Picturing Knowledge: Historical and Philosophical Problems Concerning the Use of Art in Science / Edition 2

by Brian S. Baigrie, Baugruem Bruab S.

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802074393
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Publication date:	05/28/1996
Series:	Toronto Studies in Philosophy Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	414
Product dimensions:	6.01(w) x 8.97(h) x 0.91(d)

About the Author

Brian S. Baigrie is an associate professor in the Institute for History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the Universtiy of Toronto.

Editorial Reviews

Ten essays exploring the relationship between illustrations and scientific theory developing the intriguing interplay between abstraction and representation. The contributors arrive from different scholarly fields, but come to the same room to discuss technological illustration in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, visions of the Cosmos and the human body, Descarte's scientific illustrations, illustrations of chemistry, representations of the natural system in the 19th century, in evolution theory, and in Sewall Wright's "adaptive landscapes." From the elegant and beautiful prints of the past to contemporary computer schemata drawings, the sense of the urgency to communicate is exhibited in each example. Canadian card order number C95-932643-X. Paper edition (unseen), $24.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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