Thinking Science at Large - Towards a Connected History of Science

Lectures and workshops are convened by Prof. Stephane Van Damme in cooperation with the History of Science Working Group

Over the last decade, the grand narrative of the Scientific Revolution has been replaced with a grand narrative of the process of globalization, with the history of science at risk of falling into another teleological trap.This EUI Lecture series will explore other possibilities in terms of researching and writing the history of science. By looking at the multiple ways that European sciences were challenged by other non-European traditions (and were sometimes produced by these challenges and confrontations). This should lead us to more dense descriptions of these practices of encountering, translating and circulating; without the assumptions that these processes were obvious, peaceful and always successful. The study of asymmetries, failed translations and failed encounters are as important as the study of the trajectory of world science, which succeeded in dominating the globe (and even, some argue, produced the idea of globalization). Investigating these counter-narratives in the history of science or in science studies can provide particularly valuable methodological tools which allow us a greater insight into the history of science.

2020

From New Cythera to Soho Square. Voyaging, exploring and collecting the World in the Eighteenth Century

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Speaker: Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire (Université Côte d’Azur)

17 February 2020

2019

Learning to Love Opacity: Decision Trees and the Genealogy of the Algorithmic Black Box

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Speaker: Matthew L. Jones (Columbia University)

7 June 2019

2018

2017

'Collecting the World'. Forum on Hans Sloane

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Speakers: James Delbourgo (Rutgers University), Simon Schaffer (University of Cambridge), Lissa Roberts (University of Twente), Silvia Sebastiani (EHESS, Paris)

26 June 2017