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Practice Makes Perfect: Knowledge of Materials in Classical Athens

T. E. Rihll and J. V. Tucker

in Science and Mathematics in Ancient Greek Culture

From the 5th century BC, complex material processing technologies were in operation on an industrial scale in classical Athens, in the great enterprises of the Laurium. These productive processes, ... More

From the 5th century BC, complex material processing technologies were in operation on an industrial scale in classical Athens, in the great enterprises of the Laurium. These productive processes, especially the production of silver, were widely recognised in Athenian society to be important and remarkable. The history of material processing is of considerable historical interest, not least because of its influence on the life of classical Athens. This chapter discusses the intellectual life of classical Athens, in particular the nature of the practical knowledge on which material processing was founded, and relates that practical knowledge to the development of theoretical knowledge about materials in the period. It describes how silver was produced in ancient Greece. The most complex processes, those for smelting and cupelling, were unsupported by theoretical understanding. The importance of silver production as recognised in the religious, political, and economic spheres of Athenian society is also considered.Less

What makes Christian ethics Christian?

Rufus Black

in Christian Moral Realism: Natural Law, Narrative, Virtue, and the Gospel

This chapter elucidates Oliver O'Donovan's central epistemological claim for what makes an ethic Christian. It notes that this epistemological assertion is a two-edged challenge that issues forth ... More

This chapter elucidates Oliver O'Donovan's central epistemological claim for what makes an ethic Christian. It notes that this epistemological assertion is a two-edged challenge that issues forth from O'Donovan's claim that the resurrection is the pivot to Christian ethics. The chapter emphasizes that it is theological reflection that will ground and shape a Christian's understanding of the realities where a Christian requires an account of the nature of God, creation, humanity, and eschatology — all of which open up an shape the possibilities for human action. It suggests that this integral connectedness between the process of practical reasoning and the theoretical knowledge about reality that forms the foundation of a Christian realist ethic is the defining dimension of moral deliberation as it operates to shape the nature of moral obligation. And the chapter premises, that, if ethics begins with the Gospel, it also ends with the Gospel.Less

Culture as a Knowledge Asset

Max H. Boisot

in Knowledge Assets: Securing Competitive Advantage in the Information Economy

Culture works at many levels of aggregation. The culture of a group, firm, industry or profession; of a region; and of a country, can be discussed. Yet at whatever level is chosen to define it – ... More

Culture works at many levels of aggregation. The culture of a group, firm, industry or profession; of a region; and of a country, can be discussed. Yet at whatever level is chosen to define it – national, regional, industrial, or corporate – culture remains the means by which non-genetic information is communicated, either within a given generation of agents or from one generation to the next. Technological practice forms an essential part of such cultural transmission. But technological practice frequently combines theoretical knowledge that may itself be pretty well universal in scope with more practical knowledge that is often much more local and culture specific in its application. Knowledge assets not only differ in the discretion they allow when applied, but also in how that discretion is interpreted. The discretion available is a function of the degrees of freedom that characterize a knowledge asset.Less

Modernizing Theoretical Knowledge: Patronage, Reputation, Learned Sociability, Gentlemanly Veracity

Robert S. Westman

in The Copernican Question: Prognostication, Skepticism, and Celestial Order

The Copernican question is a subset of a larger problem: How did modernizers win credibility for new theoretical knowledge? This chapter examines some recent, alternative proposals, with special ... More

The Copernican question is a subset of a larger problem: How did modernizers win credibility for new theoretical knowledge? This chapter examines some recent, alternative proposals, with special focus on Galileo. There are two central issues. One concerns the nature and centrality of patronage as a kind of early modern sociability, the other the degree to which court sociabilities or aristocratic status in some way gave legitimacy to conditions of belief. The chapter first discusses theoretical knowledge and scholarly reputation of celestial practitioners, then describes patron-centered heavenly knowledge. It also looks at Galileo and the aristocratic sphere of learned sociability, sociabilities in the Medici court in Florence, Galileo's decision to leave Padua for Florence, his detection of novel appearances using the telescope, and the reactions of Raffaelo Gualterotti and Giovanni Battista Manso to Galileo's discoveries.Less

Some Evaluations

Francis E. Reilly S. J.

in Charles Peirce's Theory of Scientific Method

This chapter evaluates two aspects of Peirce's thought: his Greek insistence on the primacy of theoretical knowledge, and his almost Teilhardian synthesis of evolutionary themes. It reflects the ... More

This chapter evaluates two aspects of Peirce's thought: his Greek insistence on the primacy of theoretical knowledge, and his almost Teilhardian synthesis of evolutionary themes. It reflects the author's own personal attitude toward both of these topics in Peirce, which is one of endorsement, though some criticisms are also offered. Concerning the first aspect, Peirce was not only an outstanding philosopher but also a man well acquainted with the history of philosophy. His knowledge of history, going back to Plato, Aristotle, and other Greeks, contributed to the formation of his own personal philosophy. One obvious Greek attitude that he made his own was the dedication to theoretical knowledge. On the second topic, the chapter argues that Peirce understood evolution as one of the chief characteristics of the world. It is not restricted to the biological sphere, but extends to the whole cosmos and to the historical development of science. In proposing this synthetic, post-Darwinian view of evolution, Peirce was decades ahead of his time.Less

Assessment

Bee Wee and Karen Forbes

in Education in Palliative Care: Building a Culture of Learning

Palliative care practitioners may be involved in assessment in a variety of ways. First, as teachers, they use assessment to motivate, promote, and test student learning in palliative care. Second, ... More

Palliative care practitioners may be involved in assessment in a variety of ways. First, as teachers, they use assessment to motivate, promote, and test student learning in palliative care. Second, as part of a wider community of teachers, they contribute to assessments that are organized by others in the university and workplace. Third, they may be invited to sit on course organizing committees at which discussions about assessment happen. Therefore, a good understanding of assessment enables the palliative care teacher to be more effective in every setting. This chapter sets out the purposes and sources of assessment; differentiates between formative assessment to aid learning and summative assessment which tests student achievement; and discusses the pros and cons of a range of assessment methods.Less

From Theory to History, Via Midrash: A Commentary on ‘Laws of the Foundations of the Torah’, 6: 9 and 7: 3

David Gillis

in Reading Maimonides' Mishneh Torah

This chapter presents a commentary on ‘Laws of the Foundations of the Torah’, 6:9 and 7:3. Maimonides deploys aggadah to add extra layers of meaning in Mishneh torah. Where he makes intense use of ... More

This chapter presents a commentary on ‘Laws of the Foundations of the Torah’, 6:9 and 7:3. Maimonides deploys aggadah to add extra layers of meaning in Mishneh torah. Where he makes intense use of biblical reference, close reading and attention to midrashic resonances can be rewarding. ‘Laws of the Foundations of the Torah’, 6:9, was interpreted as broadening the chapter's theme of avoiding desecration of sacred objects and texts to include the need for sensitive reading of texts. In ‘Laws of the Foundations of the Torah’, 7:3, the juxtaposition of Jacob's dream of the ladder with Ezekiel's vision of the chariot was found to refer to the combination of theoretical knowledge and insight into historical process in the vision of the prophet. This is reflected in the ontological and teleological dimensions of Mishneh torah's form.Less

The Art of Science: Nineteenth-Century Theory and the Logic of Practice

Philipp Erchinger

in Artful Experiments: Ways of Knowing in Victorian Literature and Science

This chapter examines how nineteenth-century philosophers from William Paley and Charles Darwin to John S. Mill and William Whewell described and debated the relations between art and science as well ... More

This chapter examines how nineteenth-century philosophers from William Paley and Charles Darwin to John S. Mill and William Whewell described and debated the relations between art and science as well as practice and theory. Offering close readings of Paley’s Natural Theology and of various passages from Charles Darwin’s work on breeding and gardening, the chapter distinguishes between two conceptions of art in the sense of skilful practice: art as guided by knowledge and different from nature on the one hand and art as productive of knowledge as well as continuous with an evolving nature on the other. As the chapter argues, these two notions of art played a key role in a controversy between John S. Mill and William Whewell that was carried out, between 1840 and 1872, through successive editions of their published works. Engaging closely with the style and spirit in which this debate was conducted, the chapter shows that Mill and Whewell argued from radically different conceptions of what ‘science’ means. As a result, they disagreed, for instance, about the very question of what constitutes a logical form of argument or proof.Less

Unlimited Science: The Endless Transformation of Nature in Bacon and Shakespeare’s The Tempest

Mickaël Popelard

in Spectacular Science, Technology and Superstition in the Age of Shakespeare

Mickaël Popelard provides a different and complementary interpretation of The Tempest. He explores the early modern concept of infinity in relation to the transformation of nature. Doing so, he takes ... More

Mickaël Popelard provides a different and complementary interpretation of The Tempest. He explores the early modern concept of infinity in relation to the transformation of nature. Doing so, he takes a look at the making of early modern science and provides us with a number of epistemological reflections on Shakespeare’s knowledge and, in particular, on his approach to limits and the unlimited. Taking Macbeth’s idea of an essentially limited human nature as his departure point, Popelard first focuses on Bacon’s both speculative and practical stand, insisting on the fact that, for him, the role of the scientist is to bind together theory and practice so as to achieve “the effecting of all things possible.” While he posits that Bacon’s reform of science and philosophy is marked by its open-endedness and, therefore, by its absence of limits, he shows that, if a similar interest in boundlessness can be noted in Shakespeare’s late plays, characters such as Prospero remain constrained by their obsession with “limits”, “confines” or “boundaries.” Yet, for all his epistemological hesitancy, Shakespeare’s magician and/or natural philosopher shares some of Bacon’s ideas on science, the most important being the belief in an operative rather than a verbally oriented science. Less

Introduction

in Fictions of the Cosmos: Science and Literature in the Seventeenth Century

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the place and role of fiction in the cosmological discourse in the seventeenth century. This volume is divided in three ... More

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the place and role of fiction in the cosmological discourse in the seventeenth century. This volume is divided in three sections. The first section studies the articulation of fiction and theoretical knowledge in tales of lunar voyages by Johannes Kepler, Francis Godwin, John Wilkins, and Cyrano de Bergerac, the second discusses the relationship between fiction and scientific hypothesis by turning to the strategies used to construct “machines of conjecture” in order to describe the universe, and the third looks at textual and pictorial techniques established by Robert Hooke in the fields of microscopy and astronomy.Less

Legal Education

Eva Steiner

in French Law: A Comparative Approach

This chapter shows how legal education further contributes to the reasoning process typical of French lawyers. A striking feature of French legal education is the high level of abstraction that ... More

This chapter shows how legal education further contributes to the reasoning process typical of French lawyers. A striking feature of French legal education is the high level of abstraction that pervades the teaching. The emphasis is on theoretical rather than practical knowledge, to which a strong methodological component must be added. Legal education in France is primarily aimed at providing a sound knowledge of general principles together with the development of a capacity to manipulate abstract concepts and construct logical arguments. This emphasis on abstract concepts and methodology associated with French legal education is historically based and has, in part, been ascribed by legal historians to the dominant role played in the past by the systematic study of Roman law in law schools.Less

Training

Peter Tochtermann

in Unified Patent Protection in Europe: A Commentary

The implementation of a training framework aims to broaden and deepen the knowledge of patent law and spread that knowledge amongst the CMSs. The latter is of great importance as many CMSs do not ... More

The implementation of a training framework aims to broaden and deepen the knowledge of patent law and spread that knowledge amongst the CMSs. The latter is of great importance as many CMSs do not have sufficient patent cases to enable prospective candidates to have the requisite level of expertise in the field of patent law. Against this backdrop, the UPC system has to face the challenge of building trust in the Court whilst also giving candidates from CMSs with only minimal patent cases handled by their national courts a chance to gain sufficient knowledge to become a judge of the UPC. Therefore, the importance of the training framework cannot be overestimated. Less