Call for Proposals "Meteorology beyond Borders: Ancient and Modern Reflections" (Utrecht 6-8 July 2022) (original) (raw)
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Abstract
Meteorology is one of the most underestimated areas of study within the field of ancient Greek and Roman natural philosophy. The ancient Greek term meteōrologia refers to a broader range of natural phenomena than the modern term does, including 'lofty' or
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The end of classical meteorology, c. 1800
The article argues that the classical (Aristotelian) understanding of meteorology underwent a profound change by the late 18th century. As a result of a series of empirical, theoretical, methodological and institutional changes in the European earth sciences, meteorology ceased to be understood as a natural philosophy of 'meteors' and was more closely associated with the laws of the gaseous atmosphere. This shift had a direct effect on how one understood the origins of 'meteors' and their relationship with the phenomena of the weather.
The Content of Meteorology in Greek Geosciensces's Textbook: Preliminary Results
SafeGreece 2021 on-line Proceedings | ISSN 2654-1823, 2021
In the Greek primary and secondary education, weather phenomena and climate change are mainly approached through the courses of Physics, Geology, Geography and Chemistry. The main objective of teaching Science is to acquire knowledge about theories, laws and principles. The expected result is that the student will be able to interpret the physical, chemical, biological and geological phenomena, as well as their interactions. Furthermore, teaching Science aims to develop the personality of the student through the promotion of independent thinking and the ability to reasonably deal with difficult situations. In this context, this research seeks to investigate the adequacy of the knowledge provided in existing school textbooks on weather events (such as floods, lightning, thunderstorms, tornadoes, cyclones, fires related to weather events) and on their impact to the society. This study be based on the content analysis method [1], adopting the following four key steps: Specification of the objectives, identification of the analysis term, clustering of the data and data analysis.
The Content of Meteorology in Greek Geosciences' Textbooks
World Journal of Educational Research, 2022
In the Greek primary and secondary education, weather phenomena and climate change are mainly approached through the courses of Physics, Geology, Geography and Chemistry. The main objective of teaching Science is to acquire knowledge about theories, laws and principles. The expected result is that the student will be able to interpret the physical, chemical, biological and geological phenomena, as well as their interactions. Furthermore, teaching Science aims to develop the personality of the student through the promotion of independent thinking and the ability to reasonably deal with difficult situations. In this context, this research seeks to investigate the adequacy of the knowledge provided in existing school textbooks on weather events with impact on society. This study is based on the content analysis method, adopting the following four key steps: Specification of the objectives, identification of the analysis term, clustering of the data and data analysis. The main focus of the work is the chronological approach of the content of Meteorology in Geosciences and Natural Sciences, and Junior High School textbooks.
Core to this essay is the matching of a single classical text source to the imagery of the Rosette folio and the discussion of the method in this context (block paradigm, introduced by Nick Pelling). The strength of this method lies in the fact that it does not rely or discuss a single match but a comprehensive matching of an entire single classical text source against the Rosette folio network of imagery. Furthermore the inclusion of secondary text resources including commentaries provides an independent and unbiased view and it is suggested that a substantial part of the Rosette folio presents a selective display of meteorological phenomena as described in Aristotle's 'Meteorologica'. By using this different methodological approach this essay refines the previously by Wastl & Feger suggested 'climate' proposition for the Rosette folio in the Voynich Manuscript. It offers a deeper understanding of the complex imagery in the Rosette folio and suggests an explanation for the relation and network of some of the imagery in this single folio. This essay will emphasise selected areas ('micro-images') of the Rosette folio: the central disc, the top right corner disc and the importance of the display of two suns. More results throughout the entire area of the folio will be presented in an extended results section (forthcoming) where the results are cross-referenced via hyperlinks to different sections of the file for quick reference and comparison. Figure 1: The Rosette folio with highlighted selected image details ('micro-images'). Focus in this essay is particularly on the central disc, the top right corner disc and the suns (see text for further details and colour coding) that are suggested to display meteorological phenomena and further details as described in Aristotle's 'Meteorologica'.
A Short Critical History on the Development of Meteorology and Climatology
Climate, 2017
The present study presents a brief discussion regarding the evolution of meteorology from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century, throughout antiquitiy, Aristotle's legacy, and contemporaneity. Part of the text is dedicated to illustrating the emergence of Brazilian climatology and a new paradigm, postulating physical geography and the French School of Climatology and Meteorology.
Milestones of the diachronic evolution of meteorology
International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, 2016
The history of the science of meteorology, recognised as a multidisciplinary field of physical sciences, can be classified into several periods depending on the scope and the required details of the undertaken study. In this paper, the evolution of the science of meteorology has been presented through the most significant milestones within each classified period. Diachronically, the evolution is divided into three major periods. The first period is called the 'hypothesis period', and covers a period from the first attempts of man to address weather phenomena up to ca. 1600 AD. The second period, called the 'instrumental period', from ca. 1600 AD up to approximately 1800 AD, is characterised by the invention of the basic instruments used in weather observations. Finally, the third period from ca. 1800 AD till today, called the 'scientific period', covers scientific and technological advances. Within each period, the corresponding milestones are identified and presented accordingly.
Vernacular Meteorology and the Antiquity of the World in Medieval and Renaissance Italy
Philosophy and Knowledge in the Renaissance: Interpreting Aristotle in the Vernacular, 2016
A thorough analysis of Renaissance vernacular meteorologies reveals that the antiquity of the Earth was a widespread notion, easily available to vernacular readers and rather unproblematic from a theological point of view. Furthermore, strong continuities existed between this literature and its medieval sources and predecessors. In this article, I present first a new reading of the chapters of Ristoro d’Arezzo’s "Composition of the World" (1282) which deal with the origin of mountains and with the Great Flood; contrary to received notions, I posit that Ristoro considered this flood as one of many in the context of an ancient Earth. Second, I highlight the 2-ways exchanges between Latin and vernacular literature, by showing that Ristoro's work was abridged in Latin in the early fifteenth century by Paul of Venice (one of the leading Italian philosophers of the time), and I compare it with the epitome of Aristotle’s meteorology that the same author included in his Latin Exposition of Aristotle’s Natural Philosophy. Finally, I argue that Paul of Venice’s Exposition was a direct source of the vernacular Meteorology published in Venice in 1542 by the polygraph Fausto da Longiano.
2023
‘I am friendly towards the philosophers, but towards the sophists, the grammarians (elementary schoolmasters), or any other ill-starred (lit. those “possessed by an evil genius”) humans of such kind, I have neither friendship now, nor would I ever have’. (Apollonius Tyanaeus, Apollonii epistulae I) This short paper examines the astronomy, divination and meteorology in Aratus' Phaenomena. This poem was written in hexameter verse in the 3 rd century BCE. Aratus seems to have been a synthesizer between the philosophical and sophistic traditions. Although Aratus' wide influence during antiquity has been recognised, only his epic virtuosity and astronomical-meteorological ideas have been noted. This article shows that the Phaenomena obviously incorporates divination and astrology as well. Particularly, weather forecasting is exemplary in the poem, as the name of its second part shows: Διοσημία (a sign from Zeus).
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Aristotle and Theophrastus on theoretical and methodological foundations of meteorology
In the article, I discuss some theoretical and methodological views of Aristotle and Theophrastus, designed to illustrate their approaches to natural phenomena. It becomes clear that, indeed, the student of Aristotle frequently professes ideas that would surprise the philosopher of Stagira. For instance, he insists that the kosmos is a living and ordered whole, and its innate movement is something which cannot be explained with the help of such ad hoc teleological constructions, as the first mover. The analysis of Theophrastus' Metaphysics is supplemented in the article by observations based on his Syriac Meteorology and a selection of the fragments of his and Aristotle's lost scientific works.
Scientific Method in Meteorology IV
HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, 2014
This article explores the main aspects of Aristotle's scientific method in Meteorology IV. Dispositional properties such as solidifiability or combustibility play a dominant role in Meteor. IV (a ) in virtue of their central place in the generic division of homoeomers, based on successive differentiation and multiple differentiae, and (b ) in virtue of their role in revealing otherwise undetectable characteristics of uniform materials (composition and physical structure). While Aristotle often starts with accounts of ingredients and their ratio (e.g., solids that contain a significant amount of water are liquefiable), the natural direction of his investigation is from observations regarding dispositional properties and their manifestation to accounts of composition and microstructure. Such passages tend to be easily syllogizable, a feature that-along with the criteria that shape his method of division-argues, I believe, for the compatibility of Meteor. IV with Aristotle's theory of scientific inquiry. The concluding sections of my article deal more succinctly with reputable opinions and final causation in Meteor. IV.1-11 and with the relation between this treatise and Aristotle's biological corpus.
Bibliography of Recent Literature in the History of Meteorology
2009
The following is a bibliography of recent secondary literature in the history of meteorology, broadly conceived. It is presented in chronological order a) to illustrate the growth of history of meteorology as field in the throes of self-definition, and b) because an artificial schema, whether based on subject, region, period, or discipline, would fail in the face of the diversity of the materials represented. It is intended as a tool for students entering the field, a refresher for those already in it, and a reference for historians in other fields. 1 History of the Project The bibliography project began in November 2003 at the History of Science Society Annual Meeting in Cambridge, MA. James Fleming 2 organized a session and a subsequent wildcat dinner for ICHM members. At the session, and afterwards, Fleming told me that the IUHPS had requested that its commissions produce bibliographies for the World History of Science Online Project. I offered that I had already compiled a fairly large bibliographic database while completing my dissertation. 3 Because of what I found to be the paucity of literature in the historiography of meteorology when I started my dissertation research, I had gathered everything I could find. Fleming suggested making a more formal project of it. As there were other bibliographic resources for older material, we decided that twenty years of recent historiography would be the most useful. The following year I presented a poster (figure 1) describing the project at the ICHM meeting in Poling, at which time the raw database had grown to over 700 titles. Afterwards, as I pursued my own research interests, the database sat on the back burner, but continued to grow in size and scope, with contributions by Fleming and others, and occasional bursts of bibliographic work of my own. We discussed the state of the project at the 2008 Pittsburgh HSS meeting. At a thousand titles covering 25 years, it was time to stop. The field had grown to the point where keeping up with things was too much work for one person, and where the end product, a traditional bibliography, would be soon superseded by electronic formats. Another year's work, and additional help coming from Roger Turner's announcement on the ICHM website, brought the bibliography to nearly 1600 titles, covering a twenty-six-year time span. Scope The initial choice of twenty years as a span for the project was in some sense natural. Twenty is a round number, and representative of what we conceive of as "recent." Fleming and Roy E. Goodman had recovered the historiography of meteorology prior to the twentieth century, 4 but the largest English-language bibliography on more recent work in the field was Brush and Landsberg's 1985 work, which contained the historiography of meteorology and geophysics to that point in one volume. 5 Recent work had not been covered. The third reason is more historiographical. The early 1980s saw the field of meteorology expanding in the US. It was a notably neglected field within the history of science, which now saw new people coming in from the fields of science, history, and literary studies. Earlier historiography was sparse (for examples of what was available, see Hessenbruch's Readers' Guide to the History of Science (2000)). 6 In 1977, H. Howard Frisinger was able to write a modest-sized monograph covering meteorology from prehistory to 1800. 7 In 1983, people such as Theodore Feldman were writing about fiftyyear periods, 8 representing greater specialization within history of science, and scholars such as Arden Reed were opening up the cultural context from outside the field. 9 Similar developments were likewise happening throughout the scholarly world. As for the other extreme of the scope, indecision whether to produce something in print, or something entirely electronic, left the project in limbo, even as the data accumulated. The decision to terminate the collection at twenty five years resulted in the actual cessation at twenty six. The closer to publication date the better.
Wetterbericht. Aktuelle Forschung zu Meteorologie, Klima und Atmosphäre (in) der Literatur
Monatshefte, 2021
I thank the members of the McGeorge Law Review for an especially engaging and well-managed symposium in which I encountered many old friends (and made some new ones) and heard some new ideas. It was a perfect mix for a successful symposium event. Special thanks to my friend Professor Michael Vitiello for nurturing my many-years relationship with McGeorge School of Law. 1.