Project: An epistemological study of material models from practical mathematics in early modern natural philosophical debates

2013-01-01 – 2018-12-31

Abstract

We investigate how objects known from practical mathematics where appropriated by natural philosophers as models for natural inquiry. Relevant aspects of the objects’ behavior were isolated for an understanding of natural phenomena (in optics, mechanics or meteorology). Direct manipulations of the objects often played an important role to achieve this. We will also engage in the reconstruction of some experiments