The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) offers a diverse program of public events, including colloquia, seminars, and workshops. Our Institute’s Colloquium is open and free to attend. Our other events often require registration or invitation—please check each individual event for details.
May 2022
- 12:00 to 13:30
- Reading Group
Scientific Experience and the Scientific Expert I: The Scientist
Contact and Registration
Contact to register for HE Reading Group: twietecha@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
About This Series
This reading group explores the theme of premodern experience by making use of and adapting the approach of historical epistemology (HE). We will discuss how different primary and secondary sources have treated the epistemic status of experience and the roles of experience in gaining scientific knowledge, applying scientific knowledge, building a scientific system, or becoming a scientist, and why they have done so. In so doing, we will discuss how the tools of HE can help us shed light on the roles of experience for scientific knowledge and how, in turn, these primary sources help shape a modified HE for the history of premodern science and beyond.
June 2022
- 12:00 to 13:30
- Reading Group
Scientific Experience and the Scientific Expert II: The “Layperson,” “Common Person,” “Public,” “Non-Elite,” “Non-Scientist”
Contact and Registration
Contact to register for HE Reading Group: twietecha@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
About This Series
This reading group explores the theme of premodern experience by making use of and adapting the approach of historical epistemology (HE). We will discuss how different primary and secondary sources have treated the epistemic status of experience and the roles of experience in gaining scientific knowledge, applying scientific knowledge, building a scientific system, or becoming a scientist, and why they have done so. In so doing, we will discuss how the tools of HE can help us shed light on the roles of experience for scientific knowledge and how, in turn, these primary sources help shape a modified HE for the history of premodern science and beyond.
July 2022
- 12:00 to 13:30
- Reading Group
Nerves: A Preparation for, and Companion, to the New Working Group: “Knowing Nerves: From Animal Spirits to Neural Nets"
Contact and Registration
Contact to register for HE Reading Group: twietecha@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
About This Series
This reading group explores the theme of premodern experience by making use of and adapting the approach of historical epistemology (HE). We will discuss how different primary and secondary sources have treated the epistemic status of experience and the roles of experience in gaining scientific knowledge, applying scientific knowledge, building a scientific system, or becoming a scientist, and why they have done so. In so doing, we will discuss how the tools of HE can help us shed light on the roles of experience for scientific knowledge and how, in turn, these primary sources help shape a modified HE for the history of premodern science and beyond.
- 12:00 to 13:00
- Summer Colloquium
The Ninth-Century Transmission of Greek Philosophy into the Arabic-Speaking World and the Emergence of Baghdadian Rationalism: Coming to a Proper Judgement of the Place of Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq (CE 808-877)
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
The colloquium is open to everyone interested and will be offered in hybrid format. To register please contact Tracy Wietecha (twietecha@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de).
About This Series
This event is part of the Max Planck Research Group Premodern Sciences Summer Colloquium 2022.
- 13:05 to 14:00
- Summer Colloquium
Why Did People in Medieval Europe Think that Virgil Made Robots? Science Fiction, Astral Magic, and Literary Theory
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
The colloquium is open to everyone interested and will be offered in hybrid format. To register please contact Tracy Wietecha (twietecha@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de).
About This Series
This event is part of the Max Planck Research Group Premodern Sciences Summer Colloquium 2022.
August 2022
- 12:00 to 13:30
- Summer Colloquium
Plague: The Fractured Ontology of an Infectious Disease
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
The colloquium is open to everyone interested and will be offered in hybrid format. To register please contact Tracy Wietecha (twietecha@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de).
About This Series
This event is part of the Max Planck Research Group Premodern Sciences Summer Colloquium 2022.
- 12:00 to 13:30
- Summer Colloquium
Cipher: The Art of Calculation in the Medieval Mediterranean
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
The colloquium is open to everyone interested and will be offered in hybrid format. To register please contact Tracy Wietecha (twietecha@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de).
About This Series
This event is part of the Max Planck Research Group Premodern Sciences Summer Colloquium 2022.
- Workshop
Hortus Indicus Malabaricus: the Eurasian Life of a Seventeenth-Century European Botanical Classic
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomMain Conference RoomContact and Registration
The workshop is for invited participants only.
September 2022
- 12:00 to 13:30
- Summer Colloquium
Knowledges in Transit: Linnaeus's Lapland Journey (1732)
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
The colloquium is open to everyone interested and will be offered in hybrid format. To register please contact Tracy Wietecha (twietecha@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de).
About This Series
This event is part of the Max Planck Research Group Premodern Sciences Summer Colloquium 2022.