School of History and Philosophy of Science: Recent submissions
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Constructivism for Philosophers (Be it a Remark on Realism)
Published 2003-01-01Bereft of the illusion of an epistemic vantage point external to science, what should be our commitment towards the categories, concepts and terms of that very science? Should we, despaired of the possibility to found these ...Article -
Empiricism Without the Senses: How the Instrument Replaced the Eye
Published 2010-01-01On receiving news of Galileo’s observations of the four satellites of Jupiter and the rugged face of the moon through his newly invented perspicillum, Kepler in great excitement exclaimed: Therefore let Galileo take his ...Book chapter -
Baroque Optics and the Disappearance of the Observer: From Kepler’s Optics to Descartes’ Doubt
Published 2010-04-01In the seventeenth century the human observer gradually disappeared from optical treatises. It was a paradoxical process: the naturalization of the eye estranged the mind from its objects. Turned into a material optical ...Article -
The Return of Vitalism:
Published 2011-03-04The eminent French biologist and historian of biology, François Jacob, once notoriously declared "On n‘interroge plus la vie dans les laboratoires": laboratory research no longer inquires into the notion of Life‘. Nowadays, ...Conference paper