Epistemic imagery and their functions: the case of diagrams

Research Seminar

Admission until 11:30
Datum: 13.12.2019
Uhrzeit: 11:00 - 13:00
Vortragender: Christoph Lüthy
Ort: Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22, 00187 Rom
Kontakt: boehm@biblhertz.it

Epistemic Imagery and their Functions: the Case of Diagrams

An 'epistemic image' may be defined as an image that was crafted so as to help us understand something. But how is it possible that an image teaches us something that words cannot teach us? This lecture will start with the issue of the category of the epistemic image, and notably the question of the interaction of text and image when these are produced together, as happens in philosophical or scientific texts. The diagram – one of the most basic and visually least appealing 'epistemic images' – will serve as our case study.

The diagram – one of the most basic and visually least appealing 'epistemic images' – will serve as our case study. What do we understand by looking at a few lines and their relation? A survey of the history of diagrams will show that – while looking pretty much the same throughout history – the diagram itself changed its epistemic nature rather radically. We will encounter diagrams that are demonstrative and others that are speculative; we will examine what happens to diagrams when they become temporal; and we will see how they have been used to force a closure in (historical) debates

Christoph Lüthy is professor in the history of philosophy and science at Raboud University, Nijmegen (The Netherlands). He studied philosophy (Oxford), physics (Basel) and the history of science (Harvard). He works on the history of natural philosophy and the role of images in it.

^{Image Copper engraving by Matthæus Merian for Robert Fludd, Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet minoris metaphysica, physica atque technica historia, vol. 1, p. 89 (Oppenheim: De Bry, 1617)}