Fara, Patricia (Author)
Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 107
Issue: 4
Pages: 785-788
In his ingenious bid to restore grand narratives, Frans van Lunteren misleadingly implies that there is a single story to tell about the past. In its favor, his nontriumphalist and metaphorical scheme encourages contextualization and emphasizes objects rather than theories or individuals. Unfortunately, he has selected an arbitrary starting point, and his four emblematic machines—the clock, the balance, the steam engine, the computer—do not bear equivalent relationships to the particular period they are held to represent. This is important because metaphors readily solidify into reality, so that this model risks being interpreted as a progressive sequence of increasing precision and complexity that leaves little room for the biological sciences. Van Lunteren’s initiative might be extended by changing the time structure or by focusing on concepts rather than specific artifacts.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
M. Norton Wise;
(2016)
Agency
(/isis/citation/CBB568468603/)
Article
Raf De Bont;
(2016)
Machine Metaphors: Some Reflections
(/isis/citation/CBB492107240/)
Article
Frans van Lunteren;
(2016)
Clocks to Computers: Some Clarifications
(/isis/citation/CBB007792751/)
Article
Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent;
(2016)
Machines as “Mental Tools”
(/isis/citation/CBB834087348/)
Article
Hasok Chang;
(2016)
Pluralism versus Periodization
(/isis/citation/CBB403240450/)
Article
Frans van Lunteren;
(2016)
Clocks to Computers: A Machine-Based “Big Picture” of the History of Modern Science
(/isis/citation/CBB536550697/)
Article
Pascual Santos López;
(2014)
Calendarios, relojes y un cajero automático. Cinco patentes en la región de Murcia y dos aplicaciones de publicidad (1887-1928)
(/isis/citation/CBB923895143/)
Book
Bartky, Ian R.;
(2000)
Selling the true time: Nineteenth-century timekeeping in America
(/isis/citation/CBB000111807/)
Article
Stephens, Carlene;
Dennis, Maggie;
(2000)
Engineering time: Inventing the electronic wristwatch
(/isis/citation/CBB000112108/)
Book
Allen, Thomas M.;
(2008)
A Republic in Time: Temporality and Social Imagination in Nineteenth-Century America
(/isis/citation/CBB000950957/)
Article
Michel-Nozières, C.;
(2000)
Second Millennium Babylonian Water Clocks: A Physical Study
(/isis/citation/CBB000111275/)
Chapter
Dekker, Rudolf;
(2007)
Watches, Diary Writing, and the Search for Self-Knowledge in the Seventeenth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB000775014/)
Book
Landes, David S.;
(2000)
Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World
(/isis/citation/CBB000111237/)
Thesis
Worthen, Shana Sandlin;
(2006)
The Memory of Medieval Inventions, 1200--1600: Windmills, Spectacles, Mechanical Clocks, and Sandglasses
(/isis/citation/CBB001561661/)
Book
Bowden, Colin;
(2008)
The End of a Revolution: The Last Days of Stationary Steam
(/isis/citation/CBB000954028/)
Article
Corfield, Brian;
(2013)
Thomas Newcomen the Man
(/isis/citation/CBB001200802/)
Chapter
García Tapia, Nicolás;
(2007)
Balzac y el hidalgo toledano: mito y realidad en la historia de la máquina de vapor
(/isis/citation/CBB000953614/)
Article
Pasquier, Hélène;
(2005)
Die technischen Fachkräfte in der Schweizer Uhrenindustrie bis zur Mitte der 1950er Jahre
(/isis/citation/CBB000831024/)
Article
Fermor, J.;
Steele, J. M;
(2000)
The design of Babylonian waterclocks: Astronomical and experimental evidence
(/isis/citation/CBB000111274/)
Article
Hird, Jonathan;
Betts, Jonathan;
Pratt, Derek;
(2008)
The Diamond Pallets of John Harrison's Fourth Longitude Timekeeper---H4
(/isis/citation/CBB000774430/)
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Technikgeschichte: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Technik und Industrie
International Journal for the History of Engineering and Technology
British Journal for the History of Science
Arbor: Ciencia, Pensamiento y Cultura
Be the first to comment!