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E-book
Author Wragge-Morley, Alexander, author

Title Aesthetic science : representing nature in the Royal Society of London, 1650-1720 / Alexander Wragge-Morley
Published Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2020

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Description 1 online resource (250 pages)
Contents Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. Physico- Theology, Natural Philosophy, and Sensory Experience -- 2. An Empiricism of Imperceptible Entities -- 3. In Search of Lost Designs -- 4. Verbal Picturing -- 5. Natural Philosophy and the Cultivation of Taste -- Conclusion. Embodied Aesthetics -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary The scientists affiliated with the early Royal Society of London have long been regarded as forerunners of modern empiricism, rejecting the symbolic and moral goals of Renaissance natural history in favor of plainly representing the world as it really was. In Aesthetic Science, Alexander Wragge-Morley challenges this interpretation by arguing that key figures such as John Ray, Robert Boyle, Nehemiah Grew, Robert Hooke, and Thomas Willis saw the study of nature as an aesthetic project. To show how early modern naturalists conceived of the interplay between sensory experience and the production of knowledge, Aesthetic Science explores natural-historical and anatomical works of the Royal Society through the lens of the aesthetic. By underscoring the importance of subjective experience to the communication of knowledge about nature, Wragge-Morley offers a groundbreaking reconsideration of scientific representation in the early modern period and brings to light the hitherto overlooked role of aesthetic experience in the history of the empirical sciences
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Ray, John, 1627-1705.
Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.
Grew, Nehemiah, 1641-1712.
Hooke, Robert, 1635-1703.
Willis, Thomas, 1621-1675.
SUBJECT Willis, Thomas, 1621-1675 fast
Ray, John, 1627-1705 fast
Hooke, Robert, 1635-1703 fast
Grew, Nehemiah, 1641-1712 fast
Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691 fast
Subject Royal Society (Great Britain)
SUBJECT Royal Society (Great Britain)
Royal Society (Great Britain) fast
Subject Science -- Great Britain -- History -- 17th century
Science -- Aesthetics.
Knowledge, Theory of.
Senses and sensation.
Medicine -- History -- 17th century.
Medicine -- History -- 18th century.
Science -- history
Esthetics -- history
Empiricism -- history
Sensation
History, 17th Century
History, 18th Century
epistemology.
SCIENCE -- General.
Science -- Aesthetics
Knowledge, Theory of
Science
SUBJECT United Kingdom https://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D006113
Subject Great Britain
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 022668105X
9780226681054