À propos du colloque « The Machine as Model and Metaphor » Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte Berlin, novembre 2006

Sophie Roux (1)

1 UGA UFR ARSH - Université Grenoble Alpes - UFR Arts & Sciences Humaines

The workshop “The Machine as Model and Metaphor”, that took place at the Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte (Berlin) in November 2006, was the fourth workshop of the first team of the Programme “From Natural Philosophy to Science” sponsored by the European Science Foundation. To put it bluntly, it was devoted to the possible role played by machines between the 13th and the 17th centuries in reshaping the ancient ideas about how natural phenomena should be explained. The problem at stake was not how natural philosophers and mathematical practitioners proceeded to identify the mechanical principles, according to which machines work, but how they happened to consider machines as models of intelligibility, on what presuppositions such a view relied and to what conclusions it led. In other words, instead of focusing on machines as explananda (as it is usually done in the history of mechanics), this workshop focused on machines as explanantia.

Mots clés: Social Sciences & Humanities; The Renaissance; Modern Time; Mechanisms; Machines

Mots clés: Mécanismes; Epoque moderne; Machines; Renaissance

Domaines: Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences

Sophie Roux. À propos du colloque « The Machine as Model and Metaphor » Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte Berlin, novembre 2006. Revue de Synthèse, 2009, 130 (1), pp.165-175. ⟨10.1007/s11873-009-0074-7⟩. ⟨hal-00478462⟩