Reflections on Interpretation of Texts - Early Modern and Others

Abstract

The historiographic and methodological musings which characterized history of science as a discipline – and especially its early modern factions – in the second half of the last century have given place to a strict demand for professionalism. Yet the tools of our trade did not oblige by becoming any more transparent or self-evident. In homage to my teachers of yore, who were much given to ‘programmatic attempts’ and ‘notes towards’, I would like to offer a cluster of rules of thumb to the interpretation of scientific and philosophical texts, especially early modern ones, which I found embedded in my own studies. I will illustrate each with an example from this work.

Ofer Gal

lavora sulla nascita della scienza come pratica a cultura nel XVII secolo e sulla fondazioni storiche e filosofiche del suo successo fino a oggi. Ha scritto sulla storica dei meccanismi celesti e ottici, su realismo e costruttivismo, su Galileo, Keplero, Cartesio, Hooke e Newton. La maggior parte delle pubblicazioni di Ofer negli ultimi anni nascono da progetto Baroque Science che indaga la "Nuova Scienza" nel XVII secolo e i suoi successi.