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9 - National Scientific Surveys

from Part I - Transnational, International, and Global

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2020

By
Hugh Richard Slotten
Edited by
Hugh Richard Slotten ,
Ronald L. Numbers  and
David N. Livingstone
Hugh Richard Slotten
Affiliation:
University of Otago, New Zealand
Ronald L. Numbers
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
David N. Livingstone
Affiliation:
Queen's University Belfast
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Summary

This chapter explores the significance of scientific surveys of national territories in the development of modern science. National surveys have necessarily been linked to the centralizing tendencies of nation-states beginning especially during the eighteenth century. The surveys were considered scientific because they used the principals and methods of empirical physical science, astronomy, and abstract mathematics to produce precise and rigorous results. Surveying and mapping of national territories fulfilled an Enlightenment desire to rationalize and bring order to nature.

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The Cambridge History of Science , pp. 124 - 136
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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