Jon McGinnis
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195331479
- eISBN:
- 9780199868032
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331479.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
The aim of the present work is threefold. One, it intends to place the thought of Avicenna within its proper historical context, whether the philosophical-scientific tradition inherited from the ...
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The aim of the present work is threefold. One, it intends to place the thought of Avicenna within its proper historical context, whether the philosophical-scientific tradition inherited from the Greeks or the indigenous influences coming from the medieval Islamic world. Thus, in addition to a substantive introductory chapter on the Greek and Arabic sources and influences to which Avicenna was heir, the historical and philosophical context central to Avicenna’s own thought is provided in order to assess and appreciate his achievement in the specific fields treated in that chapter. Two, the present volume aims to offer a philosophical survey of Avicenna’s entire system of thought ranging from his understanding of the interrelation of logic, physics, psychology, metaphysics, ethics, politics, and medicine. The emphasis here is on how, using a relatively small handful of novel insights, Avicenna was not only able to address a whole series of issues that had troubled earlier philosophers working in both the ancient Hellenistic and medieval Islamic world, but also how those insights fundamentally changed the direction philosophy took, certainly in the Islamic East, but even in the Jewish and Christian milieus. Three, the present volume will provide philosophers, historians of science, and students of medieval thought with a starting point from which to assess the place, significance, and influence of Avicenna and his philosophy within the history of ideas.Less
The aim of the present work is threefold. One, it intends to place the thought of Avicenna within its proper historical context, whether the philosophical-scientific tradition inherited from the Greeks or the indigenous influences coming from the medieval Islamic world. Thus, in addition to a substantive introductory chapter on the Greek and Arabic sources and influences to which Avicenna was heir, the historical and philosophical context central to Avicenna’s own thought is provided in order to assess and appreciate his achievement in the specific fields treated in that chapter. Two, the present volume aims to offer a philosophical survey of Avicenna’s entire system of thought ranging from his understanding of the interrelation of logic, physics, psychology, metaphysics, ethics, politics, and medicine. The emphasis here is on how, using a relatively small handful of novel insights, Avicenna was not only able to address a whole series of issues that had troubled earlier philosophers working in both the ancient Hellenistic and medieval Islamic world, but also how those insights fundamentally changed the direction philosophy took, certainly in the Islamic East, but even in the Jewish and Christian milieus. Three, the present volume will provide philosophers, historians of science, and students of medieval thought with a starting point from which to assess the place, significance, and influence of Avicenna and his philosophy within the history of ideas.
P. Kyle Stanford
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195174083
- eISBN:
- 9780199786367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195174089.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
This chapter examines the most influential recent efforts by scientific realists to blunt or block the pessimistic induction by engaging the details of the history of science itself, including the ...
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This chapter examines the most influential recent efforts by scientific realists to blunt or block the pessimistic induction by engaging the details of the history of science itself, including the first serious efforts to recruit those details to the realist cause. It argues that the most promising and influential realist replies to the historical challenge (including those of Clyde Hardin and Alexander Rosenberg, Philip Kitcher, Stathis Psillos, Jarrett Leplin, and John Worrall) ultimately manage to achieve only Pyrrhic victories for realism, that is, “defences” of scientific realism that are forced to concede to the realist's opponent either just the substantive points that were in dispute between them or everything he/she needs for a convincing historical case against realism itself. Both the problem of unconceived alternatives and the pessimistic induction itself survive even the best recent efforts to defend realism from the specter of the historical record.Less
This chapter examines the most influential recent efforts by scientific realists to blunt or block the pessimistic induction by engaging the details of the history of science itself, including the first serious efforts to recruit those details to the realist cause. It argues that the most promising and influential realist replies to the historical challenge (including those of Clyde Hardin and Alexander Rosenberg, Philip Kitcher, Stathis Psillos, Jarrett Leplin, and John Worrall) ultimately manage to achieve only Pyrrhic victories for realism, that is, “defences” of scientific realism that are forced to concede to the realist's opponent either just the substantive points that were in dispute between them or everything he/she needs for a convincing historical case against realism itself. Both the problem of unconceived alternatives and the pessimistic induction itself survive even the best recent efforts to defend realism from the specter of the historical record.
Mark Carey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195396065
- eISBN:
- 9780199775682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195396065.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This chapter introduces the subject of Peruvian responses to climate change and ensuing glacier catastrophes from 1941 to the present. In Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range, which towers above ...
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This chapter introduces the subject of Peruvian responses to climate change and ensuing glacier catastrophes from 1941 to the present. In Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range, which towers above the Callejón de Huaylas valley in the Ancash Department, 25,000 people have died from glacier-related disasters (glacial lake outburst floods and avalanches). The chapter places this study within current historiography on climate history, the history of science and technology, environmental history, Peruvian history, Latin American history, disaster studies, and glacier-society relations both globally and in the Andean region. The chapter then demonstrates why glacier retreat in Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range is an ideal case study for understanding long-term human adaptation to climate change, as well as analyzing how science evolves in societal context following climate change and natural disasters. Responses to climate change, which brought scientists and engineers to the Cordillera Blanca, unleashed a process called disaster economics: the use of catastrophes or disaster mitigation programs to promote and empower a range of economic development interests in both the public and private sectors. Climate change triggered historical processes and scientific developments far beyond the immediate disasters caused by melting glaciers.Less
This chapter introduces the subject of Peruvian responses to climate change and ensuing glacier catastrophes from 1941 to the present. In Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range, which towers above the Callejón de Huaylas valley in the Ancash Department, 25,000 people have died from glacier-related disasters (glacial lake outburst floods and avalanches). The chapter places this study within current historiography on climate history, the history of science and technology, environmental history, Peruvian history, Latin American history, disaster studies, and glacier-society relations both globally and in the Andean region. The chapter then demonstrates why glacier retreat in Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range is an ideal case study for understanding long-term human adaptation to climate change, as well as analyzing how science evolves in societal context following climate change and natural disasters. Responses to climate change, which brought scientists and engineers to the Cordillera Blanca, unleashed a process called disaster economics: the use of catastrophes or disaster mitigation programs to promote and empower a range of economic development interests in both the public and private sectors. Climate change triggered historical processes and scientific developments far beyond the immediate disasters caused by melting glaciers.
William F. Brewer
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199753628
- eISBN:
- 9780199950027
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199753628.003.0013
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter examines the issue of the theory ladenness of observation. Data from laboratory experiments and episodes in the history of science provide convincing evidence that perception is ...
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This chapter examines the issue of the theory ladenness of observation. Data from laboratory experiments and episodes in the history of science provide convincing evidence that perception is theory-laden. The reviewed material supports a view that perception is constructed from theory-driven top-down information and bottom-up information from the world, the latter of which limits the potentially relativist epistemological consequences of theory ladenness. Theory ladenness seems to occur throughout the scientific process, in perception, attention, thinking, experimentation, memory, and communication. The top-down theory-laden processes tend to operate outside of awareness and can both facilitate and inhibit the the establishment of a correct representation of the world. So, one normative implication of this work is that scientists need to devote some of their methodological efforts to avoiding problems arising from top-down psychological factors. However, the overall normative implications with respect to controlling theory ladenness are for pluralism in science.Less
This chapter examines the issue of the theory ladenness of observation. Data from laboratory experiments and episodes in the history of science provide convincing evidence that perception is theory-laden. The reviewed material supports a view that perception is constructed from theory-driven top-down information and bottom-up information from the world, the latter of which limits the potentially relativist epistemological consequences of theory ladenness. Theory ladenness seems to occur throughout the scientific process, in perception, attention, thinking, experimentation, memory, and communication. The top-down theory-laden processes tend to operate outside of awareness and can both facilitate and inhibit the the establishment of a correct representation of the world. So, one normative implication of this work is that scientists need to devote some of their methodological efforts to avoiding problems arising from top-down psychological factors. However, the overall normative implications with respect to controlling theory ladenness are for pluralism in science.
Edward B. Davis
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195170382
- eISBN:
- 9780199835669
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195170385.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This essay argues that the history of science and faith is not one of ongoing conflict. While earlier historiographers like Andrew Dickson White portrayed a triumphal science engaged in “warfare” ...
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This essay argues that the history of science and faith is not one of ongoing conflict. While earlier historiographers like Andrew Dickson White portrayed a triumphal science engaged in “warfare” with theology, that view has been largely replaced by a much more nuanced story of mutual influence. Davis concludes that historians of science, whether Christians or not, largely share the same goal: to document the complexity of this story without prejudicing the case either for or against faith.Less
This essay argues that the history of science and faith is not one of ongoing conflict. While earlier historiographers like Andrew Dickson White portrayed a triumphal science engaged in “warfare” with theology, that view has been largely replaced by a much more nuanced story of mutual influence. Davis concludes that historians of science, whether Christians or not, largely share the same goal: to document the complexity of this story without prejudicing the case either for or against faith.
Dhruv Raina
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198068808
- eISBN:
- 9780199080113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198068808.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter reviews a genre of the history of science appearing in the Indian Journal of History of Science that strictly observes the internal-external divide. One of the elements of this review is ...
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This chapter reviews a genre of the history of science appearing in the Indian Journal of History of Science that strictly observes the internal-external divide. One of the elements of this review is a bibliometric analysis that aims to identify the priorities of historians of science in India publishing in the journal. These priorities and the underlying historiography render certain kinds of problems amenable for research and investigation, and foreclose the pursuit of others. In attempting a social epistemology of the discipline, other themes and areas may be identified. While this review is partisan, it also seeks to evaluate the growth of the discipline in terms of the precepts set down by the founders of the journal itself. Rather than examining the avenues of professionalization of the discipline, this chapter focuses on the images of science that pervade the community of Indian scientists.Less
This chapter reviews a genre of the history of science appearing in the Indian Journal of History of Science that strictly observes the internal-external divide. One of the elements of this review is a bibliometric analysis that aims to identify the priorities of historians of science in India publishing in the journal. These priorities and the underlying historiography render certain kinds of problems amenable for research and investigation, and foreclose the pursuit of others. In attempting a social epistemology of the discipline, other themes and areas may be identified. While this review is partisan, it also seeks to evaluate the growth of the discipline in terms of the precepts set down by the founders of the journal itself. Rather than examining the avenues of professionalization of the discipline, this chapter focuses on the images of science that pervade the community of Indian scientists.
E. Brian Davies
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199219186
- eISBN:
- 9780191711695
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199219186.001.0001
- Subject:
- Physics, History of Physics
How do scientific conjectures become laws? Why does proof mean different things in different sciences? Do numbers exist, or were they invented? Why do some laws turn out to be wrong? This book ...
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How do scientific conjectures become laws? Why does proof mean different things in different sciences? Do numbers exist, or were they invented? Why do some laws turn out to be wrong? This book discusses the basis for scientists' claims to knowledge about the world. It looks at science historically, emphasizing not only the achievements of scientists from Galileo onwards, but also their mistakes. The book rejects the claim that all scientific knowledge is provisional, by citing examples from chemistry, biology, and geology. A major feature of the book is its defence of the view that mathematics was invented rather than discovered. While experience has shown that disentangling knowledge from opinion and aspiration is a hard task, this book provides a clear guide to the difficulties. Including many examples and quotations, and with a scope ranging from psychology and evolution to quantum theory and mathematics, this book aims to bring alive issues at the heart of all science.Less
How do scientific conjectures become laws? Why does proof mean different things in different sciences? Do numbers exist, or were they invented? Why do some laws turn out to be wrong? This book discusses the basis for scientists' claims to knowledge about the world. It looks at science historically, emphasizing not only the achievements of scientists from Galileo onwards, but also their mistakes. The book rejects the claim that all scientific knowledge is provisional, by citing examples from chemistry, biology, and geology. A major feature of the book is its defence of the view that mathematics was invented rather than discovered. While experience has shown that disentangling knowledge from opinion and aspiration is a hard task, this book provides a clear guide to the difficulties. Including many examples and quotations, and with a scope ranging from psychology and evolution to quantum theory and mathematics, this book aims to bring alive issues at the heart of all science.
Dhruv Raina
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198068808
- eISBN:
- 9780199080113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198068808.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Almost four decades after the volumes of Joseph Needham's Science and Civilization in China first appeared, it is fitting to ask why an Indian equivalent has not been produced. In attempting to seek ...
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Almost four decades after the volumes of Joseph Needham's Science and Civilization in China first appeared, it is fitting to ask why an Indian equivalent has not been produced. In attempting to seek an answer to this question, this essay proposes, rather provocatively, that the Needhamian oeuvre cannot be replicated in the Indian variant. First, it outlines the history of the history of sciences in India and then raises some relevant questions and problems in Needham's historiography that prove problematic for the history of science in India. It also discusses the conditions contributing to the non-emergence of the Indian equivalent of Science and Civilization in China. A ‘New Big Picture’ of the history of science has emerged from sociological approaches to the history of science. The chapter analyses what this picture holds for the history of science in India.Less
Almost four decades after the volumes of Joseph Needham's Science and Civilization in China first appeared, it is fitting to ask why an Indian equivalent has not been produced. In attempting to seek an answer to this question, this essay proposes, rather provocatively, that the Needhamian oeuvre cannot be replicated in the Indian variant. First, it outlines the history of the history of sciences in India and then raises some relevant questions and problems in Needham's historiography that prove problematic for the history of science in India. It also discusses the conditions contributing to the non-emergence of the Indian equivalent of Science and Civilization in China. A ‘New Big Picture’ of the history of science has emerged from sociological approaches to the history of science. The chapter analyses what this picture holds for the history of science in India.
Dhruv Raina
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198068808
- eISBN:
- 9780199080113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198068808.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
In studies on the history of science and technology in India, the historiographic frames are structured by a host of factors, such as the nature of the interaction between traditional forms of ...
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In studies on the history of science and technology in India, the historiographic frames are structured by a host of factors, such as the nature of the interaction between traditional forms of knowledge and new knowledge. The politics of knowledge throws up issues relating to the interplay between local cultural embodiments and structures of imperialism. Scientific and technological knowledge are essential components of the historiography of modernity. This chapter examines four phases in the evolution of this discourse, highlighting the differences between these phases and the contradictions implicit within each of them. These four phases are: British and French Orientalist studies on the sciences of India; pre-independence nationalist studies; the phase of post-colonial reconstruction or the golden age of scientism; and the post-positivist phase. First, the chapter considers the link between science and nationalism and then discusses the golden age of scientism.Less
In studies on the history of science and technology in India, the historiographic frames are structured by a host of factors, such as the nature of the interaction between traditional forms of knowledge and new knowledge. The politics of knowledge throws up issues relating to the interplay between local cultural embodiments and structures of imperialism. Scientific and technological knowledge are essential components of the historiography of modernity. This chapter examines four phases in the evolution of this discourse, highlighting the differences between these phases and the contradictions implicit within each of them. These four phases are: British and French Orientalist studies on the sciences of India; pre-independence nationalist studies; the phase of post-colonial reconstruction or the golden age of scientism; and the post-positivist phase. First, the chapter considers the link between science and nationalism and then discusses the golden age of scientism.
John A. Schuster
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195075519
- eISBN:
- 9780199853052
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195075519.003.0014
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter describes the discovery, perfection, and application of the scientific method as the Scientific Revolution happens. Bacon, Galileo, Harvey, Huygens, and Newton were singularly successful ...
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This chapter describes the discovery, perfection, and application of the scientific method as the Scientific Revolution happens. Bacon, Galileo, Harvey, Huygens, and Newton were singularly successful in persuading posterity that they contributed to the invention of a single, transferable, and efficacious scientific method. The treatment of Descartes' method by historians of science and historians of philosophy has been no exception to this pattern. The Discours de la methode has been seen as one of the most important methodological treatises in the Western intellectual tradition, and the Cartesian method has been viewed as doubly successful and significant within that tradition. First, Descartes' method has been taken to mark an early stage in that long maturation of the scientific method resulting from interaction between application of method in scientific work and critical reflection about method carried out by great methodologists, from Bacon and Descartes down to Popper and Lakatos. Second, Descartes' considerable achievements in the sciences and in mathematics during a crucial stage of the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century have been taken to have depended upon his method. This chapter discusses the tendency of historians and philosophers to create a cult of the thoughts of thinkers and revive the link between theorizing about the purported scientific method and requiring a method-centric history of science. It explains further that in all cults, there is a doctrine of truth and it informs us of what we already know and that there is an open ended set of rules.Less
This chapter describes the discovery, perfection, and application of the scientific method as the Scientific Revolution happens. Bacon, Galileo, Harvey, Huygens, and Newton were singularly successful in persuading posterity that they contributed to the invention of a single, transferable, and efficacious scientific method. The treatment of Descartes' method by historians of science and historians of philosophy has been no exception to this pattern. The Discours de la methode has been seen as one of the most important methodological treatises in the Western intellectual tradition, and the Cartesian method has been viewed as doubly successful and significant within that tradition. First, Descartes' method has been taken to mark an early stage in that long maturation of the scientific method resulting from interaction between application of method in scientific work and critical reflection about method carried out by great methodologists, from Bacon and Descartes down to Popper and Lakatos. Second, Descartes' considerable achievements in the sciences and in mathematics during a crucial stage of the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century have been taken to have depended upon his method. This chapter discusses the tendency of historians and philosophers to create a cult of the thoughts of thinkers and revive the link between theorizing about the purported scientific method and requiring a method-centric history of science. It explains further that in all cults, there is a doctrine of truth and it informs us of what we already know and that there is an open ended set of rules.
Mary Orr
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199258581
- eISBN:
- 9780191718083
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199258581.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This book studies in English of Flaubert's least well‐known masterpiece, the final version of his Tentation de saint Antoine (1874). Thanks to Foucault, the work has the reputation of being an arcane ...
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This book studies in English of Flaubert's least well‐known masterpiece, the final version of his Tentation de saint Antoine (1874). Thanks to Foucault, the work has the reputation of being an arcane and erudite ‘fantastic library’ or, thanks to genetic criticism, of being a ‘narrative’ of Flaubert's personal aesthetic (l'oeuvre de toute [s]a vie’). By presuming instead no necessary knowledge to read the text, its versions or its intertexts, this book sets out to offer new readings of the seven tableaux which comprise it, and new ways of interpreting the work as a whole. By arguing that Flaubert was imagining his own epoch through the eyes of a visionary saint in the 4th‐century AD, the dialogues between religion and science that are the dynamic of the work (and the two parts of this study) are elucidated for the first time. Moreover, by also arguing for the meticulous accuracy and imaginative representations of the science of the work, this book proposes in the ‘remapping’ analogy of its title that Flaubert's Tentation is a paradigm of 19th‐century French, and indeed European, ‘literary science’. For 19th‐century French and Flaubert specialists, as well as for curious new readers of the Tentation, this book thus challenges received critical wisdom on a number of fronts. It is through his unlikely protagonist‐visionary, Antoine, that Flaubert's ‘realism’, ‘anti‐clericalism’, and ‘orientalism’ can be given new airings. Through the religious and scientific dialogues of Flaubert's 1874 text this book argues that his ‘temptation’ was to write a vita of his times.Less
This book studies in English of Flaubert's least well‐known masterpiece, the final version of his Tentation de saint Antoine (1874). Thanks to Foucault, the work has the reputation of being an arcane and erudite ‘fantastic library’ or, thanks to genetic criticism, of being a ‘narrative’ of Flaubert's personal aesthetic (l'oeuvre de toute [s]a vie’). By presuming instead no necessary knowledge to read the text, its versions or its intertexts, this book sets out to offer new readings of the seven tableaux which comprise it, and new ways of interpreting the work as a whole. By arguing that Flaubert was imagining his own epoch through the eyes of a visionary saint in the 4th‐century AD, the dialogues between religion and science that are the dynamic of the work (and the two parts of this study) are elucidated for the first time. Moreover, by also arguing for the meticulous accuracy and imaginative representations of the science of the work, this book proposes in the ‘remapping’ analogy of its title that Flaubert's Tentation is a paradigm of 19th‐century French, and indeed European, ‘literary science’. For 19th‐century French and Flaubert specialists, as well as for curious new readers of the Tentation, this book thus challenges received critical wisdom on a number of fronts. It is through his unlikely protagonist‐visionary, Antoine, that Flaubert's ‘realism’, ‘anti‐clericalism’, and ‘orientalism’ can be given new airings. Through the religious and scientific dialogues of Flaubert's 1874 text this book argues that his ‘temptation’ was to write a vita of his times.
Dhruv Raina
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198068808
- eISBN:
- 9780199080113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198068808.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book is about how Indian scientists and historians of science engaged with the sciences of India. From the Orientalist period through the nationalist period, to the period of Nehruvian socialism ...
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This book is about how Indian scientists and historians of science engaged with the sciences of India. From the Orientalist period through the nationalist period, to the period of Nehruvian socialism in India, the forces of decolonization sought to challenge a hegemonic conception of the history of science, such that the history of sciences of the non-West would not be subordinate texts to the mainstream discourse of the history of Western science. The book discusses how historiography is situated within the social theory of science and explores the terrain of post-colonial theory of science, scientism and Romanticism, the work of chemist-historians Prafulla Chandra Ray and Marcelin Berthelot, and the exchange between the Sri Lankan-born historian of art Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy and the Belgian born historian of science George Sarton during the decade 1930–1940.Less
This book is about how Indian scientists and historians of science engaged with the sciences of India. From the Orientalist period through the nationalist period, to the period of Nehruvian socialism in India, the forces of decolonization sought to challenge a hegemonic conception of the history of science, such that the history of sciences of the non-West would not be subordinate texts to the mainstream discourse of the history of Western science. The book discusses how historiography is situated within the social theory of science and explores the terrain of post-colonial theory of science, scientism and Romanticism, the work of chemist-historians Prafulla Chandra Ray and Marcelin Berthelot, and the exchange between the Sri Lankan-born historian of art Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy and the Belgian born historian of science George Sarton during the decade 1930–1940.
Susan Carey
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195367638
- eISBN:
- 9780199867349
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195367638.003.0011
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology
This chapter argues that Quinian bootstrapping underlies conceptual change, illustrating with examples drawn from conceptual change in the history of science as well as from conceptual change in ...
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This chapter argues that Quinian bootstrapping underlies conceptual change, illustrating with examples drawn from conceptual change in the history of science as well as from conceptual change in childhood. It begins by discussing three accounts of the processes involved in theory construction that have wide currency: (1) historically, CS2 is socially constructed, and each child's individual construction is also a social process; (2) the transition between CS1 and CS2 is achieved via noting contradictions and inconsistencies within CS1 itself or as it applies to the world; and (3) domain-general cognitive development yields resources the child can draw upon for the purpose of theory construction. It argues that each of these proposals fails to fully engage the problem. The chapter shows how each falls short of the account wanted here, and then turns to a positive proposal.Less
This chapter argues that Quinian bootstrapping underlies conceptual change, illustrating with examples drawn from conceptual change in the history of science as well as from conceptual change in childhood. It begins by discussing three accounts of the processes involved in theory construction that have wide currency: (1) historically, CS2 is socially constructed, and each child's individual construction is also a social process; (2) the transition between CS1 and CS2 is achieved via noting contradictions and inconsistencies within CS1 itself or as it applies to the world; and (3) domain-general cognitive development yields resources the child can draw upon for the purpose of theory construction. It argues that each of these proposals fails to fully engage the problem. The chapter shows how each falls short of the account wanted here, and then turns to a positive proposal.
Dhruv Raina
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198068808
- eISBN:
- 9780199080113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198068808.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The history of modern science dates back 300 or 400 years, depending on when historians or sociologically oriented historians seek to place the birth or origins of modern science, and historians of ...
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The history of modern science dates back 300 or 400 years, depending on when historians or sociologically oriented historians seek to place the birth or origins of modern science, and historians of ideas seek to place the birth of modernity itself. And yet the paradox that confronts the historiography of science is that 90 per cent of all science that science historians investigate has been produced in the last fifty years, while the majority of historians are devoted to studying the science produced in previous centuries. Two external factors that have altered the trajectory of the history of science are post-colonialism and multiculturalism. In fact, from a third-world point of view, it is now recognized that developments in post-colonial history, feminist studies, post-structural critical theory, and developments within the sociology of scientific knowledge have played a non-trivial role in furthering the possibility of global history.Less
The history of modern science dates back 300 or 400 years, depending on when historians or sociologically oriented historians seek to place the birth or origins of modern science, and historians of ideas seek to place the birth of modernity itself. And yet the paradox that confronts the historiography of science is that 90 per cent of all science that science historians investigate has been produced in the last fifty years, while the majority of historians are devoted to studying the science produced in previous centuries. Two external factors that have altered the trajectory of the history of science are post-colonialism and multiculturalism. In fact, from a third-world point of view, it is now recognized that developments in post-colonial history, feminist studies, post-structural critical theory, and developments within the sociology of scientific knowledge have played a non-trivial role in furthering the possibility of global history.
Amos Morris-Reich
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226320748
- eISBN:
- 9780226320915
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226320915.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The Introduction frames the study of racial photography as scientific evidence. Based on the works of Lorraine Daston and Ian Hacking, the chapter develops the notion of “practical epistemology” as a ...
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The Introduction frames the study of racial photography as scientific evidence. Based on the works of Lorraine Daston and Ian Hacking, the chapter develops the notion of “practical epistemology” as a method of analyzing different author’s assumptions that guided their uses of photography in the study of race. It then characterizes the form of “reactionary logic” to which the majority of writers studied in this book adhered, and the contradiction that undercut the work of racial writers: the belief in the self-evidence of race as well as a belief in its threatening and growing fluidity and concealment. It traces the appearance of the term “pseudo-science” as a countering to the term “Jewish science.” The chapter ends in arguing that the imagination is as important for the history of racial photography as visual perception.Less
The Introduction frames the study of racial photography as scientific evidence. Based on the works of Lorraine Daston and Ian Hacking, the chapter develops the notion of “practical epistemology” as a method of analyzing different author’s assumptions that guided their uses of photography in the study of race. It then characterizes the form of “reactionary logic” to which the majority of writers studied in this book adhered, and the contradiction that undercut the work of racial writers: the belief in the self-evidence of race as well as a belief in its threatening and growing fluidity and concealment. It traces the appearance of the term “pseudo-science” as a countering to the term “Jewish science.” The chapter ends in arguing that the imagination is as important for the history of racial photography as visual perception.
Edward A. Parson
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195155495
- eISBN:
- 9780199833955
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195155491.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
As background to the book, a brief and historically organized account is given of highlights in (1) the early science of the stratosphere, (2) the development and use of chlorofluorohydrocarbons ...
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As background to the book, a brief and historically organized account is given of highlights in (1) the early science of the stratosphere, (2) the development and use of chlorofluorohydrocarbons (CFCs), and their atmospheric impacts, and (3) the initial appearance of environmental concerns about the use of CFCs disrupting the atmosphere by destroying the ozone layer.Less
As background to the book, a brief and historically organized account is given of highlights in (1) the early science of the stratosphere, (2) the development and use of chlorofluorohydrocarbons (CFCs), and their atmospheric impacts, and (3) the initial appearance of environmental concerns about the use of CFCs disrupting the atmosphere by destroying the ozone layer.
Martha Nussbaum
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198287971
- eISBN:
- 9780191596704
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198287976.003.0018
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
Nussbaum agrees with Taylor's argument and explicates the significance of Taylor's work for the concerns and projects of development studies. She then adds two points to Taylor's analysis: one about ...
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Nussbaum agrees with Taylor's argument and explicates the significance of Taylor's work for the concerns and projects of development studies. She then adds two points to Taylor's analysis: one about the history of science and Taylor's historiography, which Nussbaum finds presented in a manner that seems simpler and more monolithic than it actually is; the other on moral psychology, where Nussbaum suggests that Taylor's account of reason needs to be supplemented with a picture of the connection between argument and motivation, and between reason and passion.Less
Nussbaum agrees with Taylor's argument and explicates the significance of Taylor's work for the concerns and projects of development studies. She then adds two points to Taylor's analysis: one about the history of science and Taylor's historiography, which Nussbaum finds presented in a manner that seems simpler and more monolithic than it actually is; the other on moral psychology, where Nussbaum suggests that Taylor's account of reason needs to be supplemented with a picture of the connection between argument and motivation, and between reason and passion.
Trevor H. Levere and Gerard L'E Turner (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198515302
- eISBN:
- 9780191705694
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198515302.001.0001
- Subject:
- Physics, History of Physics
This book contains an edition of the Minutes of the Coffee House Philosophical Society 1780-1787, as transcribed by William Nicholson, the secretary to the society. The 1780s were exciting years for ...
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This book contains an edition of the Minutes of the Coffee House Philosophical Society 1780-1787, as transcribed by William Nicholson, the secretary to the society. The 1780s were exciting years for science and its applications, and experimental philosophy and industrial development were closely interwoven. This coffee house society gave a group of natural philosophers the opportunity to discuss the topics that most interested them. The minutes themselves, unique in their completeness, constitute a continuous record of the fortnightly meetings of a group of leading natural philosophers, instrument makers, physicians, and industrialist entrepreneurs. In addition to a fully edited edition of the Minute book, and brief biographies of all the members, the book includes essays by Jan Golinski on the members' discussion about phlogiston and other issues relating to the chemical revolution, and by Larry Stewart on the reforming, radical, and industrial contexts of the networks to which the members belonged. One standard criticism of English science in the late 18th century is its isolation from the rest of Europe. These minutes offer a very different picture. The members, with Irish chemist Richard Kirwan taking the most active role, discussed current issues in science and reported on scientific and industrial advances from across Europe, and even from Hudson's Bay, showing early English awareness of the latest developments. The Minute book gives a sense of history at a particular period, and is invaluable to all historians, whatever their specialism.Less
This book contains an edition of the Minutes of the Coffee House Philosophical Society 1780-1787, as transcribed by William Nicholson, the secretary to the society. The 1780s were exciting years for science and its applications, and experimental philosophy and industrial development were closely interwoven. This coffee house society gave a group of natural philosophers the opportunity to discuss the topics that most interested them. The minutes themselves, unique in their completeness, constitute a continuous record of the fortnightly meetings of a group of leading natural philosophers, instrument makers, physicians, and industrialist entrepreneurs. In addition to a fully edited edition of the Minute book, and brief biographies of all the members, the book includes essays by Jan Golinski on the members' discussion about phlogiston and other issues relating to the chemical revolution, and by Larry Stewart on the reforming, radical, and industrial contexts of the networks to which the members belonged. One standard criticism of English science in the late 18th century is its isolation from the rest of Europe. These minutes offer a very different picture. The members, with Irish chemist Richard Kirwan taking the most active role, discussed current issues in science and reported on scientific and industrial advances from across Europe, and even from Hudson's Bay, showing early English awareness of the latest developments. The Minute book gives a sense of history at a particular period, and is invaluable to all historians, whatever their specialism.
Donna Yates
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265413
- eISBN:
- 9780191760464
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265413.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter concerns the concept of ‘remoteness’ in early Mesoamerican archaeology as a factor in site preservation. Throughout the nineteenth century, Maya sites were academically and popularly ...
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This chapter concerns the concept of ‘remoteness’ in early Mesoamerican archaeology as a factor in site preservation. Throughout the nineteenth century, Maya sites were academically and popularly conceived of as beyond ‘preservation’ in any realistic sense. However, the late nineteenth-century emergence of archaeology as a science and the growth of North American academic interest in Central America forced a situation where ‘preservation’ was incorporated into professional archaeological identity. Using the Guatemalan site of Holmul as a case study, the chapter presents publication as a form of preservation for logistically challenging archaeological sites in the early twentieth century. Publication is conceived of as an obligatory process that not only produced a textual ‘preserved site’, but served as an homage to advances in the development of North American-style archaeology as a scientific enquiry.Less
This chapter concerns the concept of ‘remoteness’ in early Mesoamerican archaeology as a factor in site preservation. Throughout the nineteenth century, Maya sites were academically and popularly conceived of as beyond ‘preservation’ in any realistic sense. However, the late nineteenth-century emergence of archaeology as a science and the growth of North American academic interest in Central America forced a situation where ‘preservation’ was incorporated into professional archaeological identity. Using the Guatemalan site of Holmul as a case study, the chapter presents publication as a form of preservation for logistically challenging archaeological sites in the early twentieth century. Publication is conceived of as an obligatory process that not only produced a textual ‘preserved site’, but served as an homage to advances in the development of North American-style archaeology as a scientific enquiry.
Nicholas Jardine
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198250395
- eISBN:
- 9780191681288
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198250395.003.0014
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
This chapter presents several guidelines for historians out to describe and explain the production of meaning in the sciences. It considers two important implications of the question-based account. ...
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This chapter presents several guidelines for historians out to describe and explain the production of meaning in the sciences. It considers two important implications of the question-based account. First, the account links historical interpretation with the explanation of novelty in the sciences. Secondly, the apprehension of past styles of inquiry involves many practices that are relevant to the historical understanding of past works of the sciences. The chapter discusses how the study of the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of questions in the sciences tackled in this book shows affinities with much recent social and cultural history of science. It concludes that the study of scenes of inquiry in the sciences should form the core of the history of sciences.Less
This chapter presents several guidelines for historians out to describe and explain the production of meaning in the sciences. It considers two important implications of the question-based account. First, the account links historical interpretation with the explanation of novelty in the sciences. Secondly, the apprehension of past styles of inquiry involves many practices that are relevant to the historical understanding of past works of the sciences. The chapter discusses how the study of the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of questions in the sciences tackled in this book shows affinities with much recent social and cultural history of science. It concludes that the study of scenes of inquiry in the sciences should form the core of the history of sciences.
