This thesis combines a philosophical interpretation of Epicurean attitudes to language with literary analysis of the language of DRN. Chapters 1-2 describe Epicurean attitudes to diachronic and synchronic linguistic phenomena. In the first chapter I claim that the Epicurean account of the first stage of the development of language involves pre-rational humans acting under a ‘strong’ form of compulsion. The analogies with which Lucretius describes this process were motivated by a structural similarity between the Epicurean accounts of phylogenetic and ontogenetic psychology. Chapter 2 explores the Epicurean account of word use and recognition, central to which are ‘conceptions’. These are attitudes which express propositions; they are not mental images. Προλήψεις, a special class of conception, are self-evidently true basic beliefs about how objects in the world are categorized which, alongside the non-doxastic criteria of perceptions and feelings, play a foundational role in enquiry. Chapter 3 offers a reconstruction of an Epicurean theory of metaphor. Metaphor, for Epicureans, involves the subordination of additional conceptions to words to create secondary meanings. Secondary meanings are to be understood by referring back to primary meanings. Accordingly, Lucretius’ use of metaphor regularly involves the juxtaposition in the text of primary and secondary uses of terms. An account of conceptual metaphor in DRN is given in which the various conceptual domains from which Lucretius draws his metaphorical language are mapped and explored. Chapter 4 presents a new argument against ‘atomological’ readings of Lucretius’ atoms/letters analogies. Lucretian implicit etymologies involve the illustration, via juxtaposition, of language change across time. This is fully in keeping with the Epicurean account of language development. Chapter 5 describes Lucretius’ reflections on and interactions with the Greek language. I suggest that the study of lexical Hellenisms in DRN must be sensitive to the distinction between lexical borrowing and linguistic code-switching. I then give an account of morphological calquing in the poem, presenting it as a significant but overlooked strategy for Lucretian vocabulary-formation.

As computers become a more prevalent commodity in mathematical research and mathematical proof, the question of whether or not a computer assisted proof can be considered a mathematical proof has become an ongoing topic of discussion in the mathematics community. The use of the computer in mathematical research leads to several implications about mathematics in the present day including the notion that mathematical proof can be based on empirical evidence, and that some mathematical conclusions can be achieved a posteriori instead of a priori, as most mathematicians have done before. While some mathematicians are open to the idea of a computer-assisted proof, others are skeptical and would feel more comfortable if presented with a more traditional proof, as it is more surveyable. A surveyable proof enables mathematicians to see the validity of a proof, which is paramount for mathematical growth, and offer critique. In my thesis, I will present the role that the mathematical proof plays within the mathematical community, and thereby conclude that because of the dynamics of the mathematical community and the constant activity of proving, the risks that are associated with a mistake that stems from a computer-assisted proof can be caught by the scrupulous activity of peer review in the mathematics community. Eventually, as the following generations of mathematicians become more trained in using computers and in computer programming, they will be able to better use computers in producing evidence, and in turn, other mathematicians will be able to both understand and trust the resultant proof. Therefore, it remains that whether or not a proof was achieved by a priori or a posteriori, the validity of a proof will be determined by the correct logic behind it, as well as its ability to convince the members of the mathematical community—not on whether the result was reached a priori with a traditional proof, or a posteriori with a computer-assisted proof.

André Du Laurens (1558-1609), professeur à la prestigieuse Université de Montpellier et futur premier médecin de Henri IV, fait publier en 1594 les Discours de la conservation de la vue, des maladies mélancoliques, des catarrhes et de la vieillesse. C’est dans ce recueil que se trouve Le second discours des maladies mélancoliques et du moyen de les guérir, le pendant français de l’Anatomy of Melancholy de Robert Burton, et la première monographie sur le sujet dans notre langue. Ce manuel pratique synthétise, à la fin de l’Humanisme, le savoir médico-moral sur le traitement de l’illusoire « humeur noire », réputée projeter les esprits affaiblis dans la prostration, la démence et la pulsion suicidaire. L’ouvrage mêle des descriptions pathologiques insolites à des anecdotes pittoresques et des ordonnances saugrenues, le tout en une langue transparente, libérée des tics de l’écriture érudite. Tombé dans l’oubli après de nombreuses rééditions et traductions à travers tout le Grand Siècle, nous l’offrons aujourd’hui pour la première fois au lecteur moderne qui y verra comme un bréviaire plaisant venu de la préhistoire de la psychopathologie et offrant un jour inattendu et indispensable à la généalogie de nos inquiétudes et de nos mélancolies modernes. / It is in 1594 that André Du Laurens (1558-1609), professor at Montpellier University and future physician to Henri IV first published his Discours de la conservation de la vue, des maladies mélancoliques, des catarrhes et de la vieillesse. The Discours des maladies mélancoliques [A Discourse of Melancholic Diseases], which forms part of this volume, is the first medical guide book on melancholy written directly in French. Appearing at the end of the Renaissance, it synthesizes fifteen centuries of medical and moral knowledge on the treatment of the dreaded and yet illusory black bile, thought to be at the origin of numerous fears, sorrows, dementia and suicide attempts. It also represents the French source of (and counterpart to) Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, which was to be published only three decades later (1621). Du Laurens’ work brings together odd and often hilarious pathological descriptions with improbable therapies and prescriptions in a language which is easy to understand, and far removed from the complex medical jargon. Reprinted throughout the 17th century, but forgotten thereafter, we now present the modern reader with this unusual medical treatise from the prehistory of psychopathology, a text that will help us better grasp and understand the long genealogy of all our sorrows and modern melancholies.

This thesis examines the role of microscope technology in informing medical and anatomical knowledge during the Enlightenment. Past historians have claimed that microscopy generally stagnated until the popularisation of achromatic microscopes and cell theory in the middle of the nineteenth century. As evidence for this decline, historians have pointed to the poor quality and slow development of microscope designs until the popularisation of achromatic microscopes in the 1820s. In contrast, this thesis highlights the role of specific Enlightenment-era microscopes in answering medical and anatomical questions. It suggests that medical microscopy was far more advanced than previous scholarship has ascertained. Thus far, instrument historians have focused more attention on competing instrument makers as opposed to rival instrument users. This thesis presents several case studies which explore both makers and users. These concern the histories of Enlightenment-era epidemiology, reproduction theory, anatomy, and physiology as well as the different types of microscopes which influenced these fields. In terms of methodology, this thesis neither follows nor casts doubt on any particular theory of historical development; rather, it attempts to shed further light on available primary sources and their contexts. Presenting key case studies illustrates the difficulties that early microscope users faced in acquiring and publishing new observations. To explore the practice of early microscopy further, this thesis presents re-enactments of these case studies using Enlightenment-era microscopes and modern tissue samples. Thus, this thesis is a call to broaden the scope of primary sources available to historians of science and medicine to include instruments and re-enactments. This thesis finds that technological advances did not correlate to microscopical discovery in medicine or anatomy. Both simple and complex microscope designs aided anatomical and medical research. Broader advances in anatomy, physiology, and medical etiology dictated the utility of medical microscopy. Although various groups, such as the French clinicians, saw little need for microscopy towards the end of the eighteenth century, microscope-based evidence continued to play a diagnostic role among lesser-known practitioners despite its lack of visibility in medical literature.

La thèse porte sur le statut du corps dans la philosophie de Spinoza. Une première partie de la thèse reconstruit la façon dont Spinoza thématise la corporéité, à partir du Court Traité et du problème de l’attribution à Dieu d’une nature étendue. En outre, on démontre aussi que la position qu’on trouve dans l’Ethique est le résultat d’un travail intellectuel qui n’était pas encore accompli au début de l’itinéraire de Spinoza. En particulier, on souligne qu’une meilleure réflexion sur les concepts de partie et du tout, sur la nature des passions et sur le concept de détermination sera essentielle à ce développement. Dans la deuxième partie de la thèse, on considère trois milieux de référence pour situer la pensée spinozienne par rapport aux enjeux de la nouvelle philosophie de la nature de la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle. D’abord, on reconsidère le statut de la seconde partie des Principes de la philosophie de Descartes et on montre l’infidélité de Spinoza à Descartes sur plusieurs points. Il s’agit d’une infidélité systématique qui témoigne de l’effort spinozien pour donner une cohérence à l’usage du concept cartésien le plus ambigu, celui de détermination. Ensuite, on montre que tout en essayant de poursuivre dans cette ligne, Spinoza peut avoir trouvé chez Hobbes des instruments intellectuels importants. Il s’agit surtout de l’usage que Hobbes fait du concept de mouvement comme véritable essence de tout phénomène physique, dont résulte sa conception du conatus. Cependant, on démontre aussi le désaccord entre la conception hobbesienne de la causalité et la position définitive de Spinoza. A ce propos, on propose de reconsidérer la pensée de Robert Boyle comme l’autre source décisive qui permet à Spinoza de développer sa réflexion physique plutôt du coté de l’activité des corps. Ce faisant, on souligne – en troisième lieu – que Spinoza va s’opposer au développement majeur du cartésianisme de ces années, c’est-à-dire l’occasionalisme, surtout dans la forme que lui avait donnait Arnold Geulincx. / My dissertation examins Spinoza’s account of bodies. I devote the first part of my dissertation to investigating how and why issues linked to the concept of body and, more generally, to physics, become real problems for Spinoza. This leads to the important result of reevaluating the first steps of Spinoza’s philosophical career. I stress the theological context in which, in the Short Treatise (1661 c.a.), the concept of body appeared for the first time as a challenge. How is it possible to demonstrate that the extension is an attribute of God and thus that finite bodies are modifications of God’s infinite substance? In order to answer this question, Spinoza will be forced to work out different further conceptual tools, most notably the mereological part/whole distinction, the status of natural law and the conatus doctrine. My chronological approach shows that the achievements we find in the Ethics (1675) are only the last and most consistent version of Spinoza’s philosophy, which underwrite several major changes through his development. This methodological approach allows us to appreciate several key shifts in Spinoza’s position and thus to frame in a more determinate way the problem of his sources. Firstly, I address the highly debated question of the dependence of Spinoza’s physics on Descartes’ own project. I focus on Spinoza’s attempt to make coherent Descartes’ use of the concept of determination, which turns to be crucial for Spinoza’s own account of physical interactions. As a second step, I explore Spinoza’s relationship with two key figures of the English Modern culture in the pre-Newtonian period: Thomas Hobbes and Robert Boyle. I stress Spinoza’s debt with Hobbes but also the discrepancies between their accounts of causal interactions. In that view, I underline that Robert Boyle provides an important framework to understand Spinoza’s ontology of activity. As a third and final step, I compare Spinoza’s own evolution with the rise of Occasionalism, which was at the same time a chronologically parallel, but philosophically opposite development of Descartes’ project.

The emergence of germ theory during the nineteenth century transformed Western medicine. By the 1870s, public health officials in the American South used germ theory to promote sanitation efforts to control public health crises, such as yellow fever epidemics. Before the discovery of mosquito transmission of yellow fever, physicians of the late nineteenth century believed the disease was spread by a highly contagious germ. Prominent medical practitioners of New Orleans, such as Confederate Army veteran Dr. Joseph Jones, used available scientific knowledge and investigation to attempt to control yellow fever during the Reconstruction period, a period rife with political and racial tension in New Orleans. This paper will analyze nineteenth century Southern medicine through the work of Dr. Joseph Jones and will argue that despite the use of cutting edge scientific methods of the era, the political challenges of the Reconstruction period shaded the public health policies in New Orleans.

O objetivo desta dissertação de Mestrado é propor a análise do impacto das mudanças tecnológicas na relação entre o capital e o trabalho, especificamente na composição orgânica de ambos, a partir da situação do trabalhador bancário evidenciando a precarização de salários e consequente compressão psicossocial dos trabalhadores desta indústria de serviços, buscando um olhar desta História econômica contemporânea que enxergue as questões políticas e sociais do cotidiano no trabalho qualificado na sociedade informatizada. Para esse intento, veremos a formação do sistema bancário brasileiro, acompanharemos a trajetória do maior banco público brasileiro, o Banco do Brasil, conceituaremos o trabalho imaterial problematizando a apropriação do conhecimento da categoria bancária pelos sistemas informáticos que atendem aos bancos. / The objective of this Master\'s thesis is to propose the analysis of the impact of technological changes on the relation between capital and labor, specifically on the organic composition of both, based on the situation of the banking worker - evidencing the precariousness of wages and consequent psychosocial compression of the workers in this service industry, seeking a look at this contemporary economic history that sees the political and social issues of daily life in the skilled work in the computerized society. For this purpose, we will see the formation of the Brazilian banking system, we will follow the trajectory of the greater Brazilian public bank, Banco do Brasil, we will conceptualize immaterial work and will problematize the appropriation of knowledge of the banking category by the computer systems that serve the banks.

This dissertation shows various concepts of the term gene that have appeared since the birth of genetics in 1900 up to the first half of the 50s. It focuses especially on the 40s and the beginning of the 50s. Scientific papers from that period were the main source of information. The author tried to capture not only generally accepted notions about genes and genic action but also those that had not pushed through in those days, nevertheless, that had offered a non- standard point of view which could have later become inspirative for molecular genetics. The work documents searching for links between genes and enzymes or ideas of potential divisibility of the gene. The dissertation assigns a very important role to those phenomena that emphasized the significance of the gene order or the order of genic parts. In Goldschmidt's interpretation of pseudoallelism the author sees the thought that the essence of a gene is its position and considers this the beginnings of "digital" thinking about the gene. The dissertation pays attention to "analogue" thinking about the gene, as well. This thinking took account of molecular shaping and represented a blind alley for the early molecular genetics. The work confirms to a certain extent the Kuhnian vision of the development of scientific disciplines. It finds the...

Formé auprès de Gaston Bonnier (1853-1922) à Paris à la fin des années 1880, Henri Devaux (1862-1956) s’impose comme l’un des botanistes prometteurs de sa génération en travaillant sur les échanges gazeux chez les plantes aquatiques. De 1906 à 1932, il occupe la chaire de physiologie végétale de la Faculté des sciences de Bordeaux. Bien que ce ne soit pas son domaine de prédilection, il s’intéresse progressivement à la physico-chimie des lames (ou couches) minces et devient l’une des figures de l’école française qui émerge dans les années 1910 autour de ces questions. Tout au long du premier tiers du XXe siècle, ses travaux sur les effets de surface vont faire autorité, y compris outre-Atlantique, et lui ouvrir les portes de l’Académie des sciences. Les lames minces sont aussi un moyen pour lui de comprendre la structure et le fonctionnement des membranes cellulaires et in fine ceux du vivant à l’échelle moléculaire. En nous appuyant sur près de 10 000 pages de notes de laboratoire inédites, nous avons reconstruit l’essentiel de son cheminement intellectuel dans ce domaine.Ancré dans la foi réformée, Devaux cherche par ailleurs à montrer dans des écrits de vulgarisation que les savoirs scientifiques et la Bible concordent. Il y défend notamment une vision créationniste et fixiste du monde. Devaux lie régulièrement science et religion dans ses carnets de laboratoire et affirme même sa foi dans un article du Journal de physique. / Trained by Gaston Bonnier (1853-1922) in Paris at the end of the 1880s, Henri Devaux (1862-1956) was numbered among the most promising botanists of his generation due to his work on gaseous exchanges of aquatic plants. Between 1906 and 1932, he was professor of plant physiology at the Faculty of sciences of Bordeaux. Even though it was not his primary field of study, he slowly developed an interest in the physico-chemistry of thin films (or layers) and became one of the most prominent figures of the French school that emerged on this topic in the 1910s. Throughout the first third of the 20th century, his works on surface were considered as a reference in this field, also in the United States, and opened him the doors of the Académie des sciences. Thin layers were also for him a way to understand the structure and functions of cellular membranes and, consequently, of the life on the molecular scale. Having worked on almost 10 000 pages of his unexplored laboratory notebooks, we have reconstructed the salient points of his investigative pathway in this field.Rooted in a protestant faith, Devaux also tried to show with science popularization writings that scientific knowledge and the Bible are in harmony. He defended a fixist creationist vision of the world. Devaux regularly linked science and religion in his laboratory notebooks and even claimed his faith in an article published in the Journal de physique.

A relevância de ensinar conteúdos sobre as ciências, e não apenas conteúdos científicos tradicionais, tem se intensificado nas pesquisas educacionais das últimas décadas. Nesse sentido, a história da ciência configura-se um recurso pedagógico interessante para tratar sobre a construção do conhecimento científico em ambiente escolar. Entretanto, a confluência das necessidades dos campos didático-pedagógico e histórico-epistemológico prevê alguns obstáculos por enfrentar para transformar a natureza da ciência em saber escolar no ensino médio. Assim, buscamos analisar tais desafios e aventar propostas para seu enfrentamento mediante os fundamentos dos quadros teóricos estudados e de uma investigação empírica. Adotamos como estratégia metodológica o confronto entre tais desafios previstos com as dificuldades vivenciadas na elaboração, no acompanhamento da aplicação e na análise de um curso piloto para o ensino médio, aplicado em uma escola pública da zona sul da cidade de São Paulo. Utilizamos três episódios da história da luz para tratar de alguns aspectos epistemológicos que problematizavam, principalmente, uma visão empírico-indutivista da ciência. Foi possível mapear uma série de obstáculos, propor estratégias para enfrentá-los, aplicar tais estratégias em sala de aula e analisar os dados obtidos. Como resultado dessas etapas, obtivemos bons prognósticos para algumas propostas averiguadas e percebemos que algumas soluções requerem aprimoramento. A metodologia qualitativa das pesquisas educacionais guiou o planejamento, a coleta e a análise dos dados. Os resultados obtidos indicaram possibilidades de generalização que podem ser entendidas como parâmetros iniciais para pesquisa com a história e filosofia da ciência na educação científica. / The relevance of teaching about science, instead of teaching only the traditional and systematized scientific concepts, has been an important issue for educational researches over the last decades. In this new approach, the use of history of science is a promising pedagogical strategy to introduce the development of scientific knowledge in the context of education. However, when one tries to reconcile the demands of both didactic-pedagogical and historic-epistemological fields, many obstacles become evident. Accordingly, this thesis analyzes the challenges that are faced and the emerging solutions obtained from the combination of a theoretical framework and an empirical investigation. The methodological strategy that was employed confronts those challenges with the elaboration, application and analysis of a pilot course on the history of optics for secondary school students. Three historical episodes concerning the theory of light were chosen in order to challenge students naïve inductive-empiricist conceptions of the nature of science. We were able to identify a set of obstacles, to propose strategies to face them, to apply those strategies in real classroom situations and to analyze the data gathered from the recordings of the classes. As a result, we have developed viable solutions and realized that some of them still need to be improved. A qualitative research methodology guided our process of elaboration, application and data analysis of the teaching-learning sequence that was implemented. The results point out possibilities of generalization which can be regarded as initial parameters for future researches that focus on the use of history and philosophy of science in scientific education.