The Mindful Hand

Although manual labor and theoretical invention might now seem separate ventures, they are closely linked processes. The Mindful Hand explores innovative areas of European society between the late Renaissance and the period of early industrialization where the enterprise of knowledge and production relied on the most intimate connections of thought and toil. It explains how philosophers and laborers collaborated to pioneer technical change alongside knowledge formation. The essays gathered here help show how these projects were pursued together, yet why, in retrospect, the very categories of science and technology emerged as seemingly distinct endeavors.