Historical and Epistemological Reflections on the Culture of Machines around the Renaissance: How Science and Technique Work?

• Main Authors: Raffaele Pisano, Paolo Bussotti
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Estonian Association of the History and Philosophy of Science 2014-10-01
• Series: Acta Baltica Historiae et Philosophiae Scientiarum
• Subjects: foundations; machines; machineries; mechanics; perpetual motion; science in context; techniques
• Online Access: http://www.bahps.org/02_Pisano-2014-2-02.pdf
• ISSN: 2228-2009; 2228-2017

This paper is divided into two parts, this being the first one. The second is entitled ‘Historical and Epistemological Reflections on the Culture of Machines around Renaissance: Machines, Machineries and Perpetual Motion’ and will be published in Acta Baltica Historiae et Philosophiae Scientiarum in 2015. Based on our recent studies, we provide here a historical and epistemological feature on the role played by machines and machineries. Ours is an epistemological thesis based on a series of historical examples to show that the relations between theoretical science and the construction of machines cannot be taken for granted, a priori. Our analysis is mainly based on the culture of machines around 15th and 17th centuries, namely the epoch of Late Renaissance and Early Modern Age. For this is the period of scientific revolution and this age offers abundant interesting material for researches into the relations of theoretical science/construction of machines as well. However, to prove our epistemological thesis, we will also exploit examples of machines built in other historical periods. Particularly, a discussion concerning the relationship between science theory and the development of science art crafts produced by non-recognized scientists in a certain historical time is presented. The main questions are: when and why did the tension between science (physics, mathematics and geometry) give rise to a new scientific approach to applied discipline such as studies on machines and machineries? What kind of science was used (if at all) for projecting machines and machineries? Was science at the time a necessary precondition to build a machine? In the first part we will focus on the difference between Aristotelian-Euclidean and Archimedean approaches and we will outline the heritage of these two different approaches in late medieval and Renaissance science. In the second part, we will apply our reconstructions to some historical and epistemological problems concerning the relations of science/technology/constructions of machines. The problem of perpetual motion will play an important role in this context.