Bachelors of science

About this book

Feminist analyses identify contemporary Western ideas of the gendered and racialized self as originating in the seventeenth century. Naomi Zack examines the writings of key "bachelors of science"--Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Newton, Gassendi, and Boyle--and locates their reputations within the framework of the de facto "masculinization of science" and "scientizing of masculinity." Zack takes on issues such as pre-racial conceptions of slavery, witchcraft trials and their connection to homosociality, and the highly sexualized nature of women's identity in the seventeenth century. She suggests a link between elite bachelorhood, the profession of philosophy, and scientific pursuit as recreational activity. This book is central to understanding the precedents of modern scientific identity, race, and gender. --From publisher's description.