Mathematical practitioners and the transformation of natural knowledge in early modern Europe / Lesley B. Cormack, Steven A. Walton, John A. Schuster, editors.
Cormack, Lesley B., editor.; Walton, Steven A., editor.; Schuster, John Andrew, 1947- editor.
2017
QA27.E85
Available Online

Linked e-resources

Linked Resource Online Access
Concurrent users Unlimited
Authorized users Authorized users
Document Delivery Supplied Can lend chapters, not whole ebooks

Details

Title Mathematical practitioners and the transformation of natural knowledge in early modern Europe / Lesley B. Cormack, Steven A. Walton, John A. Schuster, editors.
ISBN 9783319494302 (electronic book)
3319494309 (electronic book)
9783319494296
3319494295
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49430-2
Published Cham, Switzerland : Springer, [2017]
Language English
Description 1 online resource.
Other Standard Identifiers 10.1007/978-3-319-49430-2 doi
Call Number QA27.E85
Dewey Decimal Classification 510.94
Summary This book argues that we can only understand transformations of nature studies in the Scientific Revolution if we take seriously the interaction between practitioners (those who know by doing) and scholars (those who know by thinking). These are not in opposition, however. Theory and practice are end points on a continuum, with some participants interested only in the practical, others only in the theoretical, and most in the murky intellectual and material world in between. It is this borderland where influence, appropriation, and collaboration have the potential to lead to new methods, new subjects of enquiry, and new social structures of natural philosophy and science. The case for connection between theory and practice can be most persuasively drawn in the area of mathematics, which is the focus of this book. Practical mathematics was a growing field in early modern Europe and these essays are organised into three parts which contribute to the debate about the role of mathematical practice in the Scientific Revolution. First, they demonstrate the variability of the identity of practical mathematicians, and of the practices involved in their activities in early modern Europe. Second, readers are invited to consider what practical mathematics looked like and that although practical mathematical knowledge was transmitted and circulated in a wide variety of ways, participants were able to recognize them all as practical mathematics. Third, the authors show how differences and nuances in practical mathematics typically depended on the different contexts in which it was practiced: social, cultural, political, and economic particularities matter. Historians of science, especially those interested in the Scientific Revolution period and the history of mathematics will find this book and its ground-breaking approach of particular interest.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Digital File Characteristics text file PDF
Source of Description Online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed March 29, 2017).
Added Author Cormack, Lesley B., editor.
Walton, Steven A., editor.
Schuster, John Andrew, 1947- editor.
Series Studies in history and philosophy of science (Dordrecht, Netherlands) ; v. 45.
Available in Other Form Print version: 9783319494296
Linked Resources Online Access
Record Appears in Online Resources > Ebooks
All Resources
About the Editors and Authors; List of Figures; 1 Introduction: Practical Mathematics, Practical Mathematicians, and the Case for Transforming the Studyof Nature; 1.1 E.G.R. Taylor and Mathematical Practitioners; 1.2 Taylor's Category Continues; 1.3 Framing the Argument; 1.4 Structure of the Volume; 1.5 Conclusion; Part I Framing the Argument: Theories of Connection; 2 Handwork and Brainwork: Beyond the Zilsel Thesis; 2.1 Introduction; 2.2 Handwork and Brainwork; 2.3 Hessen and Zilsel; 2.4 Utility and Ben-David's Scientistic Society.

2.5 The `Scientific Revolution' and Mathematical Practitioners2.6 The Case of English Geography; 2.7 Conclusion; 3 Consuming and Appropriating Practical Mathematics and the Mixed Mathematical Fields, or Being "Influenced" by Them: The Case of the Young Descartes; 3.1 Externalist Narrative, the New Historians of Practical Mathematics and the Category of Natural Philosophy; 3.1.1 Too Many Targets, Too Many Sources, Too Many Modes of Causation; 3.1.2 Natural Philosophizing as Culture and Process; 3.1.3 Practical Mathematics Was Also a Tradition in Process.

3.2 Rectifying the Terrain of Externalist Explanation3.2.1 What Was Cartesian `Dynamics', the Causal Register of His Natural Philosophy?; 3.3 Case Study 1: 1619-From Hydrostatics to Dynamics: From Mixed Mathematics to Corpuscular Mechanism; 3.4 Case Study 2: 1627-The Laws of Light and the Laws of Nature; 3.5 Case Study 3: Sorting Out the `Causal Mode' of Sixteenth-Century Mechanics; 3.6 Case Study 4: Hobnobbing with Practitioners and Machines; 3.7 Conclusion: Opportunities and Pitfalls; Part II What Did Practical Mathematics Look Like?

4 Mathematics for Sale: Mathematical Practitioners, Instrument Makers, and Communities of Scholars in Sixteenth-Century London4.1 Introduction; 4.2 Mathematical Lectures; 4.3 Thomas Hood as the First London Mathematical Lecturer; 4.4 Gresham College; 4.5 Proposed Lecture in Navigation; 4.6 Instrument Makers; 4.7 Practical Mathematics and Its Audience; 4.8 Molyneux's Shop; 4.9 Conclusion; 5 Technologies of Pow(d)er: Military Mathematical Practitioners' Strategies and Self-Presentation; 5.1 Military Mathematical Practitioners in Later Sixteenth-Century England.

5.2 Military Mathematical Practice5.2.1 Fortifying; 5.2.2 Gunning; 5.3 Conclusion:The Rise of the Military Mathematical Practitioner; 6 Machines as Mathematical Instruments; Part III What Was the Relationship Between Practical Mathematics and Natural Philosophy?; 7 The Making of Practical Optics: Mathematical Practitioners' Appropriation of Optical Knowledge Between Theory and Practice; 7.1 Introduction; 7.2 Shared Optical Knowledge; 7.3 William Bourne versus Ettore Ausonio: Theory and Practice; 7.4 Conclusion; 8 Hero of Alexandria and Renaissance Mechanics; 8.1 The Medieval Hero.

Browse Subjects

Show more subjects...

Statistics

from
to
Export