Seminar on History and Philosophy of Science

Abstract: Knowledge about color has been developed and used in all cultures for millenia. To study the history of such knowledge calls for a broad approach that encompasses a variety of forms of knowledge, of communities, and of modes and media of transmission. Color knowledge thus provides a significant case for studying the necessity, the merits and the limits of history of knowledge and its relation to history of science. In my talk, I shall focus on 18th ct. Europe, a period in which different approaches to color (physical theory, painters' practices, and mathematical schemes) expanded their knowledge claims and came into contact, sometimes fierce clash. The conflicts originated in different epistemic frameworks and practical goals, pursued in different groups of color researchers. Studying their history is highly instructive for both enlightenment color knowledge and the historiographical challenges in doing history of knowledge.