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137La 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
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96Scientific 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
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86Sociologie des controverses scientifiquesEditions matériologiques. 2018.Brisant l’image idéale de la science consensuelle, les controverses scientifiques sont aujourd’hui devenues un sujet privilégié de la sociologie et de l’histoire des sciences. Elles sont par ailleurs impliquées au cœur des débats sur les méthodes des sciences sociales. Si l’analyse des controverses scientifiques doit beaucoup aux approches inaugurées par les courants relativistes et constructivistes des années 1970-1980, ce livre montre que les études contemporaines ont tout à gagner à réintrodu…Read more
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82Duhem, 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
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75Chronique et motifs de la controverse entre les écoles médicales de Paris et de MontpellierIn Pascal Nouvel (ed.), Repenser le vitalisme: histoire et philosophie du vitalisme, Presses Universitaires De France. pp. 33-55. 2011.The controversy between the medical schools of Paris and Montpellier extends roughly from the death of Barthez (1806) to the publication of the Introduction to the study of experimental medicine of Claude Bernard (1865), with a peak during which the controversy merges with the polemic between Louis Peisse and Jacques Lordat (1840-1843). This study aims to document as accurately as possible the arguments that were exchanged during this controversy, by seeking their reasons and explaining how the …Read more
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74Ibn 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
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73Les débats sur les fondements de la perspective linéaire de Piero della Francesca à Egnatio Danti: un cas de mathématisation à reboursEarly Science and Medicine 15 (4): 474-504. 2010.L'essor de la perspective linéaire a suscité de nombreuses polémiques tout au long du Quattrocento et du Cinquecento, opposant les partisans d'une géométrisation artificialiste de la vision à ceux qui vantaient les qualités du dessin d'après nature ou invoquaient des arguments de nature physiologique. Ces débats peuvent être retracés à partir des quatre alternatives qui en constituent le noyau dur : champ de vision restreint vs. large ; immobilité vs. mobilité oculaire ; tableau plan vs. curvili…Read more
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70L'émergence d'une sociologie des œuvres: une évaluation critiqueCahiers Internationaux de Sociologie 106 119-143. 1999.Le regain actuel de la sociologie de l'art semble lié à un essai de constitution d'un programme de 'sociologie des œuvres', différencié de la classique sociologie de la production et de la réception artistiques. Ce programme, épigone des théories de la communication, fait l'hypothèse de codes iconiques et plastiques. L'étude des interprétations des rayures de D. Buren et de la pyramide du Grand Louvre de I. M. Pei invalide l'existence de tels codes. La grande variabilité des interprétations est …Read more
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66Mario Bunge: A Centenary Festschrift (edited book)Springer Verlag. 2019.This volume has 41 chapters written to honor the 100th birthday of Mario Bunge. It celebrates the work of this influential Argentine/Canadian physicist and philosopher. Contributions show the value of Bunge’s science-informed philosophy and his systematic approach to philosophical problems. The chapters explore the exceptionally wide spectrum of Bunge’s contributions to: metaphysics, methodology and philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of physics, philosophy of psychology…Read more
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65Le 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
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58Un fragment du De speculis comburentibus de Regiomontanus copié par Toscanelli et inséré dans les carnets de LeonardoAnnals of Science 72 (3): 306-336. 2015.This article studies a fragment on the conic sections that appear in the Codex Atlanticus, fols. 611rb/915ra. Arguments are put forward to assemble these two folios. Their comparison with the Latin texts available before 1500 shows that they derive from the De speculis comburentibus of Alhacen and the De speculis comburentibus of Regiomontanus, joined together in his autograph manuscript. Having identified the sources, and discussed their mathematics, the issue of their transmission is targeted.…Read more
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54Optics 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
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54Building 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
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43Sociologie fondamentale. Etude d'épistémologieEditions Matériologiques. 2021.Ce livre est un livre d’épistémologie de la sociologie. L’objectif est d’appliquer des méthodes analytiques pour clarifier le vocabulaire, expliciter des relations non-apparentes entre concepts, dégager la portée d’une méthode, ou souligner les incohérences d’un programme de recherche. Les questions épineuses ne sont pas écartéees: Comment clarifier des notions confuses? Peut-on mathématiser les concepts sociologiques? Peut-on pratiquer la sociologie comme on pratique les sciences naturelles? Q…Read more
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41A Tentative Astronomical Dating of Ibn al-Haytham's Solar Eclipse RecordNuncius. Journal of the Material and Visual History of Science 29 (2): 324-358. 2014.This article aims to test a new method of dating optico-astronomical manuscripts, using Ibn al-Haytham’s Epistle on the Shape of the Eclipse as the test case. This work is selected because of indications that its diagrams are based on reality. After clarifying the observation conditions, an astronomical ephemeris is applied to sift through the eclipses that occurred during Ibn al-Haytham’s life throughout the area he is believed to have sojourned. Next, the remaining eclipses are sorted by compu…Read more
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40Ibn al-Haytham sur la vision binoculaire: un précurseur de l'optique physiologiqueArabic Sciences and Philosophy 13 (1): 79-99. 2003.The modern physiological optics introduces the notions related to the conditions of fusion of bi- nocular images by the concept of correspondence, due to Christiaan Huygens (1704), and by an experiment attri- buted to Christoph Scheiner (1619). The conceptualization of this experiment dates, in fact, back to Ptolemy (90- 168) and Ibn al-Haytham (d. af. 1040). The present paper surveys Ibn al-Haytham's knowledge about the mecha- nisms of binocular vision. The article subsequently explains why Ibn…Read more
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40Effets de réseau dans la science pré-institutionnelle: le cas de l'optique médiévaleEuropean Journal of Sociology 42 483-505. 2001.This paper wonders why the Franciscan order took part in the diffusion of optics more than other medieval organisation, both religious and secular. First, clues of this social asymmetry are given. Then, an explanation is put forward: 1. An initial asymmetry existed, by the fact that Grosseteste’s optics was known in the Franciscan studium of Oxford; 2. Since that date, optics spread among the order by a network effect; 3. The rivaltry between the mendicant orders and the homophilia that presided…Read more
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33Andalò di Negro’s De compositione astrolabii: a critical edition with English translation and notesArchive for History of Exact Sciences 73 (6): 551-617. 2019.In this article, we publish the critical edition of Andalò di Negro’s De compositione astrolabii, with English translation and commentary. The mathematician and astronomer Andalò di Negro presumably redacted this treatise on the astrolabe in the 1330s, while residing at the court of King Robert of Naples. The present edition has three purposes: first, to make available a text missing from the previous compilations of works by Andalò di Negro; second, to revise a privately circulated edition of t…Read more
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32Debates on the foundations of linear perspective from Piero della Francesca to Egnatio Danti: a case of upside-down mathematicsEarly Science and Medicine 15 (4-5): 474-504. 2010.In the Quattrocento and Cinquecento the rise of linear perspective caused many polemics which opposed the supporters of an artificial geometrisation of sight to those who were praising the qualities of the drawing according to nature, or were invoking some arguments on a physiological basis. These debates can be grouped according to the four alternatives that form their central concerns: restricted vs. broad field of vision; ocular immobility vs. mobility; curvilinear vs. planar picture; monocul…Read more
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31“La obra que usted está examinando es el primer estudio de todas las facetas de la tecnología, desde la concepción del artefacto hasta los problemas filosóficos y jurídicos que suscitan el saber y el hacer tecnológicos… Además, Raynaud califica de tóxica para la propia tecnología a la política utilitarista de dar prioridad al ‘desarrollo’ por sobre la investigación básica, ya que todas las innovaciones tecnológicas han utilizado conocimientos básicos… El utilitarismo que pregonan los economistas…Read more
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29Leonardo, 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
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29Mathématiques et architecture: le tracé de l’entasis par Nicolas-François BlondelArchive for History of Exact Sciences 74 (5): 445-468. 2020.In Résolution des quatre principaux problèmes d’architecture (1673) then in Cours d’architecture (1683), the architect–mathematician Nicolas-François Blondel addresses one of the most famous architectural problems of all times, that of the reduction in columns (entasis). The interest of the text lies in the variety of subjects that are linked to this issue. (1) The text is a response to the challenge launched by Curabelle in 1664 under the name Étrenne à tous les architectes; (2) Blondel mathema…Read more
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27Géométrie pratique. Géomètres, ingénieurs, architectes, XVIe-XVIIIe siècles (edited book)Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté. 2015.Actes du colloque de Grenoble (8-9 octobre 2009), avec les contributions de Samuel Gessner (Lisbone), Eberhard Knobloch (Berlin), Jorge Galindo Díaz (Bogotá), Joël Sakarovitch (Paris) et Dominique Raynaud (Grenoble).
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26Al-Samarqandi. Un précurseur de l'analyse des controverses scientifiquesAl-Mukhatabat. Epistemological Approaches to the History of Arabic Sciences 7 8-25. 2013.Despite the enthusiasm generated by social constructionism in the study of scientific debates, this contribution shows that – down to their praxeological dimension – the study of scientific controversies can benefit from sources ignored in today sociological literature. The contribution discloses these sources from the works of Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī (ca. 1250–ca. 1302), who is the first author to have offered etiquettes of investigation and debate (ādāb al-baḥth wa-al-munāẓara). Consequence…Read more
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25This book explores the interrelationships between optics, vision and perspective before the Classical Age, examining binocularity in particular. The author shows how binocular vision was one of the key juncture points between the three concepts and readers will see how important it is to understand the approach that scholars once took. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the concept of Perspectiva – the Latin word for optics – encompassed many areas of enquiry that had been viewed since anti…Read more
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22Florence and Baghdad: Renaissance Art and Arab Science (Hans Belting) (review)Isis 103 570-572. 2012.A (critical) review of Hans Belting's essay.
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22Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, London, University of London Press, 2023, xiv + 343 pp., 49 halftones, $120.00 (hardback); £90.00, ISBN 978-1-908590-58-9 (Warburg Institute Studies and Texts 8). The late Abdelhamid I. Sabra (1924–2013) devoted a significant part of his work to the critical edition and English translation of the optics of Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham…
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21Eye Representation and Ocular Terminology from Antiquity to HelmholtzWayenborgh/Kugler. 2020.650 pp. – This book is a continuation of the research on the representation of the eye initiated by Prof. Ludwig Choulant (University of Dresden) and Prof. Hugo Magnus (University of Breslau) at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. The aim of the book is to provide all those who need information on how the eye was conceived in a given historical context, with clear and concise iconographic and lexicographic data. The first section contains about 700 images of the eye (first han…Read more
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20Le raisonnement expérimental en sociologie. Experimental Reasoning in SociologyPhilosophia Scientiae 23 19-46. 2019.Unlike the physical sciences, sociology is frequently described as an interpretative non-experimental science. Comparative epistemology sheds new light on this claim. 1. Experimentation is not a constant character of the physical sciences; 2. Experimental hypothetical-deductive reasoning, including the test of predictions, is also practicable in sociology. The argument is developed by a detailed step-wise comparison of the prediction of light ray deviation within the Sun’s gravitational field ma…Read more
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19Diversity, Simplicity and Selection of Geometric Constructions: The Case of the n-Section of a Straight LineNexus Network Journal 21 405-424. 2019.This article is a study of geometric constructions. We consider, as an illustration, the methods used for dividing the straight line into n equal parts (n-section). Architects and practicioners of classical Europe had at their disposal a broad range of geometric constructions: ancient ones were edited and translated, whereas new solutions were constantly published. The wide variety and reasons for selection of these geometric constructions are puzzling: the most widespread construction was not t…Read more
Dominique Raynaud
Université Grenoble Alpes
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Université Grenoble AlpesRegular Faculty
Grenoble, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
Areas of Specialization
History of Science |
Philosophy of Science, Misc |