On the Shoulders of Giants â" The Postâ"Italianate Edition

The Post-Italianate Edition

By: Robert K. Merton

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Paperback | 15 May 1993 | Edition Number 1

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Paperback
348 Pages

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22.9 x 15.3 x 2.3

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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

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

On the Shoulders of Giants â" The Postâ"Italianate Edition

The Post-Italianate Edition

At a Glance

Paperback

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

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