The history of science, the history of ideas, and intellectual history – gloknos annual lecture series

Description

The History of Science, the History of Ideas, and Intellectual History: The Transmission of Science Question

This lecture will explore the spread of astronomical ideas from the cuneiform world throughout the Hellenistic oikumene from the 2nd century BCE onward. The speaker’s aim is both to bring the method of historical contextualism to bear on the question of the transmission of Babylonian astronomical science, and to suggest that intersections of the history of science, the history of ideas, and intellectual history open up a new perspective.

Francesca Rochberg is an American Assyriologist, historian of science, and Catherine and William L Magistretti Distinguished Professor of Near Eastern Studies at University of California, Berkeley. She has published widely on Babylonian celestial sciences and produced editions of cuneiform texts that set Babylonian science in various contexts, from cultural to cognitive history. Her research on ancient Mesopotamian and Greco-Roman traditions in astronomy and astrology has introduced the evidence of ancient cuneiform science into the philosophy of science through investigations of empiricism, prediction, logic, and reasoning.

Attendance is free but spaces may be limited, so please email to reserve a space in the Zoom audience. Please be aware that we will take a recording of this event, which may include any questions and responses delivered by the audience.

 

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gloknos is initially funded for 5 years by the European Research Council through a Consolidator Grant awarded to Dr Inanna Hamati-Ataya for her project ARTEFACT (2017-2022). ARTEFACT is funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (ERC grant agreement no. 724451). For information about gloknos or ARTEFACT please contact the administrator in the first instance.