Histories of Scientific Observation

Contents......Page 6
Introduction......Page 10
Part One/ Framing the History of Scientific Observation, 500–1800......Page 20
1/ Observation in the Margins, 500–1500......Page 24
2/ Observation Rising: Birth of an Epistemic Genre, 1500-1650......Page 54
3/ The Empire of Observation, 1600–1800......Page 90
Part Two Observing and Believing: Evidence......Page 124
4/ The Color of Blood: Between Sensory Experience and Epistemic Significance
......Page 126
5/ Seeing Is Believing: Professor Vagner\'s Wonderful World
......Page 144
6/ A Visual History of Jean Perrin’s Brownian Motion Curves......Page 165
Part Three/ Observing in New Ways: Techniques......Page 190
7/ Frogs on the Mantelpiece: The Practice of Observation in Daily Life
......Page 198
8/ Sorting Things Out: The Economist as an Armchair Observer......Page 219
9/ “A Number of Scenes in a Badly Cut Film”: Obervation in the Age of Strobe......Page 243
10/ Empathy as a Psychoanalytic Mode of Observation: Between Sentiment and Science......Page 268
Part Four/ Observing New Things: Objects......Page 290
11/ Reforming Vision: The Engineer Le Play Learns to Oberve Society Sagely
......Page 294
12/ Seeking Parts, Looking for Wholes......Page 316
13/Seeing the Blush: Feeling Emotions
......Page 339
14/ Visualizing Radiation: The Photographs of Henri Becquerel
......Page 362
Part Five/ Observing Together: Communities......Page 382
15/ The Geography of Observation: Distance and Visibility in Eighteenth-Century Botanical Travel
......Page 386
16/ The World on a Page: Making a General Observation in the Eighteenth Century
......Page 409
17/ Coming to Attention: A Commonwealth of Observers during the Napoleonic Wars
......Page 434
Contributors......Page 458
Index......Page 462