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This essay is premised on two assumptions: first, that concepts change their meaning; second, that the examination of the relationship between language and action - two central components of the public sphere - illuminates the process of change. Three models of conceptual change are critically discussed through their language-action axis. The first, adduced by German historian of concepts Reinhart Koselleck, assumes that conceptual change results from a gap between language and action. The second, put forward by historian of political thought Quentin Skinner, argues that conceptual change is produced by political theorists that are doing something when writing; language, according to this model is (sometimes) a form of action. The third model is derived from the American PC movement, which, it is argued here, presents us with a theory and a practice of conceptual change. According to this model, conceptual change results from a deliberate change of language by social agents. Language, as maintained by this model, is the world; action cannot be discussed separately from language since everything exists only through language. As we move from one model to the next we see that the place language assumes in both political theory and practice is increasing in relation to, and at the expense of, action. This essay argues that the mid-twentieth century "linguistic turn," coupled with the growing influence of postmodernism on political theory and practice, results in a distorted picture of the polls. This weakens the ability of political theory to make intelligible the world around us, and also its effectiveness as a guide for action. This tendency must be remedied i f political theory and practice wishes to remain relevant to the public sphere.

E. A. Burtt's The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science (1924) has been described by H. Floris Cohen, writing on the historiography of the Scientific Revolution in 1994, as the "individual thought of an individual thinker...beyond philosophical or historical currents or fashion." The book is something of a puzzle within the context of American twentieth-century intellectual history and more specifically, of the philosophy and history of science of North America and Europe. / Burtt's inter-disciplinary study---as it would be called today---has proved to be both pioneering and prophetic in its rejection of both scientism and positivism. The thesis examines the author's novel interpretation of Isaac Newton's achievement, as well as that of Newton's predecessors in the Scientific Revolution. Burtt's singular view of the rise of modern science from religious underpinnings was, for the most part, either misunderstood or ignored at the time. In fact, the whole idea of a Scientific Revolution was only introduced into the curriculum at leading American universities following the Second World War, in response to Herbert Butterfield and Alexandre Koyre, both of whom owe unacknowledged debts to Burtt. / The Metaphysical Foundations was conceived in the progressive era of the 1920s, the latter part of the "Golden Age" in American philosophy. The thesis examines the role of innovating intellects such as John Dewey, James Harvey Robinson, and Morris R. Cohen in shaping Burtt's view, described against the background of his studies at Columbia university. Under the sway of pragmatic naturalism, Burtt's interpretation of Newton was part of a grand scheme to develop a new philosophy of mind which he intended would overcome the problems of Cartesian dualism. / The dissertation concludes with an extended analysis of Burtt's public, academic, and personal life based upon archives, correspondence and interviews with those who remember him. It considers his politics of conscience during the Cold War and concludes that integrity combined with the relentless search for philosophic understanding drove his more exotic philosophical quests and steered his personal life, including its tragic dimension, toward simple virtues.

This work seeks to settle the doctrine of self-determination in international law. Drawing upon a selection of historical thinkers who have concentrated upon the value of freedom, a theory of political liberty, is developed. This is situated in relation to political history from the Age of Revolutions on. The development of the formal principle of self-determination is discussed. This reveals a doctrine lacking coherence. The philosophy of political liberty is proposed as a foundation for self-determination in law. The way this new approach manifests itself in practice, and its merits, are considered in relation to the politics of Crimea, with a focus on the immediate post-Soviet period of 1991-2002. In conclusion, a programme for implementation and refinement is offered. It is also noted that one could fashion a new approach to international law as a whole on the basis of the logic that is employed here to settle the doctrine of self-determination.

There is a substantial amount of existing literature that focuses on the revolutionary events of 1989 in East-Central Europe. Yet, there are few comparisons which apply a comparative-historical approach to a small set of cases. A large body of existing literature provides the ideal situation for a comparative-historical study. This thesis will test the utility of applying a comparative-historical methodological approach to the events of 1989 in four countries in East-Central Europe. The four countries are paired into two cases. The case of Poland and Hungary is compared with the case of Bulgaria and Romania. A theoretical frame of reference is developed from previous comparative-historical studies of revolutionary events, criticisms of them, and the general theoretical debates which they generate. This frame of reference incorporates a broad range of variables, and is used to inform the application of the method. Differences (and similarities) between the cases are then investigated, and the utility of the method assessed. Additionally, the application of the method allows some current theoretical and conceptual debates concerning the East- Central European events to be confronted. Part 1 of the thesis applies a comparative-historical method of analysis to the cases up to, and including some aspects of the 1989 events. In Part 2, patterns of difference between the cases are identified in terms of revolutionary forms and outcomes. Following the logic of the method common factors are identified as potential contributing factors to the collapse of communism, while patterns of difference suggest that the political, economic and social 'nature' of the communist systems had an impact on the forms of change and their outcomes. It is recognised that the comparative-historical approach utilised in this thesis has limitations. However, the method is shown to be useful for identifying common factors across cases, and significant variations between cases, which can generate potential explanation, and provide better understanding of such revolutionary phenomena as that which occurred in East-Central Europe in 1989.

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<p>This dissertation examines the contributions of apothecary craftsmen and their medicinal retailing practices to emerging cultures of scientific investigation and experimental practice in the Italian port city of Venice between 1565 and 1730. During this important period in Europe’s history, efforts to ground traditional philosophical investigations of nature in a new material culture of empirical and experimental practice elicited significant debate in scholarly communities. Leading the way in advancing the authority of “experience” were Europe’s medical practitioners divided between university-trained physicians and guild-regulated apothecaries and surgeons. In Italy, humanist praise for the practical arts and new techniques of analyzing inherited texts influenced sixteenth-century university physicians to redefine the medical discipline in terms of its practical aims to intervene in nature and achieve useful effects. This led to an important revival in northern Italian universities at Ferrara and Padua of the classical Greek writings on the empirical disciplines of anatomy and pharmacy. In the sixteenth century the university at Padua, under the patronage of the Republic of Venice, was the site of Europe’s first public botanical garden, anatomical theater and clinical demonstrations. The university also hosted important experimental practitioners such as Andreas Vesalius, Galileo Galilei and William Harvey, and remained a leading center of medical investigation attracting an international faculty of students and professors until the eighteenth century. At the same time, the study of Aristotelian natural philosophy in original Greek texts was largely emancipated from the faculty of theology at Padua, nurturing innovative discourses on experimental method by figures such as Giacomo Zabarella and the anatomist Fabricius Aquapendente. </p><p>The unique intellectual climate at Padua has thus attracted significant scholarly attention in the history and philosophy of early modern science. However, the university’s important relationships with the thriving world of artisan guilds and their commercial practices in the nearby city of Venice have not received due attention in historical scholarship. To address this issue, this dissertation focuses upon a unique group of guild-trained medical practitioners in Venice – apothecaries – to trace the circulations of materials, skills, and expertise between Padua and the Venetian marketplace. Drawing on the methods of urban history, medical anthropology, literary studies and intellectual history, I conceptualize Venice as an important “contact zone,” or space of dialogue between scholarly and artisanal modes of investigating and representing nature between the latter sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries. In particular, I focus upon emerging apothecary strategies for retailing nature to public audiences through their medicinal creations, printed books, licensing petitions, and their pharmacy shops. Through these practices, apothecaries not only marketed commercial remedies during a period of growing interest in pharmaceutical matters, but also fashioned their own expertise as learned medical practitioners linking both theory and practice; head and hand; natural philosophy and practiced skill. In 1565 Venice’s apothecaries made their first effort to define their trade as a liberal profession in establishing a College of Apothecaries that lasted until 1804. Already by the turn of the eighteenth century, however, Venice’s apothecaries had adopted the moniker as “Public Professors” and engaged in dialogue with leading professors at Padua for plans to institute a new school of “experimental medical chemistry” with the prior of the apothecary college proposed as its first public demonstrator. Looking to a wide variety of statements on the urban pharmacy in Venice in published medical books, pharmacopeias, trade manuals, literary works, civic rituals and archival licensing and regulatory decrees, I trace the evolution of the public apothecary trade in Venice, paying particular attention to the pharmacy’s early modern materialization as a site of cultural and intellectual exchanges between the artisan workshop and the university world inhabited by scholars. </p><p>My readings of these sources lead to three important conclusions regarding the significance of apothecary retailing to the scientific culture of early modern Italy. First, the urban terrain of artisan practice in a merchant republic must be placed alongside the traditionally studied princely courts and universities as a fertile ground for dialogue between artisans and scholars in the study of nature. Second, apothecary investments in processing and retailing nature during this period made significant contributions to the material culture of early modern science in both mediating a growing pharmacopeia of exotic materials imported from around the globe, and in fashioning workshop models for the first university chemical laboratories instituted at Padua in the eighteenth century. And third, apothecary marketing strategies expressing their own medical expertise over nature’s materials articulated a fusion of textual learning and manual skill that offered some of the earliest profiles of the experimental practitioner that was eventually adopted in the public discourse of the experimental New Sciences by the latter seventeenth century.</p> / Dissertation

One of the central theoretical tenets of linear perspective is that it is based upon the idea of a monocular observer. Our lived perception, also referred to in the Renaissance as perspectiva naturalis, is always rooted in binocular vision, however, the guidelines for perspectiva artificialis often imply a single peeping eye as a starting point. In the early modern period, a number of rare art forms and instruments follow the prescriptive character of linear perspective to ludic ends. By focusing on this special class of what I would call 'monocular art forms', I will analyse the extent to which the perspectival method has been successfully applied in material form beyond the classic two-dimensional paintings. This special class of objects include: anamorphosis, peep-boxes, catoptrics, dioptric perspective tubes, and perspective instruments. It is my intention to draw attention to the different ways traditional perspectival paintings, exceptional cases such as perspective boxes and anamorphoses, and optical devices were encountered in the early modern period. In this thesis I will be examining the specific sites of each case study in depth so as to describe the various contexts - aristocratic, intellectual, religious - in which these items circulated. In Chapter 1 I illustrate a special class of perspective and anamorphic designs that confined their illusions to a peepshow. Chapter 2 examines one of the most consummate applications of the monocular principle of perspective: seventeenth-century Dutch perspective boxes. In Chapter 3, monocular catoptric designs are studied in light of the vogue for mirror cabinets in the seventeenth century. Chapter 4 examines the innovative techniques of drawing machines and their collection in early modern courts through close study of the 'perspectograph'.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-12-22Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:13:16Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 oliveira_zv_me_rcla_parcial.pdf: 121426 bytes, checksum: b0304a876b8a5f6c7b51e1ffce0812f4 (MD5) Bitstreams deleted on 2015-02-09T14:35:40Z: oliveira_zv_me_rcla_parcial.pdf,Bitstream added on 2015-02-09T14:36:21Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000694899.pdf: 2331411 bytes, checksum: cb07149f476b6e4e1e544b6e209aa79b (MD5) Bitstreams deleted on 2015-02-09T17:15:03Z: 000694899.pdf,Bitstream added on 2015-02-09T17:15:40Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000694899.pdf: 2331411 bytes, checksum: cb07149f476b6e4e1e544b6e209aa79b (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Durante a Idade Média a astronomia era estudada como uma das disciplinas do quadrivium, parte das artes liberais onde se abordava o conjunto das “matemáticas”, e no Renascimento o estudo da astronomia como parte das “disciplinas matemáticas” perdurou ainda por algum tempo e diversos estudiosos continuaram a se dedicar à publicação de obras sobre o assunto. Adriaan van Roomen (1561-1615), matemático e médico renascentista, escreveu alguns trabalhos referentes à astronomia, dentre os quais podemos citar a sua Ouranographia sive caeli descriptio (1591). Neste trabalho, apresentamos a primeira tradução da Ouranographia direta do latim para o português e acrescentamos notas e comentários acerca dos assuntos tratados em alguns dos capítulos da obra. Na Ouranographia, percebemos claramente o entrelaçamento entre diversas áreas da ciência, não só no que consideramos como matemática e astronomia, mas também no que diz respeito à astrologia, à filosofia e à história. A Ouranographia de van Roomen é constituída por três livros: no liber primus, descreve genericamente a máquina celeste, sua matéria e forma, seus movimentos e orbes; no liber secundus, descreve o primeiro céu e as linhas e círculos celestes que usamos para nos referenciar estando aqui da Terra; no liber tertius, explica o primeiro móvel, seus círculos e movimentos. Percebemos que van Roomen faz uma compilação de boa parte do conhecimento existente sobre o tema desde a Antiguidade até seu tempo e, através de suas citações, percebemos ainda que ele teve contato com obras de inúmeros autores, se mostrando um grande intelectual / During the Middle Ages the astronomy was studied as one of the disciplines of the quadrivium, part of the liberal arts where they approached the math, and in the Renaissance the study of astronomy as part of the mathematical disciplines went even on for some time and several scholars have continued to devote himself to the publication of works on the subject. Adriaan van Roomen (1561-1615), renaissance mathematician and physician, wrote several works about to astronomy, among which we mention its Ouranographia sive caeli descriptio (1591). In this work we present the first direct translation from Latin to Portuguese of the Ouranographia and add notes and comments on the issues addressed in some of the chapters of the work. In the Ouranographia, we clearly see the interconnectedness of different fields of science, not only in what we consider as mathematics and astronomy, but also with regard to astrology, philosophy and history. The van Roomen’ Ouranographia consists of three books: in the liber primus, describes generally the heaven machine, its matter and form, their movements and orbs; in the liber secundus, describes the heaven first and the celestial circles and lines that we use to refer being here on Earth, in the liber tertius, explains the mobile first, their movements and circles. We perceive that van Roomen makes a compilation of much of the existing knowledge on the subject from antiquity to his time, and through their citations, we perceive still that he had contact with works by several authors, is showing a great intellectual

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:31:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-12-05Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:20:57Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 boss_slb_dr_bauru.pdf: 2627040 bytes, checksum: 5b6012ee8569de12b829b82b526d8736 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A literatura específica da área de Ensino de Ciências tem apresentado importantes discussões sobre dificuldades de aprendizagem e compreensão de conceitos científicos pelos alunos. Diante disso, já há algum tempo a História da Ciência tem sido defendida enquanto elemento que pode auxiliar no processo de ensino-aprendizagem dos conceitos científicos. Apesar do potencial educacional que é atribuído à História da Ciência e do esforço que tem sido feito para aproximá-la da educação científica, existem algumas barreiras que podem inviabilizar o sucesso desta aproximação impedindo que ela cumpra, efetivamente, o seu papel frente ao Ensino de Ciências. Dentre as barreiras que a literatura aponta, destacamos a falta de material histórico de qualidades e acessível a alunos e professores que possa subsidiar práticas metodológicas em sala de aula. No bojo dessa escassez está a falta de traduções de fontes primárias para o português. Tendo em vista tal contexto, este trabalho de doutorado tem como objetivo geral de fazer a tradução comentada dos dez artigos de Stephen Gray (1666-1736) relacionados à eletricidade. Dos dez textos traduzidos, nove foram publicados no periódico Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society e uma carta foi publicada por Chipman (1954). Como objetivo específico propomos elaborar um conjunto de elementos, os quais denominamos de recursos didáticos, que possam ampliar o acesso de professores e alunos ao conteúdo das traduções: comentários em forma de notas; figuras; experimentos históricos com material de baixo custo; breve biografia do autor do texto traduzido; linha do tempo do período em questão; introdução geral ao texto. Stephen Gray foi um importante, porém mencionado, pesquisador do início do Século XVIII. Seu trabalho trouxe importantes... / The specific literature related to Science Education has presented important discussion on the difficulties faced by students in the learning and understanging of scientific concepts. In this context, some time ago the History of Science has been advocated as an element that can facilitate the process of teaching scientific conceps. Despite the educational potential that is assigned to the History of Science and the effort that has been done to bring it closer to Science Education, there are some barriers that can hinder the sucess of this approach, preventing it to fulfill effectively its role with the teaching of science. Among the barriers pointed out by the literature, we emphasize the lack of historical material with quality and accessible to students and teachers that can subsidize methodological practices in the classroom. Among this shortage of historical material, there is a lack of Portuguese translations of primary sources. Given this context, the main goal of this PhD work is the translation into Portuguese of the ten articles of Stephen Gray (1666-1736) related to electricity. Of the ten translated texts, nine were published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society and a letter was published by Chipman (1954). The specific goal of this thesis is to prepare a set of elements, which we will call teaching resources, that can expand the accesss of the content of the translations to teachers and students: comments as notes; figures; historical experiments with law-cost material; brief biography of the author of the tranlated text; timeline of the period; and a general introduction to the text. Stephen Gray was an important, though rarely mentioned, researcher at the beginning of the Eighteenth Century. His work has brought important contributions to the field of electricity. Some of his... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)