Subjective Sciences Workshop

Alexander Wragge-Morley and Michael Bycroft

<A HREF="https://subjectivesciences.wordpress.com/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">This one-day workshop</A> explores the role of ‘subjective’ practices in the early modern sciences. We are interested in the epistemic dimension of judgments that we now think of as subjective, either because of the senses they deploy (such as taste and smell) or because of the ends they serve (such as determining the quality and originality of a work of art). What were the technical procedures that early moderns used to make these judgments? What sort of knowledge was involved in them? And how did that knowledge stand in relation to early scientific disciplines, such as medicine, natural history, chemistry and natural philosophy? We draw on literary history, art history, and the history of science, and we cover a wide range of things that early moderns made judgements about, from scientific instruments to the pleasures arising from sensory experience.
Over the last four decades, scholars have demonstrated that there were close connections between the early modern arts (from art and architecture to rhetoric and poetics) and sciences. In this workshop, by contrast, we do not seek simply to show that the early modern arts and sciences had a lot in common. Rather, we will develop a more recent strand of inquiry that seeks to understand how early moderns used the practices that we today associate with the attribution of value to art - exemplified by connoisseurship - to produce knowledge about objects in the world around them. Exemplified by Steven Shapin's work on the 'sciences of subjectivity', this strand of inquiry seeks to understand the contributions of supposedly subjective forms of judgment to the production of objectivity.
Subjective Sciences thus brings together leading scholars from a wide variety of disciplines both to explore the role of connoisseurial practices in the early modern sciences, and to question present-day assumptions about their disciplinary scope. Rather than assuming that connoisseurs concerned themselves only with the high arts, we will therefore examine the ways in which they brought specialised forms of judgment to bear on a wide range of different objects. At the same time, we will seek to expand the scope of connoisseurship, examining the interplay between practices of measuring, testing, tasting, and smelling in the formation of judgments about the value and meaning of material things.
<A HREF="https://subjectivesciences.wordpress.com/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">For full details, click here to access the workshop website.</A>

Chandler House

Our {communityGuidelinesLink} describe the sort of content we prohibit on Eventbrite. If you suspect an event may be in violation, you can report it to us so we can investigate.

To report other categories of prohibited or illegal content, submit {link}

Subjective Sciences Workshop

More events from Alexander Wragge-Morley and Michael Bycroft

Follow organisers to get events picked for you

Subjective Sciences Workshop

More events from Alexander Wragge-Morley and Michael Bycroft

Follow organisers to get events picked for you

You might also like...

Browse more events with different dates, prices, and formats to find your next great experience.