A Social History of Truth

How can we trust our knowledge of the world? Or know true from false accounts? Shapin addresses these questions through a recreation of the social world of gentlemen-philosophers in 17th-century England, for whom problems of credibility in science were solved through codes of genteel conduct.

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How do we come to trust our knowledge of the world? What are the means by which we distinguish true from false accounts? Why do we credit one observational statement over another? In "A Social History of Truth", Shapin engages with these universal questions through a recreation of a crucial period in the history of early modern science: the social world of gentlemen-philosophers in 17th-century England. Steven Shapin paints a picture of the relations between gentlemanly culture and scientific practice. He argues that problems of credibility in science were practically solved through the codes and conventions of genteel conduct: trust, civility, honour and integrity. These codes formed, and arguably still form, an important basis for securing reliable knowledge about the natural world. Shapin uses detailed historical narrative to argue about the establishment of factual knowledge both in science and in everyday practice. Accounts of the mores and manners of gentlemen-philosophers are used to illustrate Shapin's broad claim that trust is imperative for constituting every kind of knowledge.
He argues that knowledge-making is always a collective enterprise: people have to know whom to trust in order to know something about the natural world.