Listing of Sessions and Abstracts of Papers - History of Science ...

In the 1830s and 1840s, the concept of microscopical error was completely transformed. In the preceding
decades, the source of error was located in the observer's mind and tied to the notion of spontaneity
of reasoning. After about 1830, the troublesome properties of physical objects and organs also came to
be regarded as sources of error. The case illustrates the extent to which the mechanisms for disciplining
the investigator and regulating the management of instruments and objects were shaped by prevailing
notions of error. The study can thus serve as a corrective for our present, very general accounts of the
role of discipline in knowledge production. With respect to this case, I argue that gauging past epistemological
concepts against present ones can help uncover the assumptions and presuppositions implicit in
current epistemological notions and clarify our normative intuitions about science, experience, and
knowledge.
Schiefsky, Mark
E-mail Address: mjschief@fas.harvard.edu
Technê and Method in Ancient Medicine and Mechanics Medicine and Mechanics
In ancient Greece from at least the fifth century BCE, the concept of technê or expert knowledge was
closely associated with the idea of method. My goal in this paper is to discuss three aspects of this
association in two traditions of Greek scientific and practical activity, each of which was considered to
be a technê: Hippocratic medicine and Alexandrian mechanics. First, authors in both traditions stress
that practitioners have a systematic method for attaining the results at which they aim, and do not proceed
in a chance or arbitrary fashion. Secondly, in both traditions this systematic method is supposed to
be grounded in a body of theoretical knowledge. This knowledge enables a doctor to explain the effectiveness
of a cure by appealing to the behavior of humors in the body, and a mechanical practitioner to
explain the operation of a complex machine in terms of simpler ones, such as the balance or lever.
Thirdly, this theoretical knowledge is reached by a process of discovery that involves appeal to analogies
with familiar objects to gain knowledge of the invisible or unknown thus medical authors draw analogies
with cooking to explain the behavior of substances in the body, and mechanical writers draw analogies
between complex machines and simple ones to explain the former in terms of the latter. These
parallels testify to a striking continuity in Greek conceptions of technê across different disciplines and to
the richness of these ancient discussions for the study of the history of scientific method.
Schmidgen, Henning
E-mail Address: schmidg@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
Time, Psychology, and Telegraphy: The Technological Context of the Reaction Time Experiment,
1860-1880
The "reaction experiment with the Hipp chronoscope" is one of the classical experiments of modern
psychology. In Wilhelm Wundt's (1832-1920) laboratory as well as in many other psychological laboratories
modelled after the Leipzig lab, experimental research on reaction time was (and sometimes still is)
a key issue. This paper investigates the technological and cultural contexts of the reaction time experiment
and argues that development in time measurement and communication in other areas of science
and technology (astronomy, clock industry) were decisive for shaping laboratory techniques and concepts
in psychology. The chronoscope was constructed by Matthias Hipp (1813-1893) in the late 1840s.
In 1861 the astronomer Adolphe Hirsch (1830-1901) used the chronsocope to measure observational
errors ("personal equation"). Hirsch's observatory at Neuchâtel (Switzerland) served to control the
quality of clocks produced in the nearby Jura mountains. Hipp provided the observatory with a telegraphic
system that sent time signals to the centers of clock production. Hipp also lent Hirsch the
chronoscope he used in his experiments. I argue that telegraphic time technology was decisive for the
theories and practices of Wundt's physiological psychology. Wundt dealt with psychological processes in