The Artificial and the Natural Dibner Institute in the History of Science and Technology Dibner Institute Studies in the History of Science and Technology George Smith, general editor Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and William R. Newman, editors, The Artificial and the Natural: An Evolving Polarity Jed Z. Buchwald and I. Bernard Cohen, editors, Isaac Newton’s Natural Philosophy Jed Z. Buchwald and Andrew Warwick, editors, Histories of the Electron: The Birth of Microphysics Geo¤rey Cantor and Sally Shuttleworth, editors, Science Serialized: Representations of the Sciences in Nineteenth-Century Periodicals Michael Friedman and Alfred Nordmann, editors, The Kantian Legacy in Nineteenth- Century Science Anthony Grafton and Nancy Siraisi, editors, Natural Particulars: Nature and the Disciplines in Renaissance Europe J. P. Hogendijk and A. I. Sabra, editors, The Enterprise of Science in Islam: New Perspectives Frederic L. Holmes and Trevor H. Levere, editors, Instruments and Experimentation in the History of Chemistry Agatha C. Hughes and Thomas P. Hughes, editors, Systems, Experts, and Computers: The Systems Approach in Management and Engineering, World War II and After Manfred D. Laubichler and Jane Maienschein, editors, From Embryology to Evo-Devo Brett D. Steele and Tamera Dorland, editors, The Heirs of Archimedes: Science and the Art of War through the Age of Enlightenment N. L. Swerdlow, editor, Ancient Astronomy and Celestial Divination The Artificial and the Natural An Evolving Polarity edited by Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and William R. Newman The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England ( 2007 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. For information about special quantity discounts, please e-mail special_sales@ mitpress.mit.edu This book was set in Bembo on 3B2 by Asco Typesetters, Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The artificial and the natural : an evolving polarity / edited by Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and William R. Newman. p. cm. — (Dibner institute studies in the history of science and technology) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-02620-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Science—Europe—History. 2. Science—Philosophy—History. 3. Philosophy, European—History. 4. Science, Medieval. I. Bensaude-Vincent, Bernadette. II. Newman, William R. Q127 .E8A78 2007 501—dc22 2007001896 10987654321 Index Adam and Eve, 275 Alfonso of Aragon, 196 Adriani, Marcello Vircilio, 189 Alfred of Sareshal, 117 Ægidius Romanus, 141 Amerbach cabinet, 211 Africa, 198 America (de Bry), 198 Age of the Marvelous,211 Andreae, Johann Valentin, 15, 215–216 Agnellus, 37 Animal Chemistry (Brock), 283 Agriculture, 2, 189 Antigone (Sophocles), 78–79 Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius, 15, 200– Antiphon, 30–31, 78–79 201, 209n59 Apollonius of Tyana, 140 Aksay, Ilian, 304 Architectura, De (Vitruvius), 197 Alberti, Leon Battista, 14, 205nn30, 31, Archytas, 140 209n61 Arcimboldo, Giuseppe, 13–14 engineering and, 195–196 Baldini and, 171–172 sculpture and, 192–193, 206nn32–35 Comanini and, 149–174 Albertus Magnus, 12, 192 composite heads of, 153, 155 alchemy and, 119–126, 131n33 criticism of, 156 Aristotelianism and, 141–142 dreams and, 154 demons and, 119–124 fantasy and, 152–157, 160 Alchemy, 4–5, 13, 275, 300 Figino and, 167, 172 Albertus Magnus and, 119–126, Fontana and, 151, 155–156 131n33 German work of, 163–165 Avicenna and, 110–121, 127, 275–276 grotesqueness and, 155–156 demons and, 109–127 hybrids and, 151, 156–157 European medieval age and, 109–127 icastic imitation and, 153 Islamic world and, 109 Italian works of, 164 Kramer and, 110–117 Lombardy and, 167, 170 magic and, 119–127, 129n7 Mannerism and, 151–152 plastick principle and, 277 nature studies of, 159–165, 170 as scholarly discipline, 109–110 Padovano and, 157, 160 Sprenger and, 110–117 poetry and, 149–151, 172–173 Thomas Aquinas and, 111–118, 124– reversible images of, 165–170 126, 132nn39, 40, 276 Aristotle, 13, 36, 38, 171, 293–294 transmutation and, 109–110, 113–116, Cartesian revisions and, 142–145 128n2, 129n13 circle and, 80–85, 92–93, 105n60 as witchcraft, 110–117 Comanini and, 149 Aldrovandi,Ulisse,157,212–213 double four-causes theory and, 54–57 Index 318 Aristotle (cont.) subordinate, 139–140 Hippocratics and, 26, 44n16 superficial, 138–139 homunculus discussion and, 5–6 surrealism and, 155–156 Jesuits and, 135–142 techne and, 21–28 mathematicsand,80–85,90–93 technical, 38–42 maximal principle and, 62–63 theaters of, 213–214 mechanics and, 4, 12, 68–86, 90–94, trompe l’oeil techniques and, 7–8, 10 135–145 utopian imagination and, 185–197 mimetic art and, 51–64 vivisection and, 32–38 pepsis and, 73 Artes (Celsus), 33 physis and, 39–40 Artificial on pleasure, 54–63 conceptual issues and, 9–10 Spinoza and, 226 conflicting perspectives and, 8–9 subordinate sciences and, 91–93 defining, 1–3 techne and, 39–40 indistinct boundaries and, 1–5 Arnoldus Saxo, 109 limiting cases and, 5–6 Arriaga, Roderigo, 138, 142 relationships and, 5–8 Ars combinatoria (Ho¤mann), 300 Artificial intelligence (AI), 9 Ars Poetica (Horace), 154 Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, 241, Art, 1–2, 313–314 263 alchemists and, 109–127 Artificial life, 16–17, 240 Aristotle and, 4–6 animal machinery and, 242 concealing/revealing semiotics and, automata and, 13, 16–17, 188, 201, 28–32 242–265 Dada and, 155 emergence of, 241–242 divine, 143–144 materialists and, 242 fine, 9–10 moral issues and, 264–265 Hippocratics and, 21–42 response to, 241–242 hybrids and, 151, 156–157 sensibility property and, 242 illusion and, 7–8, 10 software model of, 263 imitation of nature and, 72, 74–75, Astronomy, 91–92 98n16 (see also Nature) Atalanta Fugiens (Maier), 275 Jesuits and, 135–142 Atechnon,59 Leibniz and, 212–219 Atlantis, 190 Mannerism and, 151–152 Atlas universalis (Leibniz), 15, 215–219 maximal principle and, 62–63 Augustine, 119–120 mechanics and, 67–97 (see also Automata, 13, 16–17, 101n42, 104n51, Mechanics) 188, 201 mimetic, 51–64, 301–308 animals and, 242–244 pictorial images and, 215–216 birthing machine and, 258–260 pleasure and, 54–63 breathing and, 245–247 power of, 3 defecation and, 247, 254 science and, 211–212 denunciation of, 265 sculpture and, 192–193 Descartes and, 243 secondary, 137–138 historic design styles of, 242–244 Spinoza and, 225–233 Jaquet-Droz family and, 244–246, 258 still life and, 149–174 Le Cat and, 261–262 Index 319 mass production of, 244 Intelligent Design and, 306 modern, 262–263 synthetic chemistry and, 301–308 moving anatomies and, 258–262, 266 technology transfer in, 305 physiological correctness and, 245–265 Theory of Inventive Problem Solving prosthetics and, 254–258 and, 305 Quesnay and, 261–262, 266 working hypothesis of, 304–305 sensation and, 263–264 Birthing machine, 258–260 spoken language and, 247, 249, 251– Blake, Linda, 51 254, 270nn25,26 Bodin, Jean, 199–200 Vaucanson and, 246–247, 251, 260, Boethius, 87 263, 265 Bol, Hans, 164 Vichy and, 244–245 Bonaventure, 126 ‘‘Automaten, Die’’ (Ho¤mann), 241 Boodt, Anselmus Boethius de, 164 Avicenna Book of the Remedy (Avicenna), 117 alchemy and, 110–121, 127, 275–276 Book on the Congealment and Concretion of demons and, 110, 119, 121 Stones (Avicenna), 117–119 Boscherini, Giancotti, 227 Bacon, Francis, 10, 14, 136 Botero, Giovanni, 202 chemistry and, 278, 281–282 Boussingault, J. B., 282 on invention, 190 Boxer, Steven, 303 Renaissance and, 186–190, 198, 202 Boyle, Robert, 135, 277–278 Bacon, Roger, 275 Bredekamp, Horst, 15, 188, 211–223 Baekeland, Leo, 294–295 Breeding, 9 Baeyer, 286 Broadie, Sarah, 38–39 Bakelite, 294–295, 308 Brock, W., 279, 283 Baldini, Bernardino, 171–172 Brooke, John Hedley, 17, 275–292 Barthes, Roland, 156, 296 Brooks, Rodney, 263 Baudrillard, Jean, 296 Brunelleschi, 195–196, 198–199 Becher, Johann Joachim, 214 Bry, Theodore de, 198 Beeckman, Isaac, 142 Belle Epoque, 244 Campanella, Tommaso, 14–15, 215– Bensaude-Vincent, Bernadette, 1–19, 216 293–321 ideal state of, 185–186 Berlin Academy of Science, 214 mechanics and, 186–191 Bernard, Claude, 264, 283 Renaissance and, 185–191, 198, 201 Berra, Giacomo, 152, 167, 172, 180n74 Campi, Vicenzo, 167 Berthelot, Marcellin, 276, 284–286, 288 Canon episcopi, 111, 113–114 Berzelius, 281–282, 286–287 Cantor, G., 289 Besson, Jacques, 189 Caravaggio, 152, 167 Bible, 110, 120–125 Cardano, 201 Biology, 1 Carnegie Mellon, 1 automata and, 13, 16–17, 188, 201, Carothers, William, 295 242–265 Cassiodorus, 87, 104n52 biomimesis and, 301–308 Castiglione, Baldassare, 153, 194 Hippocratics and, 21–42 Catalogus omnium corporum (Becher), Biomimesis. See also Mimetic art 214 design strategies in, 305–308 Caus, Salomon de, 189 Index 320 Cause structure theory for, 286–287 e‰cient, 56 synthetics and, 275–276, 279–290, final, 56–57 293–308 mechanics and, 68 systematic multiplication and, 284 mimetic art and, 56–57 temperature boundaries and, 279, 282– Celluloid, 294–295, 308, 309n4 283 Celsus, Aulus Cornelius, 33, 36–37 trial-and-error method and, 297–301 Cennini, Cennino, 8 vitalism and, 278, 281–283 Cesariano, Cesare, 197–198 x-ray crystallography and, 298 Chalcedon, 32 Chevreul, 279 Chemistry, 2–3, 17, 313 Chimera, 154–155, 302 alchemy and, 4–5, 13 (see also Chimie Organique fonde´e sur la Synthe`se Alchemy) (Berthelot), 284 ambivalence in, 283–284 Christianity, 87–88,