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¹⁰ By demonstrating this, the analysis which follows aims to overcome the dichotomy between ‘economic’ and ‘cultural’ modes of interpretation, which it has been suggested dominates recent studies of the social history of British science in this period. The dichotomy assumes that science is pursued either for reasons of hoped-for economic gain, or for social and cultural reasons, such as status enhancement. ‘Utilitarian’ science is frequently assumed to be followed for purely economic reasons, in direct response to material needs, while the influence of cultural factors is restricted to the form of presentation of such ‘useful’ scientific work. My analysis, on the other hand, by connecting the language of utilitarian science with particular structures of social relations, aims to show that even ‘utilitarian’ science is culturally and socially constructed. The distinction between ‘economic’ and ‘cultural’ modes of interpretation is developed by Ian Inkster in his ‘Introduction: aspects of the history of science and science culture in Britain, 1780–1850 and beyond’, in Metropolis and Province: Science in British Culture, 1780–1850, (ed. Inkster, I. and Morrell, J.B.), London, 1983, pp. 11–54.Google Scholar Paradigm example of (respectively) the ‘economic’ and ‘socio–cultural’ interpretations would be: Musson, A.E. and Robinson, E., ‘Science and industry in the late-eighteenth century’, Economic History Review, (1960–1961), II, 13, pp. 222–224CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Thackray, Arnold, ‘Natural knowledge in cultural context: the Manchester model’, American Historical Review, (1974), 79, pp. 672–709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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²⁹ Ibid., i, p. 90.

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⁴⁷ Ibid., i, p. 77.

⁴⁸ This observation may be thought relevant to the debate on the legitimacy of explaining beliefs on the basis of supposedly identifiable personal or group ‘interests’. Given the difficulties of identifying Cullen's interests, in a rhetorical context in which the term ‘interest’ was itself highly charged with implications for all those using it, it appears to me at the very least doubtful that his behaviour can meaningfully be explained in this kind of way. See Woolgar, Steve, ‘Interests and explanation in the social study of science’, Social Studies of Science, (1981), 11, pp. 365–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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¹³⁴ For examples of the investment of opposition hopes in the Prince of Wales in the eighteenth century, see Speck, W.A., Stability and Strife: England 1714–1760, London, 1977, pp. 236–237Google Scholar; Marshall, Dorothy, Eighteenth-Century England, London, 1962, p. 522.Google Scholar

¹³⁵ Priestley, to Price, Richard, 27 09 1772Google Scholar, in Schofield, (ed.), op. cit. (90), pp. 108–109.Google Scholar A more complete collection of the correspondence surrounding Priestley's employment by Shelburne is given in Peach, W. Bernard and Thomas, D.O. (eds), The Correspondence of Richard Price: Vol. I, July 1748–March 1778, Durham, NC and Cardiff, 1983, pp. 124–128, 132–138, 145–148.Google Scholar

¹³⁶ Priestley, , op. cit. (92), p. 92.Google Scholar

¹³⁷ Ibid., pp. 94–95.

¹³⁸ The Works of Henry Lord Brougham: Vol. I, Lives of Philosophers of the Time of George III, 2nd edn., Edinburgh, 1872, p. 82.Google Scholar

¹³⁹ Simpson, John M., ‘Who steered the gravy train, 1700–1766?’ in Scotland in the Age of Improvement, (ed. Phillipson, NT. and Mitchison, Rosalind), Edinburgh, 1970, pp. 47–72.Google Scholar

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¹⁴¹ I have in mind particularly the masonic societies in provincial France, studied by Roche, Daniel, in Le Siècle des Lumières en Province: Académies et Académiciens Provinciaux, 1680–1789, 2 vols, Paris and The Hague, 1978, i, pp. 257–280.Google Scholar Compare the situation in the Sociétés Royales d'Agriculrure, and in the provincial academies themselves (ibid., pp. 281–283, and passim), which in their maintenance of social distinctions between members, and their integration in the patronage networks pervading society at large, seem more like the Edinburgh societies with which Cullen was involved. For light on the comparison between the different French societies, see Baker, K.M., ‘Enlightenment and the Revolution in France: old problems, renewed approaches’, Journal of Modern History, (1981), 53, pp. 281–303CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and compare Emerson, Roger L., ‘The Enlightenment and social structures’, in City and Society in the Eighteenth Century, (ed. Fritz, P., and Williams, D.P.), Toronto, 1973, pp. 99–124.Google Scholar

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¹⁴³ For example, the professional associations described in Russell, Colin, Science and Social Change 1700–1900, London, 1983, pp. 220–234Google Scholar; and Bud, and Roberts, , op. cit. (8)Google Scholar; or the university-based research training described in Morrell, J.B., ‘The chemist breeders: the research schools of Liebig and Thomas Thomson’, Ambix, (1972), 19, pp. 1–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

¹⁴⁴ Compare the concluding discussion of patronage in Outram, , op. cit. (9), pp. 191–195.Google Scholar