Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T08:08:30.066Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Impure Epistemology and the Search for the Nervous Agent: A Case Study in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Neurophysics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Alexandre Métraux
Alexandre Métraux
Affiliation:
Otto-Selz InstituteUniversity of Mannheim
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this contribution, I argue for epistemological impurity as the key to the historical reconstruction of the proto-biological sciences of the eighteenth century.

The traditional approaches to the more or less complex and more or less stratified past of science either focus on the ideal content of that which has in the meantime been recognized as standard biological knowledge (transmitted from generation to generation by textbooks) or otherwise try to uncover the implicit cognitive principles at work in order to reveal their shortcomings (as measured against today's accepted criteria = epistemological presentism).

A closer look at the breakdown of the classical models of mechanistic explanation and the detailed analysis of the new empirico-experimental research in the neurophysiology of the eighteenth century shows, however, that eclectic procedures of various kinds have dominated the field. This eclecticism (the principle of epistemological impurity) supported, and was in turn supported by, what has recently become known as “thinking with one's hand.” The paper illustrates this specific kind of thinking (and experimental acting) with reference to the case of Nicolas Le Cat's microphysics of nervous activity.

Type
Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , Spring 1996 , pp. 57 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bachelard, Gaston. 1973. Essai sur la connaissance approchée. Paris: VrinGoogle Scholar
Bailly, Jean-Sylvain. 1779. Histoire de l'astronomie moderne depuis la fondation de l'école d'Alexandrie jusqu ä l'époque de 1730, Vol 1. Paris: Bure.Google Scholar
Bordeau, Théophile. [1742] 1818. Dissertatio physiologica de sensu generice considerate. First edition, Monspelli, In his Oeuvres complètes, Vol 1: 1–13. Paris: Caille et Ravier.Google Scholar
Brockliss, L. W. B. 1987. French Higher Education in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: A Cultural History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cassé, Michel 1993 Du vide et de la création. Paris: Odile Jacob.Google Scholar
Crousaz, J.-P. 1720 La Logique, ou Système de réflexions qui peuvent contribuer à la netteté et l'étendue de nos connaissances. Amsterdam: L'Honoré et Châtelain.Google Scholar
Dagognet, François 1985. Rematérialiser. Matières et matérialismes Paris: Vrin.Google Scholar
Dagognet, François 1987. Etienne-Jules Marey. La passion de la trace. Paris: Hazan.Google Scholar
Dagognet, François 1992. Le corps multiple et un. Paris: Les Empêcheurs de Penser en Rond.Google Scholar
Dennett, D. 1991. Consciousness Explained. Boston: Little. Brown.Google Scholar
Descartes, R. 1963a. La dioptrique. In his Oeuvres philosophiques, ed. Alquié, F., Vol 1: 651–717. Paris: Garnier.Google Scholar
Descartes, R. 1963b. L'homme. In his Oeuvres philosophiques, ed. Alquié, F. Vol 1: 379–480 Paris: Garnier.Google Scholar
Descartes, R. 1973a. Les passions de l'âme. In his Oeuvres philosophiques, ed. Alquié, F., vol. 3: 979–1103 Paris: Garnier.Google Scholar
Descartes, R. 1973b. Les principes de la philosophie. In his Oeuvres philosophiques, ed. Alquié, F., Vol 3: 81–525. Paris: Garnier.Google Scholar
Godart, A. de 1776. Deuxième mémoire d'optique, ou Recherches sur les couleurs accidentelles. Observations sur la physique, sur l'histoire naturelle et sur les arts. 8/II: 1–16.Google Scholar
Gourevitch, [Gurevich] A 1983. Les catégories de la culture médiévale. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Gourevitch, [Gurevich] A 1987. “On Pierre Duhem.” Science in Context 2(1): 367–61.Google Scholar
Granger, G.-G. 1988. Essai d'une philosophie du style. Paris: Odile Jacob.Google Scholar
Granger, G.-G. 1989. La Mathématique sociale du marquis de Condorcet. Paris: Odile Jacob.Google Scholar
Gurwitsch, A. 1974. Leibniz. Philosophie des panlogismus. Berlin/New York: de Gruter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jouvet, Michel 1992. Le sommeil et le rêve Paris: Odile Jacob.Google Scholar
Kadic, A. 1993. “A Literary and Spiritual Profile of Boscovich.” In R. J. Boscovich: vita e attività scientifica, ed. Barsilla Hall, P.. Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 13–25.Google Scholar
Le Cat, Nicolas 1765. Traité de l'existance [sic] de la nature et des propriétés du fluide des nerfs, et principalement de son action dans le mouvement musculaire [etc]. Berlin.Google Scholar
Leeuwenhoek, Antoon van 1719. Epistolae physiologicae super complurimis naturae arcanis[…]. Delft: Adriaan Beman.Google Scholar
Popper, Karl 1966. Logik der Forschung, 2nd ed. Tübinghen: Mohr.Google Scholar
Priestley, Joseph. [1777] 1976. Disquisitions Relating to Matter and Spirit. New York/London: Garland Publishing.Google Scholar
Rousseau, J.-J. 1959. Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire. In his Oeuvres complètes, ed. Gagnebin, B. and Raymond, M. vol. 1 993–1099 Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Vernière, Paul 1954. Spinoza et la pensée française avant la Révolution. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Vogt, Karl 1896. Aus meinem Leben. Stuttgart: E. Nägele.Google Scholar