Pythagoras' Trousers: God, Physics, and the Gender WarsIn Pythagoras' Trousers, science writer Margaret Wertheim offers an astute social and cultural history of physics, from ancient Greece to our own time. Wertheim demonstrates that from its inception, physics has been an overwhelmingly male-dominated activity and continues to be so today. But what, she asks, would the world look like - what could the world look like -if men and women worked side by side in shaping the physics of the future? Wertheim puts forward the startling hypothesis that gender inequity in physics is a result of the religious origins of the enterprise. Physics, she reveals, is a science based on a conception of God as a divine mathematical creator. For most of its history, it has been intimately entwined with the institutions of Christianity, and in line with those institutions has historically been closed to women. Furthermore, physicists' world picture has evolved from a deeply "masculine" perspective. |
Contents
ALL IS NUMBER | 17 |
GOD AS MATHEMATICIAN | 38 |
HARMONY OF THE SPHERES | 60 |
Copyright | |
8 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
academic Albert EINSTEIN ancient Aristotelian astronomers atomic Bacon Bassi became began believed body Boscovitch Catholic celestial champions Châtelet Christian Church circle Copernicus cosmic cosmology cosmos culture deity Descartes discovered divine early earth eighteenth century Einstein Émilie du Châtelet Emmy Noether ence equations Evelyn Fox Keller father female force Galileo gravity Greek Grosseteste harmony heavens heliocentrism hermeticism historian human idea IDEM increasingly intellectual Kepler knowledge Laplace laws learning Leon Lederman Londa Schiebinger magic male Marie Curie math mathematically based science mathematician matical matter medieval Meitner Mersenne mind motion nature Newton Newtonian Nobel Noether nuclear orbits particles philosophy planets priest Pythagoras Pythagorean quantum mechanics quest realm religion religious Renaissance role scientific scientists seventeenth century social society space spheres stars Stephen Hawking suggested superforce theologians theology theory of everything tion TOE physicists understanding unified theory universe Western woman world picture