The Early History of Weighing Technology from the Perspective of a Theory of Innovation

The article advances a framework allowing for a unified description of technical innova- tion and the advancement of theoretical knowledge. Cognitive structures based on fore- going actions with physical objects are externally represented by artifacts, language or writing. The exploration of actions with these external representations such as the fabri- cation and usage of new devices or the composition of texts opens up new possibilities for a reflective abstraction leading to new cognitive structures. The exploration of the options for actions is canalized by historically specific contexts constraining the actors. Based on the example of the early history of weighing with a focus on the establishment and differentiation of unequal-arm balances we elaborate the consequences of such an accoun

Guidobaldo del Monte’s Mechanicorum liber

The book presents Guidobaldo del Monte's first book from 1577, the Mechanicorum liber, which is reprinted here in a facsimile edition. The book is a comprehensive treatise on mechanics dealing with the five simple machines, the lever, the pulley, the wheel on an axle, the wedge and the screw. Their properties were in turn derived from the workings of the balance and the lever. The idea that every mechanism can be reduced to these five simple machines goes back to Heron of Alexandria and has been transmitted to the early modern period by Pappus, while the foundational role of balance and lever goes back to the Problemata mechanica ascribed to Aristotle

Toward an Epistemic Web

In the beginning knowledge was local. With the development of more complex forms of economic organization knowledge began to travel. The Library of Alexandria was the fulfillment - however partial and transitory - of a vision to bring together all the knowledge of the world. But to obtain the knowledge one had to go to Alexandria. Today the World Wide Web promises to make universally accessible the knowledge of a world grown larger. To be sure, much work remains to be done: many documents need to be made available (i.e. digitized if they are not already, and freed from restrictive access controls); and various biases (economic, legal, linguistic, social, technological) need to be overcome. But what do we do with this knowledge? Is it enough to create a digital library of Alexandria, with (perhaps) improved finding aids? We propose that the crucial question is how to structure knowledge on the Web to facilitate the construction of new knowledge, knowledge that will be critical in addressing the challenges of the emerging global society. We begin by asking three questions about the Web and its future. In the remainder of the paper we explore the possibility of an Epistemic Web in the context of a more general discussion of knowledge representation technologies, technologies used for storing, manipulating and spreading knowledge

Science in Court Society: Giovanni Battista Benedetti’s Diversarum speculationum mathematicarum et physicarum liber (Turin, 1585)

Giovanni Battista Benedetti is counted as one of the most brilliant mathematical and philosophical minds of the late Italian Renaissance. However, the theoretical and historical relevance of his work is still obscure in many respects. This is due to several factors, principal among which is the relative rarity of his major work, Diversarum speculationum mathematicarum et physicarum liber (Book including various mathematical and physical speculations), 1585.This work was a major contribution to Renaissance science, especially due to its insights on mechanics, the mathematical approach to natural investigation, and the connection of celestial and terrestrial dynamics in a post-Copernican perspective. The first edition was an elegant folio, which includes heterogeneous writings not only on mathematics and physics but also on technical and philosophical issues. Benedetti presented these as short treatises or letters addressed to gentlemen, courtiers, scholars, engineers, and practitioners of different arts. The Diversae speculationes appeared in a series of prestigious volumes aimed at celebrating the magnificence of the court and the capital. It aimed to make the quality of the court mathematician’s research and skills publicly appreciable. It also bore witness to the intensity of the cultural debates going on in Turin or connecting it with other centers, especially Venice.This open access edition makes the Benedetti’s work accessible to a large scholarly readership. In the extensive introduction, his achievement is presented in its rich complexity. Benedetti is emblematic of his time and of the non-linearity of the historical process of Renaissance science with its multicentric institutions and scientific networks. The apparent fragmentary nature of his work hides a fundamental unity of the conception and the method, both of which rest on geometry. Benedetti regarded mechanics as a model, but he enlarged his perspective to include the most varied fields of investigation and concretely to demonstrate the fruitfulness of his approach to universal knowledge, astronomy, physics, meteorology, and even to ethics.Edition Open Sources (EOS) pioneers a new paradigm in the publishing of historical sources. Academic editions of primary sources in the history of science are published in online, digital, and print formats that present facsimiles, transcriptions, and often translations of original works with an introduction to the author, the text, and the context in which it was written. The sources are historical books, manuscripts, documents, or other archival materials that are otherwise difficult to access. EOS is a cooperation between the University of Oklahoma Libraries, the Department for the History of Science der University of Oklahoma, and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Space as Transformed in the History of Science. Historical Epistemology of Space: Experience and Theoretical Reflection in the Historical Development of Spatial Knowledge (Junior Research Group)

(a) Topics and Goals: The topic of this project is the historical development of fundamental structures of spatial thinking in long-range perspectives. The material under investigation extends from – still effectual – definitions of spatial concepts dating from antiquity to their transformation in post-antique technological and scientific traditions, and all the way to the most recent upheavals in our conceptions of space occurring in contemporary physics. Our focus is the question: What role was played by experience in the genesis and development of spatial concepts, and what was the impact of such concepts on the subsequent acquisition of empirical knowledge? This reciprocal interplay is being investigated through individual studies on spatial thinking during various historical periods and in various cultures. A central objective of this project is to bring to light the interrelationships between a variety of instances of spatial thinking; this involves calling attention to common structures of knowledge; grasping the genesis of new concepts as the results of transformative processes; and investigating the dependency of knowledge formation upon cultural preconditions; and hence advancing our understanding of the historical development of spatial knowledge, and in particular of the scientific knowledge of space. (b) Methods: This project utilizes a broad concept of experience, one which extends from interactions between biological organisms and their environments all the way to the systematic production of knowledge by means of the complex experimental systems of modern sciences. Traditionally, experiential spaces that are distinguishable in this context have been investigated by a variety of disciplines, including developmental psychology, cognitive anthropology, cognitive linguistics, ethnology, archaeology, and the history of science and technology. In the framework of this project, these various disciplines are coordinated with one another with regard to their research potentials and results related to the historical development of spatial cognition. In order to integrate the relevant subject- specific research results, our group has elaborated a joint theoretical framework which is designed to define the individual research activities and correlate them with one another. This entails the development of a specialized terminology for the description of space and knowledge. We distinguish between the following spaces of experience: (1) The immediate experiential space of the individual in the process of ontogenesis is the proximal environment, within which he/she moves and acts with objects and also interacts with other individuals. (2) The space of movement of a society is the natural and man- made local environment within which individuals or specific groups of individuals move., This space can be relatively extensive even for non- literate societies, as exemplified by certain Micronesian societies which are distributed across widely separated islands. The society’s space of movement may also transcend the spatial boundaries of the inhabited territory, for example in cases of military campaigns, expeditions, or voyages of discovery, which do not correspond to a stable extension of this territory. (3) The organized space of a society is the territory which is politically controlled and economically administered