ABSTRACT
History of science as a formal and autonomous field of research crosses over disciplinary boundaries. For this reason, both its production and its working materials are difficult to classify and catalog according to discipline-based systems of organization of knowledge. Three main problems might be pointed out in this regard: the disciplines themselves are subject to a historical process of transformation; some objects of scientific inquiry resist constraint within rigid disciplinary grids but, rather, extend across several disciplinary boundaries; and the so-called digital revolution has replaced spatial with temporal display sequences and shifted the traditional emphasis on knowledge to user-oriented approaches. The first part of this essay is devoted to a conceptual analysis of the various approaches to the organization of knowledge formulated over time, whereas the second considers the new possibilities afforded by a faceted model of knowledge organization compatible with user-oriented relational databases to the research materials and production of history of science.
Subject(s)
Cataloging/history , Science/history , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , Knowledge , Science/classificationABSTRACT
This article analyzes several French eighteenth century physiological theories that later on were classified as vitalist. The overall background is set by the tradition of Montpellier medical school, in particular by the physiological and medical ideas of Théophile de Bordeu. Paul-Joseph Barthez was initially trained in this setting, however, his conception of the autonomy of life was also heavily influenced by the circle of Paris encyclopedists. For this reason, Barthez's elaboration shows elements of continuity and discontinuity regarding both the notion of human being as represented in the classification of sciences of the Encyclopédie, and the typical Montpellier.
ABSTRACT
Analisa as propostas classificadas como vitalistas, formuladas na França no século XVIII. Contextualiza a tradição da escola médica de Montpellier, abordando as concepções fisiológico-médicas de Théophile de Bordeu. Nesse ambiente Paul-Joseph Barthez realizou sua formação original. Sua concepção sobre a autonomia da vida também foi influenciada pela interação com círculos dos enciclopedistas de Paris. No entanto, na formulação desse conceito identificam-se igualmente ruptura e permanência com relação a ambas as linhas de pensamento - a respeito do conceito de ser humano na classificação das ciências prescrita pela Encyclopédie e na tradição típica de Montpellier.
This article analyzes several French eighteenth century physiological theories that later on were classified as vitalist. The overall background is set by the tradition of Montpellier medical school, in particular by the physiological and medical ideas of Théophile de Bordeu. Paul-Joseph Barthez was initially trained in this setting, however, his conception of the autonomy of life was also heavily influenced by the circle of Paris encyclopedists. For this reason, Barthez's elaboration shows elements of continuity and discontinuity regarding both the notion of human being as represented in the classification of sciences of the Encyclopédie, and the typical Montpellier.
Subject(s)
History, 18th Century , Vitalism/history , Physiology , Schools, Medical , History, 18th Century , FranceABSTRACT
One of the factors leading to the creation of embryology as a modern discipline at the end of the 19th century was Wilhelm Roux's formulation of the program of Entwicklungsmechanik (developmental mechanics). A look into the work of Hans Driesch, an equal contributor to developmental mechanics, may shed further light on this process. For Roux, developmental mechanics was an anatomical science, but for Driesch it was associated with a mathematical and physical approach to the natural world. Likewise, Roux used the concept of mechanics as an analogy, but Driesch used it literally. Driesch's generation had been trained in a pedagogic context that emphasized mathematics and physics, which may explain why he went a step further than Roux to state that a true "mechanics" of development required the reduction of morphogenetic problems to the known laws of physics. It is argued here that this difference in background is behind the enthusiastic adoption and further development of Roux's program by Driesch's generation, a generation that conceived Entwicklungsmechanik to be the reduction of embryological processes to "the laws of matter in motion." This same mathematical and physical mindset would underscore Driesch's later construction of entelechy as a regulating factor in embryogenesis, through mathematical analysis grounded on the notion of mathematical functions.
