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Putting Science in Its Place: Geographies of Scientific Knowledge

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Often we are under the impression that science is something well-defined, the same everywhere and at any time. Philosophers of science have already questioned these assumptions. Historian of science, David Livingstone, supports the conclusions of those philosophers by showing what people consider to be science changes depending on time and especially place.

In this book, Livingstone focuses explicitly on the geographical variations in what is considered to be science. According to Livingstone, "the meaning of scientific theories is not stable; rather, it is mobile and varies from place to place" (4).

I found this an extraordinarily interesting book. Livingstone writes well, uses many examples and to me indubitably shows that what is considered "science" is not the same everywhere. (This is also illustrated by the discussions about Intelligent Design, which are prominent in the United States but that - due to a difference in what is considered science - hardly have an impact in Europe.)

I warmly recommend this book to all those historians, philosophers, and theologians, interested in the question "What constitutes science?"