Shells and Pebbles
Interesting finds on the shores of the history of science and the humanities
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Historical demarcation problems, part II
By Jeroen Bouterse The physicist (P), the sociologist (S) and the historian (H) continue their discussion about the demarcation of science in history P: “OK, so let us retrace our steps and see how we got in this weird place, where you asked me whether an uninfluential Galileo would still be of interest to historians…
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Zeeridders en zeemonniken. Adriaen Coenen over het zestiende-eeuwse zeeleven
Door Lieke Smits In de Scheveningse Keizerstraat kunnen badgasten en winkelende toeristen uitrusten op bankjes waarvan de rugleuningen met wonderlijke voorstellingen zijn versierd. Wie goed kijkt zal verschillende diersoorten kunnen herkennen, waaronder veel vissen, maar ook wonderlijke wezens zoals basilisken en cyclopen. Deze afbeeldingen zijn afkomstig uit het Visboeck van de zestiende-eeuwse visser Adriaen Coenen,…
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The Re-Invention of Giambattista Vico
By Floris Solleveld Giambattista Vico died in poverty in January 1744, having spent his last pennies on a new edition of the Principi di Scienza Nuova. Outside Naples, nobody cared. No notices appeared in the learned journals; no obituaries were read at royal or local academies. Eighty years later, his work was translated into German…
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Een telescoop uit Delft
Door Marlise Rijks Op 14 mei 2014 haalde het bericht het achtuurjournaal: in Delft was Nederlands oudste bewaarde telescoop gevonden. Het instrument werd opgegraven door archeologen die in eerste instantie dachten een kogelhuls te pakken te hebben. Na onderzoek door Museum Boerhaave bleek het echter te gaan om een telescoop uit de vroege zeventiende eeuw.…
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‘Illegal Science’ – the case of Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) and German biology education
By Constance Sommerey “Guard your children!”[1] was a demand that echoed through multiple Prussian newspapers in 1877 (Depdolla 1939). It was uttered by a very concerned protestant minister who warned parents against the moral state of emergency at Prussian schools. The root of all evil? The incorporation of Ernst Haeckel’s evolutionism into biology classes. Five…
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Zomerstop / Summer break
Shells&Pebbles houdt een pauze in de zomer en is volgende maand weer terug. Schrijf je in voor de nieuwsbrief of volg ons op Twitter (@ShellsAndPebbles) als je een seintje wilt krijgen! o-o-o There will be no posts in the following weeks, since we are on vacation. We will resume our regular schedule next month; if…
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The chemical skeleton: why chemistry mattered to 18th-century medicine
By Ruben Verwaal Imagine yourself as an 18th-century medical student at Leiden university. You are curious to know why you sometimes feel all weak and limp, while elderly people may have stiff muscles. Why can there be days you suffer from constipation, while on other days you have diarrhoea? Questions such as these also kept…
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Using Philosophy as a Weapon Against Itself. Johann Georg Hamann and the Birth of ‘Metacritique’
By Roland Bertens With the publication in 1781 of his Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant tried to prove that philosophical reason could be a stand-alone source of knowledge. Among the many followers and detractors immediately reacting to the first step Kant made on the road to ‘German Idealism’, one relatively unknown thinker should be…
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Het belang van afdankertjes
Door Rienk Vermij De geschiedenis van de “wetenschappelijke revolutie”van de zeventiende eeuw wordt veelal beschreven als een opeenvolging van ontdekkingen en nieuwe theorieën. Niemand zal zeggen dat die niet belangrijk zijn, maar zo’n verhaal mist wel een belangrijke dimensie. Want niet alleen wonnen nieuwe ideeën veld, er werden ook oude afgedankt.
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Over Fedde’s neerhalen van Newton
Door Floris Cohen De redactie van ‘Schelpen en Steentjes’ heeft me gevraagd om op Fedde Benedictus’ boutade over Newton te reageren, ik denk omdat ik de auteur ben van een boek over Newton. En inderdaad, in de epiloog van Isaac Newton en het ware weten vind ik een heel reeksje van zwakke punten van Newton…
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The Father of Modern Science?
By Fedde Benedictus Both the originality and the intrinsic value of the work of Isaac Newton have been grossly overestimated. According to traditional history of science, Newton’s work (of which primarily his Principia Mathematica, first published in 1687) was the 17th century’s very pinnacle of the mechanistic worldview, and with that, it provided one of…
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On little boys and furry animals – or what happened to Little Albert?
By Ivan Flis Every scientific discipline has its famous experiments. The case is no different for psychology. In the company of famous psychological experiments, one study is often mentioned as the fulcrum of the behaviorist revolution of American psychology – the story of a little boy named Albert and the attempt to teach him fear.
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The Riddle of the Phantom Island
By Daniel Stinsky Maps contain lots of information in a condensed and abstract visual format. We trust maps to depict reality, and we trust that they are produced with scientific rigor. But as the fairly recent case of a “phantom island” in the Coral Sea shows, maps can contain false information, even in the age…
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Purity or performance
By Bert Theunissen Of all sports horses competing at the most recent Olympic Games, 30 % were Dutch-bred. And of the ten gold medals available, five were awarded to horses from the Netherlands. This is a remarkable achievement, considering that the Dutch do not have a long tradition in horse breeding like the Germans, the…
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Embedded in History. An interview with Professor Norton M. Wise.
By Jorrit Smit On the Sunday before Christmas, I bike to the UCLA campus in Westwood for the last time. Out of breath and full of sweat after climbing the hill in a boringly radiant sun, I find professor Norton Wise waiting for me outside Bunche Hall. With a special key he activates the elevator,…
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Grote dikke boeken
Door Floris Solleveld “Goedemiddag, ik had zeven boeken aangevraagd, ik weet niet of ze er al zijn?” “Jaaaa”, zei de bibliothecaris grinnikend, “die zijn er al”, en keek naar de kar waarop de Description de l’Egypte lag opgestapeld, zeven dozen van 100×70 cm, een stapel van zeker een halve meter hoog. En dit waren dan…
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The case of the cat in court
By Noortje Jacobs and Steven van der Laan Do animals carry legal obligations? To the twenty-first century reader of Shells & Pebbles this question might appear to be odd. Surely, only in fables pigs are summoned to appear before a judge to be held accountable for any misdemeanour. Not quite. In past centuries, animal trials…
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A Rambo Trilogy in Early Modern Europe
An Interview with Professor Margaret Jacob, by Jorrit Smit On one of those sunny, warm, Californian fall afternoons, I meet professor Margaret Jacob in the Herbert Morris Seminar Room on the first floor of Royce Hall in the middle of the UCLA campus. The well-known early-modern scholar has just entertained a crowd of scholars, students…
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The Subtle Spiral of Life & Death.
By Fedde Benedictus Buried beneath spirals Ever since humans began using stone slabs for the decoration and demarcation of their gravesites, masonry has been employed to show the social status of the deceased individual. In this tradition, the Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli chose the figure of a logarithmic spiral to be carved onto his gravestone.…