Universität Wien

180034 VO-L The lodestone between medium and technology (2024S)

the changing conceptual functions of magnetism from Plato to Mesmer

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 18 - Philosophie

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Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Friday 15.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Friday 22.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Friday 12.04. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Friday 19.04. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Friday 26.04. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Friday 03.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Friday 10.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Friday 17.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Friday 24.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Friday 31.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Friday 07.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Friday 14.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Friday 28.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Enhance historical and factual knowledge about and comprehension of problems in the philosophy of media and technology.
Exercise capacities of reading, understanding and working with primary philosophical texts.
Thereby develop individual capacities for independent research, investigation, and appropriate presentation.
Enhance understanding of intertwining between philosophy, technology media science.

Assessment and permitted materials

Apart from actively participating in the discussions of selected primary texts, students will be required to give a short talk and to write a ten page seminar paper in English on the primary text they have presented. Students who wish to participate in this course, therefore have to have a firm command both of spoken and written English as well as basic capacities to read Latin. Continuous presence at the seminar is another basic requirement. In their research, students will refer to the primary and secondary literature provided for the seminar as well as to other scholarly literature; in their essays, they will demonstrate their capacity handle the usual methods of scholarly documentation as required in the style sheet issued by the department of philosophy at the University of Vienna. A detailed structure for the paper will be presented at our first meeting.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Test paper (70%)
Active participation in discussions (30%)

A quote of least 60 % is required for positive assessment.

Examination topics

Apart from actively participating in the discussions of selected primary texts, students will be required to give a short talk and to write a ten page seminar paper in English on the primary text they have presented. Students who wish to participate in this course, therefore have to have a firm command both of spoken and written English as well as basic capacities to read Latin. Continuous presence at the seminar is another basic requirement. In their research, students will refer to the primary and secondary literature provided for the seminar as well as to other scholarly literature; in their essays, they will demonstrate their capacity handle the usual methods of scholarly documentation as required in the style sheet issued by the department of philosophy at the University of Vienna. A detailed structure for the paper will be presented at our first meeting.
2. Magnetism in idealist metaphysics and physics (Plato’s Ion and Timaeus),
3. Materialist atomism (Lucretius)
4. Tricky objects in a set of particular observations (Pliny),
5. Medical syntheses (Galen)
6. Christian theological speculation (Augustine).
7. Natural Magic and Renaissance Neoplatonism (Ficino)
8. Skepticism or Advancement of Learning Montaigne vs. Bacon
9. Setting Sails: the Earth-Magnetism of William Gilbert
9. New Cosmology Galileo‘s Lodestones
10 Magnetism in the New Science: Kepler, Newton
11. Epilogue: Mesmer’s magnetic medicine

Radl, Albert. 1988. Der Magnetstein in der Antike: Quellen und Zusammenhänge. Stuttgart: F. Steiner Verlag.
Sander Christoph, Magnes: Der Magnetstein und der Magnetismus in den Wissenschaften der Frühen Neuzeit. Leiden und Boston (Brill) 2020

Reading list

And

Biagioli M (2006) Galileo's instruments of credit: telescopes, images, secrecy. Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago
Boner Patrick J., Kepler’s Cosmological Synthesis. Astrology, Mechanism and the Soul. Leiden Boston Brill 2013
Freudenthal, Gad. 1983. Theory of matter and cosmology in William Gilbert’s De magnete. Isis 74: 22–37.
Henry, John. 2001. Animism and empiricism: Copernican physics and the origins of William Gilbert’s experimental method. Journal of the History of Ideas 62: 99–119.
J. L. Heilbronn, Electricity in the 17th and 18th centuries, Berkeley 1979
Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2013.
Pumfrey, Stephen. “Mechanizing Magnetism in Restoration England—The Decline of Magnetic Philosophy.” Annals of Science 44, no. 1 (1987): 1–21.
Radl, Albert. 1988. Der Magnetstein in der Antike: Quellen und Zusammenhänge. Stuttgart: F. Steiner Verlag.
Sander Christoph, Magnes: Der Magnetstein und der Magnetismus in den Wissenschaften der Frühen Neuzeit. Leiden und Boston (Brill) 2020
Smith, Pamela H., Ways or making and knowing : the material culture of empirical knowledge.Ann Arbor, Mich. : Univ. of Michigan Press, 2014
Weill-Parot, Nicolas. Points aveugles de la nature: la rationalité scientifique médiévale face à l’occulte, l’attraction magnétique et l’horreur du vide (XIIIe-milieu du XVe siècle).

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Tu 19.11.2024 14:06