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DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF
SCIENCE
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Paolo Palmieri Associate Professor
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I practice the history and philosophy of modern science, and modern science itself. I focus on the intellectual traditions that shaped the values of modernity. I am fascinated by the creativity processes at the crossroads of art, science, and technology. To learn about the interplay of cognition and practices, I design computer models, real experiments, and perform laboratory experimentation. |
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Education
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2002 PhD History and Philosophy of Science, University
of London LINK 1998 DEGREE Philosophy, University of Bologna LINK 1987 DEGREE Aeronautical Engineering, Polytechnic of Milan LINK |
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Non-Academic Employment
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1989-1995 Engineer Ferrari Formula One Racing Team |
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Selected Publications
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BOOKS • (2011) Humanistic Ecology: The Integration of Magic, Medicine, and Science. Common Ground. LINK • (2011) A History of Galileo’s Inclined Plane Experiment and its Philosophical Implications. Foreword by David Wootton. The Edwin Mellen Press. Book LINK (download here the supporting multimedia materials file). Here is a review of the book by Curtis Wilson. • (2008) Reenacting Galileo’s Experiments: Rediscovering the Techniques of Seventeenth-Century Science. Foreword by William R. Shea. The Edwin Mellen Press. Book LINK
My Mellen books are supported by multimedia materials and videos of experiments which are freely available at www.exphps.org.
PAPERS • (2011) “Il mondo di carta di Giovanni Vailati. Annuario del centro studi Giovanni Vailati. 2008/2009 (published 2011), pp. 19-25. LINK
• (2009) “A phenomenology of Galileo’s experiments with pendulums”, The British Journal for the History of Science 42, 479-513. Download here the First View paper with supporting document.
• (2009) “Experimental history: swinging pendulums and melting shellac”, Endeavour 33, 88-92. LINK
• (2009) “Response to Maarten Van Dyck’s commentary”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 40, 319-321. LINK
• (2009) “Superposition: on Cavalieri’s practice of mathematics”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 63, 471-495. LINK
• (2009) “Radical mathematical Thomism: beings of reason and divine decrees in Torricelli’s philosophy of mathematics”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 40, 131-142. LINK • (2008) “Galileus deceptus, non minime decepit: A re-appraisal of a counter-argument in Dialogo to the extrusion effect of a rotating earth”, Journal for the History of Astronomy 39, 425-452. LINK • (2008) “Breaking the circle: the emergence of Archimedean mechanics in the late Renaissance”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 62, 301-346. LINK • (2008) “The empirical basis of equilibrium: Mach, Vailati, and the lever”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 39, 42-53. LINK • (2007) “Science and authority in Giacomo Zabarella”, History of Science 45, 404-42. LINK • (2006) “A new look at Galileo’s search for mathematical proofs”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 60, 285-317. LINK • (2005) “Galileo’s construction of idealized fall in the void”, History of Science 43, 343-389. LINK • (2005) “'…spuntar lo scoglio più duro': did Galileo ever think the most beautiful thought experiment in the history of science?”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 36, 223-240. LINK • (2005) “The cognitive development of Galileo’s theory of buoyancy”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 50, 189-222. LINK • (2003) “Mental models in Galileo’s early mathematization of nature”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 34, 229-264. LINK • (2001) “The obscurity of the equimultiples. Clavius’ and Galileo’s foundational studies of Euclid’s theory of proportions”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 55, 555-597. LINK • (2001) “Galileo and the discovery of the phases of Venus”, Journal for the History of Astronomy 32, 109-129. LINK • (1998) “Re-examining Galileo’s theory of tides”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 53, 223-375. LINK |
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Works in Progress
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Experimental History and Philosophy of Science A research program with the objective of exploring a new approach to the history and philosophy of science. Experimental history and philosophy of science (ExpHPS) consists in re-creating as faithfully as possible the experimental apparatus of landmark experiments in the history of science, and in re-performing the experiments. ExpHPS asks questions about knowledge shaped by experiment. ExpHPS, we hope, will cast new light on the history and philosophy of science and on the processes of science itself. Please visit www.exphps.org for the latest on the project. In collaboration with my colleague Edouard Machery we have started a new book series for University of Pittsburgh Press devoted to this innovative approach to scholarship. Invitation for book proposals.
Human Hearing and the History and Philosophy of Musical
Science This research/teaching project aims at developing an integrated approach to hearing and knowledge in humans. It combines the methods of the history and philosophy of science with psychoacoustic experimentation and computer modeling of the physiology of human hearing. The project explores historical and philosophical questions concerning music and knowledge in the history of Western civilization such as: The emergence of music theory in antiquity; the role of music in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century; the relation between music as a science and musical aesthetics; music and mathematics; music and cognition in humans and animals; the foundations of modern psychoacoustics; the nature of harmony. The project will bring together the humanities and the natural sciences in the spirit of Hermann von Helmholtz’s ground-breaking work on music and the physiology of sound perception. Pragmatism, Experience and Nature An experimental, pedagogical and historical-philosophical exploration of human experience, especially controlled experiment. The project draws inspiration from the philosophy of experience of John Dewey and the historical pragmatism of Giovanni Vailati. It is motivated by the disturbing conviction that “…what will remain of philosophy will be a series of problems capable of investigation by the observational methods of the true sciences,— the truth about which can be reached without those interminable misunderstandings and disputes which have made the highest of the positive sciences a mere amusement for idle intellects, a sort of chess,— idle pleasure its purpose, and reading out of a book its method” [CSP]. |
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Selected Presentations
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2011 Epistemology of
modeling and simulation. Pittsburgh, April, 2011 2011 The 11th
International Mechanics of Hearing Workshop,
July 16–22, 2011, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts 2011 Ninth International
Conference on New Directions in the Humanities. Universidad de Granada,
Campus La Cartuja, Granada, Spain , June 2011 (a
presentation of the new book on Humanistic
Ecology) |
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Selected Courses
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HPS 0430 Galileo and the creation of modern science The Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was the decisive figure in the rise
of modern science. First, he ushered in a new era in astronomy when he aimed
a 30-powered telescope at the sky in 1610. Second, he revolutionized the
concept of science when he argued that the book of nature is written in the
language of mathematics. Finally, he astounded the theologians, who
eventually condemned him to life imprisonment, when he claimed that the
scientist’s search for the truth must not be constrained by religious
authority. This course studies Galileo in the broader intellectual, social, and religious context of
early modern Europe. HPS 1508. Honors College. Classics in History of Science: Galileo’s
Two New Sciences Four hundred years ago Galileo Galilei aimed a telescope at the sky. He revolutionized astronomy. Equally revolutionary were his theories and experiments in physics, published in his masterpiece Two New Sciences. In this course we will learn why Galileo’s theories and experiments in physics were revolutionary. We read Galileo’s Two New Sciences, setting it in the context of the history and philosophy of Western science and civilization.
HPS 0515 Magic, Medicine and Science Science and medicine are nowadays conceived
of as two spheres of human activity independent of religious and magical
concerns. Science, however, is the result of a long process of formation,
starting in Antiquity and culminating in the late seventeenth century, with
the so-called Scientific Revolution. Before the Scientific Revolution
science, magic, and medicine were strongly related. This course examines the
process by which science and medicine became independent spheres of human endeavour
in the modern Western world. HPS 2522 Special
Topics in the History of Science: History and philosophy of musical science This seminar explores historical and
philosophical questions concerning music as a form of knowledge in the
history of Western civilization (with some ethno-musicological excursuses
relatively beyond). These questions include (but are not limited to): The
emergence of music theory in antiquity; the role of music in the scientific
revolution of the seventeenth century; the relation between music as a
science and musical aesthetics; music and mathematics; music and cognition in
humans and animals; the foundations of modern psychoacoustics; the nature of
harmony. The seminar is based on an integrated historical-philosophical and experimental
methodology which emphasizes the study of primary sources, Socratic dialogue,
personal reflection and meditation, design and implementation of experiments
with sound and music, and more generally a hands-on approach to learning. HPS 2524 Experimental History of and Philosophy Science In this seminar, we will explore an experimental approach to the history and philosophy of science. We will engage both in theoretical discussion and in experiment design, implementation, and interpretation. We will learn about landmark experiments in the history of science, and have hands-on activities in the HPS laboratory. The seminar offers a challenging educational setting, emphasizing active participation rather than passive transmission of doctrines. HPS 2522 History and philosophy of early calculus This seminar explores historical and philosophical questions concerning early calculus. These questions include: Indivisibles quantities vs. infinitesimal quantities, the problem of tangents, fluxions vs. differentials, analysis/ synthesis, limits/ integration, discovery/ emergence/ justification in mathematics.
HPS 2518 The unity of science This seminar focuses on the changing conceptions of the structure and unity/disunity of science as a whole in the modern era. The goal is to see how these conceptions relate to questions regarding the proper domain of the sciences, the notion of method, scepticism and foundationalism. |
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When I Do Not Teach...
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I dabble in painting and sound design. |
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