Liba Taub

Evolutionary ideas and ‘empirical’ methods: the analogy between language and species in works by Lyell and Schleicher

In the Origin of Species , Charles Darwin (1809–82) briefly drew an analogy between languages and species, suggesting that the genealogical relationships between languages provide a model for discussing the descent and modification of species. Further, he suggested that just as languages often contain some vestige of earlier speech, for example silent, unpronounced letters, so the rudimentary organs of animals can provide clues about genealogy and descent.

On the Variety of ‘Genres’ of Greek Mathematical Writing: Thinking about Mathematical Texts and Modes of Mathematical Discourse

Scientists working today have a number of avenues open for the promulgation of their work. While electronic publishing of articles is now standard, new media, including podcasts and press conferences, are also used to publicize scientific research. Greco-Roman authors writing on scientific, mathematical and medical subjects also had a range of choices available to them as they selected the type of text to convey their ideas and information. Their choices included – but were not limited to – poetry, dialogue, lecture, question-and-answer text, letter, biography, recipe, epitome, encyclopedia, handbook, introduction and commentary. The consideration of the authorial choice of genre offers insights into how these writers regarded their own work, for example, in relation to the work of others. Furthermore, by choosing to write in a specific format, authors may have hoped to reach certain audiences; some texts are presumably more appropriate to students, others to specialists, still others to patrons or potential clients. And some types of texts have elements shaped by broader cultural convention rather than by the individual author. Given the range of options available to ancient writers on scientific, mathematical and medical topics, their choices of genre reflect authorial intention, including, for example, a desire to project a particular identity or image and/or to reach a special readership.

Physiological Analogies and Metaphors In Explanations of the Earth and the Cosmos

The chapter examines the use of analogies drawn to physiological processes to explain meteorological phenomena and to expound cosmological ideas, primarily in the Greco-Roman world. It also refers briefly to the use of similar analogies in the Early Modern period. The chapter focuses on explanation-building, and the relationship of analogies to observations, particularly in Aristotle, Epicurus and Lucretius, not least because these authors were important not only in Antiquity, but also in the Early Modern period. Recognising that none of the ancient authors under consideration thought that the earth or the cosmos itself is a living being, the author considers issues raised by references to the body and its associated physiological processes in analogies and metaphors intended to explain the natural world. A brief consideration of the use of similar analogies in seventeenth-century England is included.Keywords:Aristotle; cosmos; Early Modern period; earth; Epicurus; Lucretius; metaphor; meteorology; physiological analogy

2 Selling by the Book: British Scientific Trade Literature after 1800

In 1951 the businessman and scientific instrument collector Robert Stewart Whipple published John Yarwell, or the Story of a Trade Card. The paper, a lively mix of history of science, antiquarianism, and speculation about Isaac Newton, centres on the scant evidence presented by an apparently unique 1683 Yarwell trade card acquired by Whipple in 1937. The card had been used by Newton “for scribbling paper”, hence its unlikely survival, and Whipple’s analysis of it jumps between a translation and study of Newton’s Latin notes recorded on its reverse, and the enticing images of Yarwell’s optical instrument manufactures provided on its obverse (Pl. 3). As Whipple noted, the extreme rarity of surviving Yarwell instrumentation makes the trade card an important historical resource, offering a rare window onto the diverse range of items produced by and/or available from one of London’s few preeminent seventeenthcentury opticians.1 Many subsequent historians of scientific instrumentation and its trade have faced the same problem of sparse source material, against which trade cards have proved to be invaluable aids. As Michael Crawforth has shown, behind their elaborate designs and meticulous illustrations lies important information about instrument design, industry trends, commercial demands, makers’ techniques and specialisms, and even clues to the instrument business’s social context.2 For curators, trade cards help pinpoint places and dates of object manufacture.3 For historians of the trade, they are one resource amongst many

The Ideals of Inquiry: An Ancient History, by G.E.R. Lloyd

The Tarner Lectures on the Philosophy of Science were first given in 1919 at Trinity College, Cambridge. They were intended as a course on ‘the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Relations or Want of Relations between the different Departments of Knowledge’ (as noted in the Preface to Alfred North Whitehead’s The Concept of Nature [1920], based on his inaugural Tarner Lectures). The present volume comes from Lloyd’s 2012 Tarner Lectures; and, while its subtitle refers to ancient history, Lloyd demonstrates throughout his close engagement with twentieth-century philosophies of science and their ancient counterparts. This well illustrated volume is divided into five chapters. The first four examine the use of demonstration and its relation to democracy, debate, and discovery. They probe the ontological presuppositions of historical actors, with a view to understanding what ancient investigators thought they were studying and what they regarded as the value of their endeavours. Lloyd interrogates the nature and character of intellectual investigation itself, as practised in the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia, Greece, India, and China. Lloyd is well known for his detailed studies of ancient Greek and Chinese science and philosophy, as well as for his commitment to comparative histories. He reminds us that what we understand today to be ‘science’ differs in many ways from the studies of the physical world that were undertaken in ancient civilisations. In the concluding chapter, ‘The Great Divide’, which was not part of the lecture series, Lloyd explores questions related to the character of reasoning in human populations across space and time, acknowledging that linguistic, social, and cultural differences come into play. He argues that the capacity to investigate is shared by humans universally, but that the various styles and manifestations of investigation are diverse and distinct, both in antiquity and in more modern times. Throughout the volume, Lloyd emphasizes the differences in the routes for inquiry undertaken by thinkers in various ancient cultures. In the final chapter, he provocatively points to pluralism present in modern science. Currently, questions related to scientific pluralism are being debated by philosophers of science, including Hasok Chang and Martin Kusch. Is scientific inquiry enhanced by the coexistence of different—even conflicting—theories? Lloyd’s history of inquiry in antiquity is valuable in thinking about this sort of question today.