Reviewing as a New Style of Reasoning in the Early Modern Period

This paper explores the emergence of a new style of reasoning in early modern thought, that of reviewing, and how it changed the way of doing science and philosophy. It shows (1) how reviewing produced new objects of knowledge—that is, reviews in all their var- ious formats; (2) how reviewing generated authorities and monopolies of knowledge, establishing new criteria for truth and falsehood, and affirming new trends and spheres of influences; (3) how reviewing created a new mode of intellectual work for scientists and philosophers, establishing articulated ways of sharing knowledge with an expecta- tion of specific standards; (4) how reviewing as a form of testing knowledge and at the same time a way of making public the test follows the same pattern as the experimen- tal style of reasoning, but while the latter was based on experimentation, the former used the dissemination of ideas as a warrant of their validity.