news reporting, eventually becoming crucial to naturalists (especially the Royal Society) that began compiling the 'facts' of nature, and eventually 'fact' diffused into the broad culture, along the way losing its sense of a provisional statement to be proved and gaining our modern understanding of a statement already proven to be true.

It gets repetitive in parts, but this is always done for the sake of clarity, and there are many intriguing nuances (different approaches to history writing, arguments between naturalists about the relationship of facts to hypotheses and theory) and examples given along the way. One of my favorite explorations near the end looked at how 18th century novels began incorporating the language/methods of the by-then prevalent 'culture of fact' -- rhetorical proofs of the reliability of a fictional narrator, framing scenes as eye-witness accounts, tales formatted as official documents, etc. -- thereby re-introducing the blending of fact and fiction that this whole process had been weeding out of history writing, travel writing, etc.

[Holcombea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great to read a historical perspective on the development of the concept of facts in the West, leading to modern science