Ebook: History of Science, History of Text

This book explores the hypothesis that the types of inscription or text used by a given community of practitioners are designed in the very same process as the one producing concepts and results. The book sets out to show how, in exactly the same way as for the other outcomes of scientific activity, all kinds of factors, cognitive as well as cultural, technological, social or institutional, conjoin in shaping the various types of writings and texts used by the practitioners of the sciences. To make this point, the book opts for a genuinely multicultural approach to the texts produced in the context of practices of knowledge. It is predicated on the conviction that, in order to approach any topic in the history of science from a theoretical point of view, it may be fruitful to consider it from a global perspective. The book hence does not only gather papers dealing with geometrical papyri of antiquity, sixteenth century French books in algebra, seventeenth century scientific manuscripts and paintings, eighteenth and nineteenth century memoirs published by European academies or scientific journals, and Western Opera Omnia. It also considers the problems of interpretation relating to reading Babylonian clay tablets, Sanskrit oral scriptures and Chinese books and illustrations. Thus it enables the reader to explore the diversity of forms which texts have taken in history and the wide range of uses they have inspired.

This volume will be of interest to historians, philosophers of science, linguists and anthropologists

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This book explores the hypothesis that the types of inscription or text used by a given community of practitioners are designed in the very same process as the one producing concepts and results. The book sets out to show how, in exactly the same way as for the other outcomes of scientific activity, all kinds of factors, cognitive as well as cultural, technological, social or institutional, conjoin in shaping the various types of writings and texts used by the practitioners of the sciences. To make this point, the book opts for a genuinely multicultural approach to the texts produced in the context of practices of knowledge. It is predicated on the conviction that, in order to approach any topic in the history of science from a theoretical point of view, it may be fruitful to consider it from a global perspective. The book hence does not only gather papers dealing with geometrical papyri of antiquity, sixteenth century French books in algebra, seventeenth century scientific manuscripts and paintings, eighteenth and nineteenth century memoirs published by European academies or scientific journals, and Western Opera Omnia. It also considers the problems of interpretation relating to reading Babylonian clay tablets, Sanskrit oral scriptures and Chinese books and illustrations. Thus it enables the reader to explore the diversity of forms which texts have taken in history and the wide range of uses they have inspired.

This volume will be of interest to historians, philosophers of science, linguists and anthropologists

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This book explores the hypothesis that the types of inscription or text used by a given community of practitioners are designed in the very same process as the one producing concepts and results. The book sets out to show how, in exactly the same way as for the other outcomes of scientific activity, all kinds of factors, cognitive as well as cultural, technological, social or institutional, conjoin in shaping the various types of writings and texts used by the practitioners of the sciences. To make this point, the book opts for a genuinely multicultural approach to the texts produced in the context of practices of knowledge. It is predicated on the conviction that, in order to approach any topic in the history of science from a theoretical point of view, it may be fruitful to consider it from a global perspective. The book hence does not only gather papers dealing with geometrical papyri of antiquity, sixteenth century French books in algebra, seventeenth century scientific manuscripts and paintings, eighteenth and nineteenth century memoirs published by European academies or scientific journals, and Western Opera Omnia. It also considers the problems of interpretation relating to reading Babylonian clay tablets, Sanskrit oral scriptures and Chinese books and illustrations. Thus it enables the reader to explore the diversity of forms which texts have taken in history and the wide range of uses they have inspired.

This volume will be of interest to historians, philosophers of science, linguists and anthropologists

Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xxvii
Spatial Organization of Ancient Chinese Texts (Preliminary Remarks)....Pages 3-47
Leibniz and the Use of Manuscripts: Text as Process ....Pages 51-79
Opera Omnia: The Production of Cultural Authority....Pages 81-94
Writing Works: A Reaction to Michael Cahn’s Paper....Pages 95-103
Text, Representation and Technique in Early Modern China....Pages 107-121
The Algebraic Art of Discourse Algebraic Dispositio, Invention and Imitation in Sixteenth-Century France....Pages 123-135
Ancient Sanskrit Mathematics: An Oral Tradition and a Written Literature....Pages 137-157
The Limits of Text in Greek Mathematics....Pages 161-176
Reading Strasbourg 368: A Thrice-Told Tale....Pages 177-200
What is the Content of This Book? A Plea for Developing History of Science and History of Text Conjointly....Pages 201-230
Knowledge and its Artifacts....Pages 231-245
Back Matter....Pages 247-266

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This book explores the hypothesis that the types of inscription or text used by a given community of practitioners are designed in the very same process as the one producing concepts and results. The book sets out to show how, in exactly the same way as for the other outcomes of scientific activity, all kinds of factors, cognitive as well as cultural, technological, social or institutional, conjoin in shaping the various types of writings and texts used by the practitioners of the sciences. To make this point, the book opts for a genuinely multicultural approach to the texts produced in the context of practices of knowledge. It is predicated on the conviction that, in order to approach any topic in the history of science from a theoretical point of view, it may be fruitful to consider it from a global perspective. The book hence does not only gather papers dealing with geometrical papyri of antiquity, sixteenth century French books in algebra, seventeenth century scientific manuscripts and paintings, eighteenth and nineteenth century memoirs published by European academies or scientific journals, and Western Opera Omnia. It also considers the problems of interpretation relating to reading Babylonian clay tablets, Sanskrit oral scriptures and Chinese books and illustrations. Thus it enables the reader to explore the diversity of forms which texts have taken in history and the wide range of uses they have inspired.

This volume will be of interest to historians, philosophers of science, linguists and anthropologists

Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xxvii
Spatial Organization of Ancient Chinese Texts (Preliminary Remarks)....Pages 3-47
Leibniz and the Use of Manuscripts: Text as Process ....Pages 51-79
Opera Omnia: The Production of Cultural Authority....Pages 81-94
Writing Works: A Reaction to Michael Cahn’s Paper....Pages 95-103
Text, Representation and Technique in Early Modern China....Pages 107-121
The Algebraic Art of Discourse Algebraic Dispositio, Invention and Imitation in Sixteenth-Century France....Pages 123-135
Ancient Sanskrit Mathematics: An Oral Tradition and a Written Literature....Pages 137-157
The Limits of Text in Greek Mathematics....Pages 161-176
Reading Strasbourg 368: A Thrice-Told Tale....Pages 177-200
What is the Content of This Book? A Plea for Developing History of Science and History of Text Conjointly....Pages 201-230
Knowledge and its Artifacts....Pages 231-245
Back Matter....Pages 247-266
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