Chapter Tecnica, lavoro, rivoluzione scientifica

Abstract

In the early modern era new scientific and philosophical conceptions revolutionized the established picture of culture, and marked a strong historical discontinuity. The essay focuses on the role played by artisans, alchemists, pharmacists, crafsmen in the formation of the new science, and on the impact of popular culture on the new philosophy. A specific attention is devoted to Giordano Bruno’s and Francis Bacon’s views relating to a new ideology of manual work, that was contrary to the traditional, contemplative knowledge. The essay demonstrates that the Scientific Revolution also produced the overthrow of the identification of mechanical, manual and productive arts with low, worthless human activities.