Insular Texts and the Problem of ‘Western Science’

Organizers

Jacqueline Fay, Rebecca Stephenson, Renée R. Trilling

Session information

“We tend to think of science as unalloyed, objective truth, but of course the questions it has asked of the world have quietly and often invisibly been inflected by history, culture and society.”

Helen MacDonald, Vesper Flights (New York: Grove Press, 2020), viii-ix

Participants in this lab will consider the role of early medieval texts, practices, people, and things as and in science. The early medieval has traditionally served a purpose in the history of science as the superstitious and credulous background against which science can decisively be said to emerge. With the rise of AI and the growth in STEM-oriented disciplines, how is early medieval studies, and the humanities more generally, to forge a connection with science? Should we strive for the label? Push back the origin point? Test recipes and prove their efficacy? Should we point to the limitations that this label has in constraining even its authorized subjects within rationalism, experimentation, etc, in such a way as to obscure the love that motivates scientific and humanistic inquiry alike?

Led by brief initial presentations by scholars working at the intersection of science and medieval studies and framed by a series of shared pre-circulated readings, we will explore the possible role(s) that early medieval materials could play in current formulations of the history of science. Readings will be available by 1 May 2024, and we will ask participants to write a brief reflection on the readings and their potential intersections with medieval materials by 15 June.

Any questions can be directed to Renée Trilling, renee.trilling@utoronto.ca.