Patronage and institutions: science, technology, and medicine at the European court, 1500-1750
Year: 1992
Type: book-review
Abstract: Reviews introduced the modern system of clinical instruction" (p.62), her view that La Mettrie extensively employed the great man's medicine seems well-founded (that Boerhaave encouraged sexual reproduction as her text on p. 62 suggests seems less plausible).The fundamental problem with this book, however, is that it is an exercise in rational reconstruction.Lacking any account by La Mettrie of the purpose of his work and the reason for the sequence of it, and any evidence for its employment by contemporaries other than to dismiss it, Wellman constructs a hypothetical tale of what La Mettrie intended to do, what he really meant, how his research led him to this or that conclusion, what he thought and why, what tradition led La Mettrie to what and so forth.Wellman constructs a picture of La Mettrie rationally exploring the issues confronting the intelligent eighteenth-century medical man and creates a hypothetical account of how he came to enlightened but misunderstood conclusions.Actually, as far as knowing why La Mettrie said and did what he said and did, we have scarcely a clue.
Source: Choice Reviews Online
Author: Henry, John
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4243021972