Here's something science fictioneers and others might find interesting and useful. It's a quote from a fascinating new book by Andrew Ball that I picked up today at the library, The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science.
If we really want to see where science came from, it is no good starting from today's perspective. Now we have the luxury of being able to regard astrology and magic as forms of foolishness. There was very little luxury in the sixteenth century, when ideas like this were all that was on offer. Science resulted not from efforts to get rid of them but to make sense of them.
PS: The title of this post is the first line of the book, by the way.
PPS: Yes, yes, I'm trying to creep back onto the internet and pick up my responsibilities after losing July to injuries resulting directly and indirectly from a moderately ugly bicycle accident. More later.
