History of Science and Technology Colloquium

In this talk, Professor Smith will explore the relationship of making, that is, the knowledge that craftspeople employ to make objects, and knowing, that is, the kind of knowledge employed by natural philosophers to theorize about the natural world. Making and knowing are normally not regarded as possessing the same status as knowledge. Making is goal oriented, how-to know-how about specific and particular practices, while knowing is generalizable and often abstract knowledge, expressed in general theories. She will argue that such distinctions are not always so simple, and that by studying craft practices and the objects that were produced by craftspeople, we can delineate what might be called a "vernacular science of matter." In other words, how making with natural materials was also about knowing nature.

Sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Study and Theorizing Early Modern Studies.