-
88Duhem, Quine, Wittgenstein and the Sociology of scientific knowledge: continuity of self-legitimation?Epistemologia 26 (1): 133-160. 2003.Contemporary sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) is defined by its relativist trend. Its programme often calls for the support of philosophers, such as Duhem, Quine, and Wittgenstein. A critical re-reading of key texts shows that the main principles of relativism are only derivable with difficulty. The thesis of the underdetermination of theory doesn't forbid that Duhem, in many places, validates a correspondence-consistency theory of truth. He never said that social beliefs and interests fi…Read more
-
61Optics and the Rise of Perspective: A Study in Network Knowledge DiffusionBardwell Press. 2014.Why did linear perspective rise in trecento–quattrocento central Italy rather than in any other cultural context? This book provides new insight into the question of the early Italian pioneership in perspective, building on the fact that many references to optics can be found in Renaissance treatises. The fact that most of the medieval optical manuscripts were written by Franciscan masters—the best known among them being Roger Bacon and John Pecham—suggests the need for a closer look at how the …Read more
-
69Building the Stemma Codicum of Geometrical Diagrams. A Treatise on Optics by Ibn al-Haytham as a Test CaseArchive for History of Exact Sciences 68 (2): 207-239. 2014.In view of the progress made in recent decades in the fields of stemmatology and the analysis of geometric diagrams, the present article explores the possibility of establishing the stemma codicum of a handwritten tradition from geometric diagrams alone. This exploratory method is tested on Ibn al-Haytham’s Epistle on the Shape of the Eclipse, because this work has not yet been issued in a critical edition. Separate stemmata were constructed on the basis of the diagrams and the text, and a compa…Read more
-
161La perspective aérienne de Léonard de Vinci et ses origines dans l'optique d'Ibn al-Haytham (De aspectibus, III, 7)Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 19 (2): 225-246. 2009.The concept of aerial perspective has been used for the first time by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). This article studies its dependence on Ptolemy’s Optica and overall on the optical tradition inaugurated by Ibn al-Haytham’s Kitāb al-Manāẓir (d. after 1040). This treatise, that was accessible through several Latin and Italian manuscripts, and was the source of many Medieval commentaries, offers a general theory of visual perception emancipated from the case of the moon illusion, in which physic…Read more
-
84Ibn al-Haytham on binocular vision: A precursor of physiological opticsArabic Sciences and Philosophy 13 (1): 79-99. 2003.The modern physiological optics introduces the notions related to the conditions of fusion of binocular images by the concept of correspondence, due to Christiaan Huygens, and by an experiment attributed to Christoph Scheiner. The conceptualization of this experiment dates, in fact, back to Ptolemy and Ibn al-Haytham. The present paper surveys Ibn al-Haytham's knowledge about the mechanisms of binocular vision. The article subsequently explains why Ibn al-Haytham, a mathematician, but here an ex…Read more
-
19This book provides the first critical edition of Ibn al-Haytham’s On the Shape of the Eclipse with English translation and commentary, which records the first scientific analysis of the camera obscura. On the Shape of the Eclipse includes pioneering research on the conditions of formation of the image, in a time deemed to be committed to aniconism. It also provides an early attempt to merge the two branches of Ancient optics—the theory of light and theory of vision. What perhaps most strongly ch…Read more
-
30Leonardo, Optics and OphthalmologyIn F. Fiorani & A. Nova (eds.), Leonardo da Vinci and Optics, Marsilio. pp. 255-276. 2013.Leonardo’s research on the eye and vision has given rise to contrasting assessments, ranging from the apology of his explanation of how the eye works as a camera obscura to the most critical attitude. The negative judgments derive some of their strength from the fact that the practice of anatomy and linear perspective are well documented in Leonardo. Thus one expects him to have had empirically based knowledge of the organs dissected, as well as comprehensive skills in optics. As we will see, no…Read more
-
18Architectures comparées. Essai sur la dynamique des formesEditions Parenthèses. 1998."Toute forme a été imaginée avant d'être construite". Cette formule classique, qui met en relief l'un des traits essentiels de la pratique architecturale, soulève plusieurs questions. D'où viennent les images-mères du projet? Sont-elles encore identifiables une fois construites? Existe-t-il des procédés réguliers dans l'imagination des formes architecturales? Cette enquête tente de résoudre ces problèmes par la reconnaissance de schèmes dynamiques de l'imagination. Si le processus de conception …Read more
-
77Le tracé continu des sections coniques à la Renaissance: Applications optico-perspectives, héritage de la tradition mathématique arabeArabic Sciences and Philosophy 17 (2): 299-345. 2007.The perfect compass, used by al-Qūhī, al-Sijzī and his successors for the continuous drawing of conic sections, reappeared after a long eclipse in the works of Renaissance mathematicians like Francesco Barozzi in Venice. The resurgence of this instrument seems to have depended on its interest to solve new optico-perspective problems. Having reviewed the various instruments designed for the drawing of conic sections, the article is focused on the sole conic compass. Theoretical and empirical appl…Read more
-
7Determining the Speed of Light (1676-1983): An Internalist Study in the Sociology of ScienceCairn International / Année Sociologique 63 (2): 359-398. 2013.This article aims at contributing to the methods of the sociology of science, from an empirical study of the determinations of the velocity of light between 1676 and 1983. Far from being constructed and deconstructed at pleasure, the values of c have undergone a tendentially unidirectional and irreversible process of revision. The competing methods remained in the running as long as they produced an uncertainty less than, or equal to, the best known value. The analysis of “entrances” and “exits”…Read more
-
102Scientific Controversies. A Socio-Historical Perspective on the Advancement of ScienceTransaction Publishers. 2015.In Scientific Controversies, Dominique Raynaud shows how organized debates in the sciences help us establish or verify our knowledge of the world. If debates focus on form, scientific controversies are akin to public debates that can be understood within the framework of theories of conflict. If they focus on content, then such controversies have to do with a specific activity and address the nature of science itself. Understanding the major focus of a scientific controversy is a first step towa…Read more
Dominique Raynaud
Université Grenoble Alpes
-
Université Grenoble AlpesRegular Faculty
Grenoble, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
Areas of Specialization
History of Science |
Philosophy of Science, Misc |