Annals of Science最新文献_第6页

IF 0.3 3区哲学

Annals of Science Pub Date : 2024-01-01 Epub Date: 2024-02-02 DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2282783

David Aubin

{"title":"Popularizing precision: cultures of exactness at the Paris observatory, 1667-1742.","authors":"David Aubin","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2282783","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2282783","url":null,"abstract":"This article maps out the lexical landscape of precision from the late seventeenth to the early eighteenth century and investigate the various meanings of precision, both as a word and a concept, within the Paris Observatory and beyond. It argues that precision was first an attribute of instruments supposed to produce numerical measurements, like clocks and divided circles or sectors attached to optical devices. Less often, precision was applied to observers, the handling of instruments, and observational methods, including mathematical corrections applied to raw data. When all these aspects were combined the numerical result finally was also deemed to be precise. Moving to the debate about the shape of the Earth that shook the Academy of Sciences in the 1730s, it follows the way in which wider audiences were conveyed the various meanings of precision. Between the Cartesian resistance to the emergence of a professional science of precision and the pedagogical approach followed by the Newtonians such as Maupertuis, it argues that Cassini III embraced the professionalism of modern science, but did not feel that methodological precision was out of the reach of an educated public. While Maupertuis has seemed content with a discussion focusing on the precision of instruments and results, Cassini III set himself the hefty task of producing an accessible account of precision as a method of inquiry.","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":" ","pages":"139-159"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138476595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

'Si te omnimoda delectat precisio': early astronomical instruments with scales and the multiple meanings of precision in the sixteenth century. Si te omnimoda delectat precisio"：十六世纪带刻度的早期天文仪器和精确的多重含义。

IF 0.3 3区哲学

Annals of Science Pub Date : 2024-01-01 Epub Date: 2024-02-02 DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2285845

Samuel Gessner

{"title":"'Si te omnimoda delectat precisio': early astronomical instruments with scales and the multiple meanings of precision in the sixteenth century.","authors":"Samuel Gessner","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2285845","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2285845","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the various meanings of precision during the early modern period in Europe. In contrast with existing literature focused on assessing the precision of early instruments, this study delves into the intended significance of the term 'precision' as understood by historical figures such as J. Stöffler, P. Nunes or F. Mordente. By analysing a selection of instruments equipped with scales, both in their physical form and as they are described in instrument texts, several facets of precision emerge. Some findings demonstrate that the precision of scales can be enhanced through corrections obtained from tables. In other cases, visual estimation is substituted with a method for obtaining values of multiple sexagesimal places. Furthermore, certain instruments designed to represent theoretical concepts achieve greater precision by incorporating the most intricate details of these notions. This investigation into lesser-known meanings of precision underscores the need of comprehensively exploring the concepts, the practices and the terminology surrounding precision that were in use over the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":" ","pages":"30-59"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138798651","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Francis Bacon and the practices of measurement. 弗朗西斯·培根和测量实践。

IF 0.3 3区哲学

Annals of Science Pub Date : 2024-01-01 Epub Date: 2024-02-02 DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2282772

Dana Jalobeanu

{"title":"Francis Bacon and the practices of measurement.","authors":"Dana Jalobeanu","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2282772","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2282772","url":null,"abstract":"The instrumental character of Francis Bacon's natural and experimental histories was often noted, but never fully investigated. In this paper I aim to reconstruct the theoretical and methodological background which supports this feature. I claim that we can read large parts of the second book of Bacon's Novum organum as a guide to laboratory practices; and that it was read in this manner by some of Bacon's seventeenth century followers. Key to this guide is Bacon's theory of prerogative instances which, in turn, provides the grounding for a whole theory of instruments of detection and instruments of measurement. I show, in particular, how Bacon suggested that such instruments can be used for 'charting' virtues and powers; a process in which instruments of detection can be transformed into instruments of measurement. I also show that Bacon's views on instruments entail an elaborated conception of measurement which departs from the ethos of artisanal perfection. Instead of pursuing the 'best results', Bacon's instrumental natural and experimental histories aim to offer a large enough corpus of correlations, estimates and calculations which, taken together, can represent more or less accurately changes and variations of natural virtues and powers.","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":" ","pages":"79-99"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136395953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The social life of precision instruments: artisans’ trials in early-modern England, 1550–1700 精密仪器的社会生活：1550-1700 年早期现代英国的工匠试验

IF 0.3 3区哲学

Annals of Science Pub Date : 2023-12-15 DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2282784

Boris Jardine

引用次数: 0

How to ensure a chronometer’s accuracy. Josiah Emery timekeepers and their users 如何确保天文台表的准确性。约西亚-艾默瑞计时器及其用户

IF 0.3 3区哲学

Annals of Science Pub Date : 2023-12-14 DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2282787

Rossella Baldi

引用次数: 0

Oxford mathematics at a low ebb? An 1855 dispute over examination results 牛津数学陷入低谷？1855 年关于考试成绩的争论