Driving Change: The Interplay of Science and Revolutions in Modern History
Keywords:
democracy, revolution, French revolution, Russian revolution, Chinese revolution, American revolution, Arab SpringAbstract
Social revolutions accompanied by an overthrow of regimes are often hard to attribute to a single causal force. It has been argued that scientific thinking has a role to play in pushing a society towards democratic values. However, promotion of scientific research is itself heavily dependent on the policies and preferences of the powerful classes in any particular era. This essay looks at the role Science played during some of the major political revolutions  after the 17th century, and also asseses the impact they had on the history of science.
Downloads
Published
2013-03-25
Issue
Section
Research Articles
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
