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Title Picturing knowledge : historical and philosophical problems concerning the use of art in science / edited by Brian S. Baigrie.

Publication Info. Toronto, Ont. : University of Toronto Press, [1996]
©1996

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (xxiv, 389 pages) : illustrations.
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Series Toronto studies in philosophy
Toronto studies in philosophy.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents Didactic and the elegant : some thoughts on scientific and technological illustrations in the Middle Ages and Renaissance / Bert S. Hall -- Temples of the body and temples of the cosmos : vision and visualization in the Vesalian and Copernican revolutions / Martin Kemp -- Descartes's scientific illustrations and 'la grande mécanique de la nature' / Brian S. Baigrie -- Illustrating chemistry / David Knight -- Representations of the natural system in the nineteenth century / Robert J. O'Hara -- Visual representation in archaeology : depicting the missing-link in human origins / Stephanie Moser -- Towards an epistemology of scientific illustration / David Topper -- Illustration and inference / James R. Brown -- Visual models and scientific judgement / Ronald N. Giere -- Are pictures really necessary? The case of Sewall Wright's 'Adaptive landscapes' / Michael Ruse.
Summary The traditional concept of scientific knowledge places a premium on thinking, not visualizing. Scientific illustrations are still generally regarded as devices that serve as heuristic aids when reasoning breaks down. When scientific illustration is not used in this disparaging sense as a linguistic aid, it is most often employed as a metaphor with no special visual content. What distinguishes pictorial devices as resources for doing science, and the special problems that are raised by the mere presence of visual elements in scientific treatises, tends to be overlooked. The contributors to this volume examine the historical and philosophical issues concerning the role that scientific illustration plays in the creation of scientific knowledge. They regard both text and picture as resources that scientists employ in their practical activities, their value as scientific resources deriving from their ability to convey information.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Scientific illustration -- History.
Scientific illustration.
History.
Scientific illustration -- Philosophy.
Philosophy.
Art and science -- History.
Art and science.
Art and science -- Philosophy.
Genre/Form Electronic books.
Added Author Baigrie, Brian S. (Brian Scott)
Other Form: Print version: Picturing knowledge. Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, ©1996 9780802029850 (DLC) 96172985 (OCoLC)35089504
ISBN 9781442678477 (electronic book)
144267847X (electronic book)
128204558X
9781282045583
080202985X (bound)
0802074391 (paperback)
9780802074393
9780802029850