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|DOD Approximate=No
|Brief=a Belgian-American chemist and historian who is widely considered to be the founder of the discipline of history of science
|Summary=George Sarton (31 August 1884 – March 22, 1956) was a Belgium-born historian of science and is often credited with the creation of the field today known as the history of science. Sarton had a diverse education in both Chemistry and Mathematics, and during the First World War moved to the United States and joined the faculty of Harvard University, where he began his studies in the History of Science, and where he played a crucial role in the creation of the History of Science as a discipline that was autonomous and had recognition on an institutional level in universities and also with the publication of his journal Isis, which continues to this day.
Sarton also occupies a unique place in the philosophy of science, especially in his views of scientific change, since he prefigured many of the distinctions, sometimes contradictory, that would become central in later history and philosophy of science (see the section on Criticisms). In particular, in his historiography, he emphasized both the progressive and cumulative nature of scientific change, while also acknowledging the locality of scientific rationality and it dependence on circumstances, sometimes outside science itself.
Sarton himself had a unique, though idiosyncratic, theory of scientific change, especially with regard to the interaction between science and broader societal change throughout human history. He held that Science, together with the rest of mankind and indeed all of nature, was “one”, and therefore to understand changes in science involves a holistic perspective beyond the scope of scientific belief and practice. He also equated the growth of scientific (“positive”) knowledge with the cumulative growth of science with the broader growth and progression of human civilization.
