On the Shoulders of Giants: A Shandean Postscript
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...
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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 Booknews Originally published by Free Press in 1965, this edition sports a foreword by Umberto Eco (1990), a preface (1985), an afterword (1985), and a postface (1993). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Foreword by Umberto Eco (1990) translated by William Weaver Preface to the Vicennial Edition (1985) On the Shoulders of Giants Afterword by Denis Donoghue (1985) Postface (1993)
\ BooknewsOriginally published by Free Press in 1965, this edition sports a foreword by Umberto Eco (1990), a preface (1985), an afterword (1985), and a postface (1993). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)\ \
