SCIENCE IN UTOPIA

The author, a professor of English, surveys a number of utopian writings in order to evaluate the nature and place of natural science and mathematics in various ideal societies. She gives particular attention to the seventeenth century, whose utopians first put science in a starring role (shared with religion) as a means to a perfected world and an integral part of it. The best sections deal with these men (including Campanella, Bacon and Winstanley), their utilitarian bias, struggles with the church and the censors, methodological difficulties, ""modern"" views on education and the nature of knowledge. Mrs. Eurich's pedestrian academic style holds up badly next to the rich, direct language of her primary sources. A decent scholarly job--but better books on seventeenth-century science and better studies of utopian thought are available, and she has no original thesis which might give her recondite subject wider relevance for students of history and social theory.