Article ID: CBB081450661

William Whewell’s philosophy of architecture and the historicization of biology (2016)

unapi

William Whewell’s work on historical science has received some attention from historians and philosophers of science. Whewell’s own work on the history of German Gothic church architecture has been touched on within the context of the history of architecture. To a large extent these discussions have been conducted separately. I argue that Whewell intended his work on Gothic architecture as an attempt to (help) found a science of historical architecture, as an exemplar of historical science. I proceed by analyzing the key features of Whewell’s philosophy of historical science. I then show how his architectural history exemplifies this philosophy. Finally, I show how Whewell’s philosophy of historical science matches some developments in a science (biological systematics) that, in the mid-to late-nineteenth century, came to be reinterpreted as a historical science. I comment briefly on Whewell as a potential influence on nineteenth century biology and in particular on Darwin.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB081450661/

Similar Citations

Article Koen B. Tanghe; (2019)
The Fate of William Whewell's Four Palætiological Domains: A Comparative Study (/isis/citation/CBB753568488/)

Book Ramses Delafontaine; (2015)
Historians as Expert Judicial Witnesses in Tobacco Litigation: A Controversial Legal Practice (/isis/citation/CBB819121205/)

Article Thierry Hoquet; (2021)
Pluralizing Darwin: Making Counter-Factual History of Science Significant (/isis/citation/CBB581465929/)

Book Taylor, William M.; (2004)
The Vital Landscape: Nature and the Built Environment in Nineteenth-Century Britain (/isis/citation/CBB000773019/)

Article José Morgado Pereira; (2018)
Psychiatry in Portugal: Key actors and conceptual history (1884–1924) (/isis/citation/CBB603070872/)

Article Christiaan Engberts; (2016)
The Scholar as Judge: A Contested Persona in Nineteenth-Century Orientalism (/isis/citation/CBB456742949/)

Book Jean Leduc; (2016)
Ernest Lavisse: l'histoire au coeur (/isis/citation/CBB665452485/)

Article Sarah Keymeulen; (2016)
Henri Pirenne: Historian and Man of the World (/isis/citation/CBB693124625/)

Article Allison Ksiazkiewicz; (2020)
Bricks and Antiquarianism: Masonry and Historical Method in the Historical Sciences (/isis/citation/CBB911983578/)

Article Cheryl McGeachan; (2017)
‘The Head Carver’: Art Extraordinary and the Small Spaces of Asylum (/isis/citation/CBB911123773/)

Article Wilkins, John S.; (2013)
Biological Essentialism and the Tidal Change of Natural Kinds (/isis/citation/CBB001252319/)

Article Christine Aicardi; (2016)
Francis Crick, cross-worlds influencer: A narrative model to historicize big bioscience (/isis/citation/CBB943380856/)

Book Russell, Edmund; (2011)
Evolutionary History: Uniting History and Biology to Understand Life on Earth (/isis/citation/CBB001250168/)

Article Luca Tambolo; (2020)
An unappreciated merit of counterfactual histories of science (/isis/citation/CBB925918030/)

Article Henry M. Cowles; (2016)
The Age of Methods: William Whewell, Charles Peirce, and Scientific Kinds (/isis/citation/CBB199528779/)

Article Lukas M. Verburgt; (2016)
Robert Leslie Ellis, William Whewell and Kant: the Role of Rev H F C Logan (/isis/citation/CBB741339166/)

Article Cornelis Menke; (2018)
The Whewell-Mill Debate on Predictions, from Mill's Point of View (/isis/citation/CBB045518739/)

Authors & Contributors
Delafontaine, Ramses
Jean Leduc
Tambolo, Luca
Sarah Keymeulen
Christiaan Engberts
Pereira, José Morgado
Concepts
Biology
Historical method
Historians
History as a discipline; chronology; study of the past
Evolution
Historiography
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
18th century
21st century
20th century, late
Places
Great Britain
France
England
Scotland
United States
Netherlands
Institutions
Université de Paris
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment