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Paula Findlen | Department of History

history.stanford.edu · 56 words · saved by 1 readers

I have taught the early history of science and medicine for many years on the premise that one of the most important ways to understand how science, medicine and technology have become so central to contemporary society comes from examining the process by which scientific knowledge emerged. I also take enormous pleasure in examining a kind of scientific knowledge that did not have an autonomous existence from other kinds of creative endeavors, but emerged in the context of humanistic approaches to the world (in defiance of C.P. Snow's claim that the modern world is one of "two cultures" that share very little in common). More generally, I am profoundly attracted to individuals in the past who aspired to know everything. It still seems like a worthy goal. My other principal interest lies in understanding the world of the Renaissance, with a particular focus on Italy. I continue to be fascinated by a society that made politics, economics and culture so important to its self-definition,

Main content start Paula Findlen Ubaldo Pierotti Professor of History Professor, by courtesy, of French and Italian Barbara Finberg University Fellow in Undergraduate Education (2025), Bass University Fellows Program B.A., Wellesley College, Medieval/Renaissance Studies (1984) M.A., University of California, Berkeley, History (1985) Exchange Scholar, The University of Chicago (1986) Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, History (1989)

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