By: Robert K. Merton, Umberto Eco (Foreword by), Denis Donoghue (Foreword by)

Paperback

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With playfulness and a large dose of wit, Robert Merton traces the origin of Newton's aphorism, "If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Using as a model the discursive and digressive style of Sterne's "Tristram Shandy," Merton presents a whimsical yet scholarly work which deals with the questions of creativity, tradition, plagiarism, the transmission of knowledge, and the concept of progress.
"This book is the delightful apotheosis of donmanship: Merton parodies scholarliness while being faultlessly scholarly; he scourges pedantry while brandishing his own abstruse learning on every page. The most recondite and obscure scholarly squabbles are transmuted into the material of comedy as the ostensible subject is shouldered to one side by yet another hobby horse from Merton's densely populated stable. He has created a "jeu d'esprit" which is profoundly suggestive both in detail and as a whole."--Sean French, "Times Literary Supplement"

Foreword
Preface to the Vicennial Edition (1985)
On the Shoulders of Giants Afterword
Postface (1993)
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

ISBN: 9780226520865
ISBN-10: 0226520862
Audience: Professional
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 348
Published: 1st January 1993
Dimensions (cm): 23.1 x 15.5  x 1.994
Weight (kg): 0.494