Abstracts of the History of Science Society 2004 Austin Meeting 18 ...
Abstracts of the History of Science Society 2004 Austin Meeting 18 ...
Abstracts of the History of Science Society 2004 Austin Meeting 18 ...
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Edward Jurkowitz, University <strong>of</strong> Ilinois at Chicago (jurkowit@uic.edu)<br />
Saturday, 20-Nov-04, 1:30 - 3:10 PM - Hill Country C<br />
Liberal Unities <strong>of</strong> Mind and Knowledge: Hermann Von Helmholtz’s and Ernst Mach’s Images <strong>of</strong> Intellect and Epistemology<br />
Analyzing popular and scientific works I illustrate that <strong>the</strong> leading German and Austrian scientist-philosophers Hermann Helmholtz and<br />
Ernst Mach drew extensively from <strong>the</strong> cultural resources <strong>of</strong> German liberalism, but turned <strong>the</strong>se resources to different ends. Not only<br />
did <strong>the</strong>y employ key liberal notions such as freedom and law in <strong>the</strong>ir public addresses; <strong>the</strong>y also pursued a particularly liberal form <strong>of</strong><br />
scientific practice. They consciously acted in accord with particular rules when engaging colleagues and foes, and developed a correlated<br />
set <strong>of</strong> epistemological standards for determining and framing knowledge and <strong>the</strong>ories. However, Helmholtz and Mach turned common<br />
liberal values to different ends, in part due to <strong>the</strong> differing political and cultural situations in <strong>the</strong> German states and <strong>the</strong> Austro-<br />
Hungarian Empire in which <strong>the</strong>y respectively worked. In particular, <strong>the</strong>y differed in <strong>the</strong> kinds <strong>of</strong> unity that <strong>the</strong>y promoted within fields<br />
<strong>of</strong> science and for <strong>the</strong> scientific community more generally. Helmholtz worked to lay foundations for fields <strong>of</strong> science that would ensure<br />
cooperative investigation on a unique, commonly agreed upon set <strong>of</strong> fundamental assumptions. In contrast, Mach consciously rejected<br />
<strong>the</strong> possibility <strong>of</strong> a unique scientific foundation, and spent much time undermining <strong>the</strong> authority <strong>of</strong> proposed unitary foundations.<br />
In short, Helmholtz and Mach pursued different conceptions <strong>of</strong> epistemological and social order within science.<br />
David Kaiser, Massachusetts Institute <strong>of</strong> Technology (dikaiser@mit.edu)<br />
Thursday, <strong>18</strong>-Nov-04, 5:00 - 7:00 PM - Texas Ballroom III<br />
The Atomic Secret in Red Hands?: Cold War Fears <strong>of</strong> Theoretical Physicists<br />
Two assumptions became widespread among members <strong>of</strong> Congress, <strong>the</strong> federal judiciary, and <strong>the</strong> national media in <strong>the</strong> years after World<br />
War II: <strong>the</strong>oretical physicists alone possessed <strong>the</strong> “atomic secret” for how to build atomic bombs, and <strong>the</strong>orists were more left-leaning<br />
politically than o<strong>the</strong>r types <strong>of</strong> scientists. Yet both assumptions were demonstrably false. The atomic bombs had been designed and<br />
built during World War II by an intense interdisciplinary collaboration between experimental and <strong>the</strong>oretical physicists, electrical and<br />
chemical engineers, metallurgists, and o<strong>the</strong>rs. Likewise, thousands more experimentalists and engineers than <strong>the</strong>orists ran afoul <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
new loyalty-security apparatus in <strong>the</strong> decade after World War II (at governmental, industrial, and academic laboratories), yet only <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>orists’<br />
cases reached national headlines. The staying power <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> associations surrounding <strong>the</strong>orists thus points to <strong>the</strong> changing cultural<br />
place <strong>of</strong> “pure scientists” in <strong>the</strong> United States — and, by extension, to <strong>the</strong> fraught position <strong>of</strong> scientific authority more generally —<br />
during <strong>the</strong> early years <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Cold War.<br />
Eriko Kakuzaki, Rissho University (hazime@ris.ac.jp)<br />
Saturday, 20-Nov-04, 3:30 - 5:30 PM - Hill Country D<br />
<strong>History</strong> <strong>of</strong> Human-Animal Interaction in Japan<br />
In <strong>the</strong> present study, we surveyed a history <strong>of</strong> human-animal interaction in Japan with <strong>the</strong> view <strong>of</strong> animal protection and social welfare.<br />
The most famous law for animal protection is Shorui Awaremi no Rei in1685. It is a notorious law <strong>of</strong> giving priority to lives <strong>of</strong> living<br />
animals over those <strong>of</strong> human beings. For example, a horse doctor who injured a dog was killed under <strong>the</strong> law in 1702. However, this<br />
law had a good aspect. It was against <strong>the</strong> act <strong>of</strong> deserting such animals are dogs, horses, cattle. Recently, human-animal interaction in<br />
Japan has been changing dramatically. Animal assisted <strong>the</strong>rapy at special nursing homes for <strong>the</strong> aged has become popular. At last, <strong>the</strong><br />
law for assisted dog for disabled person was promulgated in 2000.<br />
Minsoo Kang, University <strong>of</strong> Missouri, St. Louis (nikosgnoma@hotmail.com)<br />
Thursday, <strong>18</strong>-Nov-04, 5:00 - 7:00 PM - Texas Ballroom V<br />
The Living Machines: The Automaton as a Modernist Symbol, <strong>18</strong>86 - 1909<br />
Following <strong>the</strong> industrial revolution, <strong>the</strong>re is a tendency in European writing to describing <strong>the</strong> ubiquitous machines <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> era as living,<br />
superhuman beings. This study examines <strong>the</strong> imaginative works <strong>of</strong> three early modernist writers - Villiers de l’Isle Adam, Alfred Jarry,<br />
and F. T. Marinetti - in which <strong>the</strong> most overt symbol <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> age <strong>of</strong> living machines, <strong>the</strong> automaton, or a device made to mimic living<br />
beings, makes appearances. The central contention <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> analysis is that <strong>the</strong> description <strong>of</strong> such an artificial construct as a vital creature<br />
and a vision <strong>of</strong> future merging <strong>of</strong> humanity with machinery, constitutes an eminently modernist expression <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> industrial age,<br />
as it goes beyond <strong>the</strong> mainstream nineteenth century attitudes <strong>of</strong> technophile celebration or romantic rejection.<br />
Lauren Kassell, Pembroke College, (lauren@ias.edu)<br />
Friday, 19-Nov-04, 9:00 - 11:45 AM - Texas Ballroom VI<br />
All Was This Land Full Fill’d <strong>of</strong> Faerie’, or Magic and <strong>the</strong> Past in Early Modern England<br />
Did Adam practice magic? Did he learn it from an angel or <strong>the</strong> devil? Was it lost in <strong>the</strong> past, a time when <strong>the</strong> world was enchanted? This<br />
paper will chart_<strong>the</strong> ways in which histories <strong>of</strong> magic were written and read in early modern England, documenting <strong>the</strong> meanings that