Styles of Reasoning in the British Life Sciences

Styles of Reasoning in the British Life Sciences PDF Author: James Elwick
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822981831
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 212

Get Book Here

Book Description
Elwick explores how the concept of "compound individuality" brought together life scientists working in pre-Darwinian London. Scientists conducting research in comparative anatomy, physiology, cellular microscopy, embryology and the neurosciences repeatedly stated that plants and animals were compounds of smaller independent units. Discussion of a "bodily economy" was widespread. But by 1860, the most flamboyant discussions of compound individuality had come to an end in Britain. Elwick relates the growth and decline of questions about compound individuality to wider nineteenth-century debates about research standards and causality. He uses specific technical case studies to address overarching themes of reason and scientific method.

Styles of Reasoning in the British Life Sciences

Styles of Reasoning in the British Life Sciences PDF Author: James Elwick
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822981831
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 212

Get Book Here

Book Description
Elwick explores how the concept of "compound individuality" brought together life scientists working in pre-Darwinian London. Scientists conducting research in comparative anatomy, physiology, cellular microscopy, embryology and the neurosciences repeatedly stated that plants and animals were compounds of smaller independent units. Discussion of a "bodily economy" was widespread. But by 1860, the most flamboyant discussions of compound individuality had come to an end in Britain. Elwick relates the growth and decline of questions about compound individuality to wider nineteenth-century debates about research standards and causality. He uses specific technical case studies to address overarching themes of reason and scientific method.

Geographies of Nineteenth-Century Science

Geographies of Nineteenth-Century Science PDF Author: David N. Livingstone
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226487261
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 538

Get Book Here

Book Description
Here, David Livingstone and Charles Withers gather essays that deftly navigate the spaces of science in this significant period and reveal how each is embedded in wider systems of meaning authority, and identity.

Richard Owen

Richard Owen PDF Author: Nicolaas Rupke
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226731782
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the mid-1850s, no scientist in the British Empire was more visible than Richard Owen. Mentioned in the same breath as Isaac Newton and championed as Britain’s answer to France’s Georges Cuvier and Germany’s Alexander von Humboldt, Owen was, as the Times declared in 1856, the most “distinguished man of science in the country.” But, a century and a half later, Owen remains largely obscured by the shadow of the most famous Victorian naturalist of all, Charles Darwin. Publicly marginalized by his contemporaries for his critique of natural selection, Owen suffered personal attacks that undermined his credibility long after his name faded from history. With this innovative biography, Nicolaas A. Rupke resuscitates Owen’s reputation. Arguing that Owen should no longer be judged by the evolution dispute that figured in only a minor part of his work, Rupke stresses context, emphasizing the importance of places and practices in the production and reception of scientific knowledge. Dovetailing with the recent resurgence of interest in Owen’s life and work, Rupke’s book brings the forgotten naturalist back into the canon of the history of science and demonstrates how much biology existed with, and without, Darwin

Reconsidering Historical Epistemology

Reconsidering Historical Epistemology PDF Author: Matteo Vagelli
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031615557
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 223

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Making of British Anthropology, 1813-1871

The Making of British Anthropology, 1813-1871 PDF Author: Efram Sera-Shriar
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822981734
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 365

Get Book Here

Book Description
Victorian anthropology has been derided as an "armchair practice," distinct from the scientific discipline of the twentieth century. But the observational practices that characterized the study of human diversity developed from the established sciences of natural history, geography and medicine. Sera-Shriar argues that anthropology at this time went through a process of innovation which built on scientifically grounded observational study. Far from being an evolutionary dead end, nineteenth-century anthropology laid the foundations for the field-based science of anthropology today.

A Male Hysteria

A Male Hysteria PDF Author: Edward Beasley
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1606189026
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 457

Get Book Here

Book Description
"This book explores the history and treatment of diabetes. It focuses on the nineteenth-century understanding of the disease and medicine's attempts to grapple with the disorder for the past two centuries"--

The British Arboretum

The British Arboretum PDF Author: Paul A. Elliott
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 082298167X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 458

Get Book Here

Book Description
This study explores the science and culture of nineteenth-century British arboretums, or tree collections. The development of arboretums was fostered by a variety of factors, each of which is explored in detail: global trade and exploration, the popularity of collecting, the significance to the British economy and society, developments in Enlightenment science, changes in landscape gardening aesthetics and agricultural and horticultural improvement. Arboretums were idealized as microcosms of nature, miniature encapsulations of the globe and as living museums. This book critically examines different kinds of arboretum in order to understand the changing practical, scientific, aesthetic and pedagogical principles that underpinned their design, display and the way in which they were viewed. It is the first study of its kind and fills a gap in the literature on Victorian science and culture.

The Age of Scientific Naturalism

The Age of Scientific Naturalism PDF Author: Bernard Lightman
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822981645
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266

Get Book Here

Book Description
Physicist John Tyndall and his contemporaries were at the forefront of developing the cosmology of scientific naturalism during the Victorian period. They rejected all but physical laws as having any impact on the operations of human life and the universe. Contributors focus on the way Tyndall and his correspondents developed their ideas through letters, periodicals and scientific journals and challenge previously held assumptions about who gained authority, and how they attained and defended their position within the scientific community.

Historicism and the Human Sciences in Victorian Britain

Historicism and the Human Sciences in Victorian Britain PDF Author: Mark Bevir
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107166683
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book studies the rise and nature of historicist approaches to life, race, character, language, political economy, and empire. Arguing that Victorians understood life and society as developing historically in a way that made history central to public culture, it will appeal to those interested in Victorian Britain, historiography, and intellectual history.

The Third Lens

The Third Lens PDF Author: Andrew S. Reynolds
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022656343X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Get Book Here

Book Description
Does science aim at providing an account of the world that is literally true or objectively true? Understanding the difference requires paying close attention to metaphor and its role in science. In The Third Lens, Andrew S. Reynolds argues that metaphors, like microscopes and other instruments, are a vital tool in the construction of scientific knowledge and explanations of how the world works. More than just rhetorical devices for conveying difficult ideas, metaphors provide the conceptual means with which scientists interpret and intervene in the world. Reynolds here investigates the role of metaphors in the creation of scientific concepts, theories, and explanations, using cell theory as his primary case study. He explores the history of key metaphors that have informed the field and the experimental, philosophical, and social circumstances under which they have emerged, risen in popularity, and in some cases faded from view. How we think of cells—as chambers, organisms, or even machines—makes a difference to scientific practice. Consequently, an accurate picture of how scientific knowledge is made requires us to understand how the metaphors scientists use—and the social values that often surreptitiously accompany them—influence our understanding of the world, and, ultimately, of ourselves. The influence of metaphor isn’t limited to how we think about cells or proteins: in some cases they can even lead to real material change in the very nature of the thing in question, as scientists use technology to alter the reality to fit the metaphor. Drawing out the implications of science’s reliance upon metaphor, The Third Lens will be of interest to anyone working in the areas of history and philosophy of science, science studies, cell and molecular biology, science education and communication, and metaphor in general.