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

On the other hand, for those scientists who indeed had to abandon their laboratories, this sometimes only
forced them to discontinue research programs that had long lost their fruitfulness and to redirect their
research in ways that paid off surprisingly well after the war. Here the development of Dutch astronomy
during and after the war is a good example. Of course, the war should not be regarded as a blessing in
disguise, but it certainly wasn't the total disaster conventional wisdom has made us believe it was.
Vanden Broecke, Steven
E-mail Address: steven.vandenbroecke@arts.kuleuven.ac.be
On the Natural-Philosophical and Textual Problems of Late Renaissance Astrology
This paper discusses the various strategies by which high-profile astrologers of the 16th-century
aimed at countering the enormous natural-philosophical and textual problems which Giovanni Pico's
Disputations had thrown up in 1495. While Pico had suggested that each planet imparted identical
effects to the sublunar realm, most astrologers clinged to the Ptolemaic idea that these effects were
different for each celestial body. In order to establish the specific nature of each planet’s influence, many
took up a grand project of weather-observation in order to reconstruct astrological physics. Medical
astrology, which advocated a moderate use of astro-meteorology for diagnosis, prognosis as well as
therapy, stimulated this approach. Another model was found in the ancient parapegmata ascribed to
farmers, pilots and physicians. These traditional models severely restricted both the traditional textual
canon and the number of astrological parameters. Although some parts of astrological practice were
supposedly open to contemporary verification and/or reconstruction, many others were not. One of the
foremost examples of the latter category are the astrological houses. Renaissance astrological theorists
generally took the existence of astrological houses, which seemed to be warranted by ancient experience,
for granted. But this did not address another problem: how to dissolve the conflicting statements of
various authoritative texts (e.g. Ptolemy vs. Firmicus Maternus) concerning the true method of housedivision.
This problem is discussed as an example of the responses to Pico's exposure of the internal
contradictions of the astrological textual canon.
Vetter, Jeremy
E-mail Address: jvetter@sas.upenn.edu
Getting Into the Field: Transportation Networks, Colonial Infrastructure, and the Making of
Anthropological Knowledge in the Nineteenth Century
In order to do scientific research in the field, the scientist must be able to get to the field site, be
sustained while residing there, and return home safely--this seems obvious, almost trivial. Yet these
practical aspects of doing field work are not incidental preconditions to the conduct of scientific research
on the contrary, they are often crucial in shaping research directions, perceptions, and interpretations.
This paper follows scientists into the field, by land and sea, to see how they took advantage of expanding
transportation networks and colonial infrastructure in the nineteenth century to make their work
possible. In particular, it examines how these practical issues of doing science in the field influenced the
making of knowledge about human beings and their societies, which was integral to the emerging
discipline of anthropology. It approaches this question through two contrasting examples: the anthropological
work of Alfred Russel Wallace during his voyage by sea among the islands and peninsulas of the
East Indies from 1848 to 1862, and the studies of American Indians through overland expeditions in the
western United States by John Wesley Powell and others associated with the Bureau of American Ethnology
a few decades later. By uncovering the role that getting into the field played in the making of
knowledge there, this paper explores both the special characteristics of anthropology as a discipline with
human subjects, and the more general features of scientific field practice in places with rapidly expanding
transportation networks and colonial infrastructure for managing cross-cultural interactions.