scholarly journals Mysteries of the Heart

Author(s):  
Irina Opimakh

The paper is dedicated to the discovery of mechanisms of circulation and the circulatory system, which was one of the greatest achievements in medicine and physiology. Without this discovery, many medical methods and technologies would have never entered our lives. In 1628, a book Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus by William Harvey was published in Frankfurt. It was a breakthrough in scientific understanding of the functioning of heart in those days. Its author went down the history of science.

Author(s):  
Henk W. de Regt

This chapter introduces the theme of the book: scientific understanding. Science is arguably the most successful product of the human desire for understanding. Reflection on the nature of scientific understanding is an important and exciting project for philosophers of science, as well as for scientists and interested laypeople. As a first illustration of this, the chapter sketches an episode from the history of science in which discussions about understanding played a crucial role: the genesis of quantum mechanics in the 1920s, and the heated debates about the intelligibility of this theory and the related question of whether it can provide understanding. This case shows that standards of intelligibility of scientists can vary strongly. Furthermore, the chapter outlines and defends the way in which this study approaches its subject, differing essentially from mainstream philosophical discussions of explanatory understanding. It concludes with an overview of the contents of the book.


Author(s):  
Gabriel Ribeiro ◽  
José Luís Coelho da Silva

ResumoA replicação de experiências históricas, isto é, experiências realizadas por cientistas de outrora e que constituíram marcos relevantes na história de uma descoberta científica é uma possível via para a integração da História da Ciência na promoção da Educação em Ciências. É um exemplo de uma experiência histórica aquela que foi desenvolvida por William Harvey (1578-1657), médico inglês, com o intuito de compreender o movimento do sangue no corpo humano e que se encontra descrita na obra Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus de 1628 (Estudo anatómico sobre o movimento do coração e do sangue nos animais, Caderno de Tradução, no 5 DF/USP, 1999, tradução de Regina Rebollo). A partir desta descrição, construiu-se um protocolo orientador da replicação desta experiência e que, em articulação com outras fontes de caráter histórico, corporizou uma intervenção pedagógica para a abordagem da temática Sistema Circulatório Humano. Foi desenvolvida no âmbito da disciplina de Anatomia Humana da Licenciatura em Biologia Humana na Universidade Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia, tendo envolvido 22 alunos. Efetua-se a descrição e fundamentação da replicação da experiência histórica e analisa-se o valor educativo conferido pelos alunos a esta atividade de aprendizagem. A compreensão de como o conhecimento é construído e o desenvolvimento da capacidade de analisar criticamente perspetivas científicas anteriores são alguns dos contributos educativos apontados pelos alunos. Palavras-chave: Experiência histórica, William Harvey, Circulação sanguínea humana Abstract The replication of historical experiences, that is, experiments carried out by scientists of the past and which have been relevant milestones in the history of a scientific discovery, is a possible way to integrate the History of Science in the promotion of Science Education. It is an example of a historical experience that was developed by William Harvey (1578-1657), english physician, with the intention of understanding the movement of blood in the human body and described in the work from 1628 Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus (Estudo anatômico sobre o movimento do coração e do sangue nos animais, Caderno de Tradução, no 5 DF/USP, 1999, translated by Regina Rebollo). Based on this description, a protocol was developed to guide the replication of this experience and, in articulation with other sources of historical character, embodied a pedagogical intervention to approach the Human Circulatory System. It was developed within the Human Anatomy discipline in Pre-service Biological Sciences Teacher Education at the Federal University of the Recôncavo of Bahia, involving 22 students. We describe and substantiate the replication of historical experience and analyze the educational value conferred by students to this learning activity. The understanding of how knowledge is constructed and the development of the capacity to critically analyze previous scientific perspectives are some of the educational contributions pointed out by the students. Keywords: Historical experience, William Harvey, Human blood circulation


1990 ◽  
Vol 35 (7) ◽  
pp. 654-656
Author(s):  
Harry Beilin

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 58-66
Author(s):  
Giuliano Pancaldi

Here I survey a sample of the essays and reviews on the sciences of the long eighteenth century published in this journal since it was founded in 1969. The connecting thread is some historiographic reflections on the role that disciplines—in both the sciences we study and the fields we practice—have played in the development of the history of science over the past half century. I argue that, as far as disciplines are concerned, we now find ourselves a bit closer to a situation described in our studies of the long eighteenth century than we were fifty years ago. This should both favor our understanding of that period and, hopefully, make the historical studies that explore it more relevant to present-day developments and science policy. This essay is part of a special issue entitled “Looking Backward, Looking Forward: HSNS at 50,” edited by Erika Lorraine Milam.


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