One of the fruits of the Scientific Revolution was the idea of a social science - a science of government, of individual behavior, and of society - that would operate in ways comparable to the newly triumphant natural sciences. Thus was set in motion a long and often convoluted chain of two-way interactions that still have implications for both scholarship and public policy. This book, by the dean of American historians of science, offers an excellent historical perspective on these interactions.The core of the book consists of two long essays. The first focuses on the role of analogies as linking factors between the two realms. Examples are drawn from the physics of rational mechanics and energy physics (in relation to marginalist or neoclassical economics) and from the biology of the cell theory (in relation to nineteenth-century sociology). The second essay looks closely at the relations between the natural and the social sciences in the period of the Scientific Revolution.The book also includes a record of a series of conversations between the author and Harvey Brooks (Professor of Technology and Public Policy Emeritus at Harvard) that addresses the present-day public policy implications of the historical interactions between the natural and the social sciences. A short but illuminating history of the terms "natural science" and "social science" concludes the book.

本书作者I.B.科恩是美国著名科学史家，曾任哈佛大学科学史系主任。I•伯纳德•科恩研究领域非常深入广泛，出版有《新物理学的诞生》、《牛顿的自然哲学》、《科学中的革命》等多种重要著作，曾历时15年翻译而成的牛顿的《自然哲学的数学原理》一书的英译本。1974年获科学史研究领域的最高荣誉萨顿奖。

译者张卜天，杰出青年译者，译有著作近40部。热爱哲学和科学史方面的翻译，研究方向为西方中世纪和近代早期科学思想史，研究领域主要集中在近代科学的起源和科学革命，特别关注现代性的起源，科学与哲学、神学的关系和互动，中世纪晚期和文艺复兴时期的哲学、神学思潮对近代科学兴起的影响等等。