Research

Primary Research Areas

Secondary Research Areas

Publications

1. Goldberg, Benjamin and Peter Distelzweig and Evan Ragland (Eds.) (Forthcoming), The Medical Context of the Scientific Revolution, an edited volume to be published by Springer (under contract, expected 2013).

2. Goldberg, Benjamin (2011). "Review of Lisa T. Sarasohn, The Natural Philosophy of Margaret Cavendish: Reason and Fancy During the Scientific Revolution (Johns Hopkins, 2010)," History of Philosophy of Science 1(1), 169-172.

3. Goldberg, Benjamin and Charles Wolfe (2012). “Review of Luuc Kooijmans, Death Defied: The Anatomy Lessons of Frederik Ruysch, Translated by Diane Webb (Brill, 2011),” History of Philosophy of Science, 2(2).

Current Projects

In collaboration with Peter Distlezweig and James Lennox, I have organized a one day workshop on early modern medicine and philosophy on May 27, 2011.  Please see the workshop webpage here.

For the Medicine, Philosophy and the Scientific Revolution working group, please see here.

1. "William Harvey, Soul Searcher: Teleology and Philosophical Anatomy"
My dissertation focuses on Harvey's philosophical anatomy and the role of teleology and teleological concepts (most importantly the soul (anima)) in both his conception of the subject matter of anatomy, and in his account of proper anatomical method.
This chapter describes Harvey's conception of anatomy as an investigation into the union of soul and body, following a line of thought I trace from Aristotle, to Galen, and through certain philosophers in the Renaissance.  Importantly, central to this tradition is the idea that the soul must be investigated empirically, which, in this context, means that the soul must be understood in light of animal dissections.  I characterize the soul and this anatomical subject matter in terms of the teleology of 'being for the sake of which,' and this teleology governs the way in which Harvey conceives of explanations in anatomy, emphasizing especially the importance of hypothetical necessity in explaining the composition of the parts of the body. 

2. "A Tale of Two Anatomies"
A paper about Harvey's conception of anatomy.  Harvey, unlike many of his peers in among Renaissance physicians and anatomists, does not distinguish between the observational part of anatomy (called historia) and the scientific or causal part of anatomy (called scientia).  Instead, Harvey's concept of anatomy unifies these two parts such that the observational part provides the means by which we come to understand the causal part.

3. "A Dark Business, Full of Shadows: Harvey's Analogy of Last Resort"
In this essay, I analyze an instance of the use of analogies as models for understanding and explanation in early modern natural philosophy.  Specifically, I am concerned with a case of a failure of explanation, namely, William Harvey’s attempt in his (1651) De conceptione to explain the generation of animals (i.e., reproduction) by arguing that the womb is like the brain, and that conception happens there analogously.  I argue that, because of his desire to find some speculative explanation for generation, and because of two important empirical findings he has made, Harvey is forced to resort to this analogy—no means of direct explanation are left to him.  After describing in detail this analogy and Harvey’s reasons for it, I turn to its evaluation and analysis.  Using Mary Hesse’s (1966) notions of positive, negative, and neutral analogies, I argue that Harvey’s analogy is a failure on its own terms and in its own historical context. Indeed, the historical record shows almost no interest in this analogy by scientists or historians from Harvey’s period onwards—Harvey’s is an analogy of last resort.  I conclude by showing how this analogy in turn forced Harvey to embed his theory of generation in a larger theological and cosmological context, wherein God’s design of nature is needed to understand natural processes such as generation.  In so doing, Harvey fits into a larger pattern of early modern philosophy and science, in which God becomes a central explanans in the study of life.

4. "Two Kinds of Natural Theology."
A paper on the status of natural theology and theories of fossils in Robert Hooke and John Ray.  I here try to show the diversity of ideas and concepts deployed in natural theological contexts.

5. "Philosophy by Number: Evaluating Quantitative Methods for History of Philosophy”
A paper concerning the use of quantitative methods in the history of philosophy, with a detailed evaluation of a recent paper by Shaun Nichols that purports to use quantitative methods.  I focus on the fate of quantitative methods in history more generally, and develop a number of lessons regarding their deployment for the history of philosophy.

6. "Explanatory Language in Darwin's Origin." (With Jonathan Livengood)
A paper about Darwin's use of explanatory language in the Origin (and, eventually, elsewhere in his work). The basic idea is to argue against certain deflationary accounts of explanation and understanding in Darwin (e.g., Elisabeth Lloyd 1983) using (quasi)-quantitative methods. We hope to gain an overall understanding of Darwin's use of understanding, avoiding the philosophical practice of cherry-picked quotes.

7. "Evidence and Assumptions."
A paper on the concept of underdetermination in Helen Longino's work, attempting to get clear on exactly what underdetermination means for her, and attempting to provide arguments for this position.

Invited Lectures

1. "From Descartes to Voltaire." Invited lecture for: Introduction to Western Thought (Prof. Jeffery Kleiman), University of Wisconsin-Marshfield, November 10 2005
2. “Physicians and Philosophers.” Invited Lecture for: Modern Philosophy Seminar (Prof. Justin Sytsma), East Tennessee State University, March 16, 2011.

Talks and Presentations

1. “Early Modern Reproductive Anatomy and the One-Sex Model: A Case Study of the work of Regnier de Graaf.”

2. “Regnier de Graaf on the Generative Organs.”  Given at: Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Science (York University, Canada), May 29- May 31, 2006.

3. “Regnier de Graaf’s Work on Sexual Anatomy.” Poster Presentation.  Given at: Society for the Social History of Medicine Conference (University of Warwick, UK), June 28 – June 30, 2006

4. “The Power of God and the Power of Man: Regnier de Graaf and the Construction of Women’s Bodies.”  Given at: the American Historical Association Annual Meeting (Atlanta, GA), January 4-7, 2007.

5. “Explanatory Language in Darwin’s Origin.”  Given at: Understanding and Explanation: Ninth Annual Pitt/CMU Graduate Philosophy Conference (Carnegie Mellon University), March 24, 2007.

6. “Leibniz, Mechanisms, and Machines.” Given at: Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Science (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada), June 3-5, 2008.

7. “De Generatione and the New Science.” Given at: History of Science Society (Pittsburgh, PA), November 6-9, 2008.

8. “Ex Naturae Declarabimus: William Harvey and Natural Theology.”  Given at: History of Science Society (Phoenix, AZ), November 19-22, 2009.

9. “Generation as Disease, Generation as Idea: William Harvey on the Generation of Animals.” Given at: More Too Funky Causation Seminar (Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium), February 23-24, 2011.

10. “What the Heck is the Regula Socratis?” Given at: East Tennessee State University Early Modern Philosophy Colloquium, March 18, 2011.

11. “The Soul Unfolding.” Given at: University of Pittsburgh, Early Modern Philosophy and Medicine Workshop, May 27, 2011.

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Contact

Department of History and Philosophy of Science
University of Pittsburgh
1017 Cathedral of Learning
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
USA

metabenny at gmail dot com