Spatial Thinking and External Representation : Towards a Historical Epistemology of Space

• Main Author: Schemmel, Matthias
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften 2016
• Subjects: Chipewyan
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.34663/9783945561089-00; https://www.mprl-series.mpg.de/studies/8/

Spatial knowledge takes different forms in different societies and at different times in history depending on the spatial experiences accounted for and the available means for the external representation of knowledge. The volume presents and analyses manifestations of spatial thinking in the language and practices of recent non-literate societies, in the administrative institutions of early civilizations, in discursive contexts of ancient Greece and China, in early modern natural philosophy and metaphysics, and in twentieth-century physics, and discusses their historical and structural relations. : Preface<br/>1 Towards a Historical Epistemology of Space: An Introduction<br/>2 Spatial Concepts in Non-Literate Societies: Language and Practice in Eipo and Dene Chipewyan<br/>3 The Impact of Notation Systems: From the Practical Knowledge of Surveyors to Babylonian Geometry<br/>4 Theoretical Reflections on Elementary Actions and Instrumental Practices: The Example of the Mohist Canon<br/>5 Cosmology and Epistemology: A Comparison between Aristotle’s and Ptolemy’s Approaches to Geocentrism<br/>6 Space and Matter in Early Modern Science: The Impenetrability of Matter<br/>7 Experience and Representation in Modern Physics: The Reshaping of Space