L’Évolution de la connaissance : Repenser la science pour l’Anthropocène

by Jürgen Renn

L’Évolution de la connaissance raconte en seize chapitres la fascinante histoire des connaissances de l’humanité.
Retraçant les épisodes clés de l’évolution des sciences et des techniques, de l’invention de l’écriture à l’industrialisation et à la numérisation en passant par la révolution scientifique du début de l’ère moderne, Jürgen Renn analyse comment le savoir se crée et se transforme, comment il se diffuse globalement depuis des millénaires et de quelle manière les économies de la connaissance et les sociétés dans lesquelles elles s’inscrivent s’influencent mutuellement.
Extrêmement riche en matériel et abondamment illustrée, cette somme mobilise une multitude de méthodes et de disciplines, et développe un cadre entièrement nouveau pour la compréhension de l’histoire des sciences comme élément de l’évolution culturelle. Le large regard rétrospectif qu’ose L’Évolution de la connaissance permet ainsi d’aiguiser notre vision des défis complexes auxquels nous sommes confrontés dans l’Anthropocène.
La question de savoir si la société humaine globale parviendra à relever les défis de l’Anthropocène dépendra en grande partie du développement futur de son économie de la connaissance.

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

600 pages, Unknown Binding

Published November 4, 2022

About the author

Jürgen Renn is a director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, where, together with his group, he researches structural changes in systems of knowledge. His books include, with Hanoch Gutfreund, The Formative Years of Relativity: The History and Meaning of Einstein's Princeton Lectures and The Road to Relativity: The History and Meaning of Einstein's "The Foundation of General Relativity".

Reviews

[Kelly Patton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating on the one hand and a bit overdone on the other hand. It's thought-provoking premise is that the knowledge humans have gained - especially scientific knowledge - is predicated on our social system, our prior knowledge and the prior knowledge of humans the world over. This reader wishes the writer had spent less time making the argument and providing evidence and more time theorizing on it's implications for future evolution in thought. The author does point out more than once that humans are on the brink of creating our own extinction, and that perhaps working to make things so that we can buy more things is possibly not a great way to live. However, he provides no insight into how we might steer public thinking and professional research toward more sustainable living and our ultimate survival.

[John Badger · Rating 1 out of 5]

Verbose and lacking any central argument. In fact basically no arguments at all, just an academic ramble of a collection of famous names and events, but the author couldn’t tie it together to mean anything. Maybe because he’s a Marxist trying to cover science. Steer clear, regret giving it a chance purchase

[Steve]

Ugh. Read the long introduction and about the first 10 pages of the first chapter. Really didn’t care for the writing, hard to follow and actually sort of unpleasant.

I’m not sure why I reserved the book from the library, I’m sure I read a review or it was well mentioned in some article.