Archives : 2021-2022 |
This seminar is one of the activities of the Centre for the History of Philosophy and Science seen from Asia, Africa, and so on.
For any questions related to the organisation and the program of the seminar, please contact Eleonora Sammarchi
PROGRAM 2023-2024
Friday, 8th September 2023, 2.30 pm - 5.30 pm, location : room 569 (5th floor) Olympe de Gouges building Université Paris-Cité, 8 rue Albert Einstein Paris 75013
Title and resume will be updated soon
Friday, 27th October 2023, 2.00 pm - 4.00 pm, location : room 569 (5th floor) Olympe de Gouges building Université Paris-Cité, 8 rue Albert Einstein Paris 75013
Philosophy and Healing Culture of Ethiopia - Organisation : J. Smith
Program :
- 14h00-14h15
J. Smith (SPHERE) Introduction
- 14h15- 15h00
Eyob Derillo (Curator of Ethiopian Collections, Department of Asia and Africa Studies, British Library)
Text and Image : Magic Scrolls, Divination and Recipe Books as Part of the Healing Culture of Ethiopia
- 15h00-15h15
Pause
- 15h15-16h00
J. Egid (King’s College, London)
Comments and general discussion
[SESSION CANCELLED] Friday, 10th November 2023, 2.30 pm - 5.30 pm, location : room 569 (5th floor) Olympe de Gouges building Université Paris-Cité, 8 rue Albert Einstein Paris 75013
What is Indian philosophy ? - Organisation : A. Keller
Friday, 8th December 2023, 3.00 pm - 5.30 pm, location : room 569 (5th floor) Olympe de Gouges building Université Paris-Cité, 8 rue Albert Einstein Paris 75013
New approaches to the history of logic - Organisation : K. Chemla
Friday, 12th January 2024, 2.30 pm - 5.30 pm, location : room 569 (5th floor) Olympe de Gouges building Université Paris-Cité, 8 rue Albert Einstein Paris 75013
Circulation of texts and technical knowledge within East Asia and between East Asia and Europe (16th-19th centuries)
Organization : Florence Bretelle-Establet
- 14:30 – 15:30
Marie-Océane Lachaud, (PhD, INALCO, IFRAE)
Title : Construction of medical knowledge in premodern Korea : knowledge and practices related to variolation and vaccination
Abstract : Smallpox is a well-known disease since the 6th century in China, Japan, and Korea which has continued to wreak terrible havoc on young children population until the 20th century. Over the centuries, physicians elaborated several treatments for smallpox. From the 17th century, Chinese physicians developed a new technique called variolation which consisted, notably, in inserting dried smallpox crusts into one of the patient’s nostrils. This variolation technique was expected to produce a mild form of smallpox which was considered safer than contracted smallpox naturally during an epidemic. Then, at the end of the 18th century, a new process, the cowpox inoculation, was discovered in Europe, and soon after the first publication presenting the technique, the process reached East Asia. In this presentation, I would like to question how variolation and cowpox inoculation were introduced to the Korean peninsula in the 18th and 19th centuries. More specifically, through which books did Koreans learn about these two techniques ? How medical knowledge about these two methods was shaped through the books used as references ? Who were the main actors in these process ? Are there any major changes in the way these two methods were introduced to Korea ? And if so, what can these changes tell us about the medical conception but also the social and political evolution of Korea between the 18th and 19th centuries ?
- 15:30 – 15:45
Break
- 15:45 – 16:45
Mau Chuan-hui, (Pr Institute of History, National Tsing Hua University)
Title : An overview of the history of the transmission of sericultural knowledge in the Eurasian continent : a comparative study of Nong sang jiyao (The essentials of the agriculture and sericulture, preface of 1273) and La cueillete de la soye (1599)
Abstract : When I studied the history of exchanges of silk industry between China and France, I observed that there are some similarities between La cueillete de la soye (1599) and the Nong sang jiyao 農桑輯要 (The essentials of the agriculture and sericulture, preface of 1273), especially regarding the structure and the logic of classification.
China is the cradle of the silk industry, and it is well-known that the sericulture knowledge and know-how spread from China to the other parts of the Eurasian continent. Up to the 19th century, Chinese sericulture occupied the leading position in the world. With the aim to raise the quality and the quantity of their silk production, some Western scientists working on sericulture tried to deepen their knowledge and skills by studying existing sericulture treatises including Italian, French and Chinese ones, and by using certain scientific methods. The Chinese silk knowledge came essentially from the translations of Chinese works published by French Jesuits in the collection Description de la Chine (1735) edited by Jean-Baptiste Du Halde (1674-1743). The scientists, especially Matthieu Bonafous (1793-1852) even compared these Chinese texts with La cueillete de la soye, compiled by the famous agronomist Olivier de Serres (1539-1619) on Henry IV’s request, while the latter encouraged the development of sericulture in France. Almost all modern scholars considered the Nongzheng quanshu 農政全書 (Complete treatise on agriculture, 1639) of Xu Guangqi 徐光啟 (1562-1633) as the basis of this translation, but if one studies this text systematically it is not difficult to find that Xu integrated a large part of the content from the Essentials of the agriculture and sericulture. While this treatise was compiled under Mongol rule, that is, three centuries earlier than the work of de Serres, it would be interesting to discover some tracks of transmission between the two extremities of the Eurasian Continent through a comparative analysis of these two texts, The essentials of the agriculture and sericulture and La cueillete de la soye.
[Session cancelled and will be rescheduled to next year] Friday, 9th February 2024, 2.30 pm - 4.30 pm, location : room 569 (5th floor) Olympe de Gouges building Université Paris-Cité, 8 rue Albert Einstein Paris 75013
Alexis Trouillot (Université de Texas)
Frank E. Chapman’s Prison Writings : Science and Africa
One of the first books to make the question of mathematics in Africa available to a large public was Claudia Zaslavsky’s (1917-2006) Africa Counts : Number and Pattern in African Cultures published in 1973. This talk will focus on one of her book’s inspirations, the unpublished Science and Africa : Essays on the Part Which People of Color Have Played in the Development of the Natural Sciences and Mathematics written by the young Frank E. Chapman in 1965 as he was serving a life sentence in a Missouri prison. Based on the original manuscript as well as correspondence, I will discuss Chapman ideas regarding the link between Black liberation in the United State and the history of science.
Thursday, 15th February 2024 2 pm to 4 pm in Room Léon Vandermeersch (481C, 4th floor wing C, 5 rue Thomas Mann, 75013, Paris
Book presentation« Science for Governing Japan’s Population » (Cambridge University Press, 2022) Organized by by Ken Daimaru
Speaker : Homei Aya, University of Manchester Abstract : Twenty-first-century Japan is known for the world’s most aged population. Faced with this challenge, Japan has been a pioneer in using science to find ways of managing a declining birth rate. Science for Governing Japan’s Population considers the question of why these population phenomena have been seen as problematic. What roles have population experts played in turning this demographic trend into a government concern ? Aya Homei examines the medico-scientific fields around the notion of population that developed in Japan from the 1860s to the 1960s, analyzing the role of the population experts in the government’s effort to manage its population. She argues that the formation of population sciences in modern Japan had a symbiotic relationship with the development of the neologism, “population” (jinkō), and with the transformation of Japan into a modern sovereign power. Through this history, Homei unpacks assumptions about links between population, sovereignty, and science. This title is also available as Open Access.
Bio : Aya Homei is Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies at the University of Manchester.
The book is available as open access at the following link (Cambridge University Press)
This session will be preceded by another presentation whose title is « Administrative materials related to forced sterilization in Japan », and which will take place on Wednesday 14th from 15:30 to 18:30 in the same room.
https://www.crcao.fr/2023/09/26/histoire-de-lasie-orientale-contemporaine-sources-methodes-objets-2/
Friday, 8th March 2024, 2.30 pm - 5.30 pm, location : room 569 (5th floor) Olympe de Gouges building Université Paris-Cité, 8 rue Albert Einstein Paris 75013
Feminist approaches to the history of science (org. Catren, Guardans, Keller, Menon).
Program :
- 14h30-16h
G. Catren : New readings of Donna Harraway - 16h-16h15
pause - 16h15-17h30
E. Sammarchi : On Saloua Chatti’s book "Women’s Contemporary Readings of Medieval (and Modern) Arabic Philosophy"
25th to 26th March 2024 Location : Room Léon Vandermeersch (481C, 4th floor, C wing, Grands Moulins Building, 5 rue Thomas Mann, 75013, Paris)
Health and Diseases in Modern and Contemporary East Asia, A Dialogical Perspective - In honor of Susan L. Burns, visiting professor at Université Paris Cité
Program
Monday, 25th March 2024
- 9:00-9:10
Introduction
Part 1 chaired by Pierre-Emmanuel Roux (Université Paris Cité, CCJ) - 9:10-9:55
Marta Hanson (Independant Scholar),
“Healthscaping as a Conceptual Tool for Public-Health History in Premodern China” - 9:55-10:40
Florence Bretelle-Establet (CNRS, SPHERE),
“Smallpox and Variolation in 18th Century China : Risk, Ethics, and Innovation Through the Eyes and Words of Chinese Doctors” - 10:40-10:55
Coffee Break - 10:55-11:40
Ken Daimaru (Université Paris Cité, CRCAO),
“Experts and Language of Endemics in 19th Century Japan” - 11:40-12:25
Hiro Fujimoto (Heidelberg University)
“Southern Expansion of Japanese Women Doctors, 1920–1940”
Part 2 chaired by Ken Daimaru - 13:30–14:30
Susan L. Burns (University of Chicago, Université Paris Cité Invited Professsor)
“The Medical Marketplace and the Making of Modern Tokyo” - 14:30-15:15
Bernard Thomann (Inalco, IFRAE),
“TheRecognition of Silicosis as an Occupational Disease in 20th Century Japan” - 15:15-15:30
Coffee Break - 15:30-16:15
Antonetta Bruno (Sapienza University of Rome)
“Metamorphosis of Smallpox in Korea : Narrative on Virulence and Deification” - 16:15-17:00
Anne-Lise Mithout (Université Paris Cité, CRCAO)
“Rethinking the Japanese Disability Right Movement as Part of the History of Medicine” - 17:00–17:45
Naho Tanimoto (Kansai University),
“The Reality of Cosmetic Surgery in Japan” - 17:45-18:00
Coffee Break - 18:00–18:45
General discussion
Tuesday, 26th March 2024
Part 3 chaired by Anne-Lise Mithout - 9:00-9:45
Marie-Océane Lachaud (Inalco, IFRAE),
“Chongdu (smallpox vaccine) and its Medical Conceptions. Study Focusing on Korean Medical Treatises Between the 18th and 19th Centuries” - 9:45-10:30
Marina Valente (Université Paris Cité),
“Rethinking the History of Cholera Epidemics in 19th century Chosŏn Korea” - 10:30-10:45
Coffee break - 10:45-11:30
Anatole Bernet (SciencesPo, Centre d’histoire)
“Japan’s Health Transition at the Turn of the Twentieth Century” - 11:30-12:15
Jean Corbi (SciencesPo, Centre d’histoire)
“In the Shadow of Doctors. Health Workers in Sichuan, 1900-1950”
Friday, 3rd May 2024, 2.30 pm - 5.30 pm, location : room 569 (5th floor) Olympe de Gouges building Université Paris-Cité, 8 rue Albert Einstein Paris 75013
Science in Latin America, Latin American Science : Recent Historical and Historiographical Perspectives, organized by Thomas Haddad (University of Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Program :
- 14:30 — 15:45
Martha Cecilia Bustamante (SPHERE)
Reflections on the end of eurocentrism in Latin American history of science : from the 16th International Congress of the History of Science and "Bucharest Declaration" (1981) to the Science and Empires Colloquium (1990)
Abstract :
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a notable increase in the
history of sciences in Latin America. A small community of scholars, feeling isolated and lacking a professional framework, sought to "professionalize their field" and disseminate the studies they had carried out as widely as possible. The story begins with the "Bucharest Declaration" in 1981 and ends with the Paris Colloquium Science and Empires in 1990. - 15:45 — 16:00
Break - 16:00 — 17:30
Matheus Alves Duarte da Silva (University of St Andrews, UK)
When plague connected the world : Production and circulation of microbiological knowledge between Brazil, India, and Western Europe (1890-1920)
Abstract :
From 1894 to 1920, plague swept across the world, in what became known as the Third Plague Pandemic. The disease killed more than 12 million people, causing havoc in maritime hubs, and changing the way humans interact with rats. The first three decades of the pandemic were the first time microbiological sera and vaccines were invented and widely applied to treat and immunize against the disease. Brazil, India, and Western Europe became important sites for the production and study of these objects, thanks to an intense circulation of experts, sera, vaccines, and scientific data. Rather than following a North-South dynamic, these exchanges were principally marked by South-South and South-North interactions. India emerged as the world’s main producer of anti-plague vaccines, and the place where the efficacy of sera manufactured in Brazil and Europe was put to the test. Brazil, on the other hand, played a central role in the invention of new vaccines and of techniques of immunization. The South American nation also became the country where anti-plague serotherapy was most widely employed. Relying on rich and largely overlooked documents held in archives in Brazil, Portugal, the UK, France, Italy, and Israel/Palestine, this presentation will examine the trajectories of several anti-plague sera and vaccines. It will discuss the agency of actors based in Brazil and India to produce knowledge on plague treatment and prevention, and to (re)shape global scientific dynamics, challenging established ideas about the globalization of microbiology and the role of Latin American science in the process.
Friday, 14th June 2024, 2.30 pm - 5.30 pm, location : room 569 (5th floor) Olympe de Gouges building Université Paris-Cité, 8 rue Albert Einstein Paris 75013
Scholars doing new things (organized by Clement Bonvoisin and Florence Bretelle-Establet)
+ organization of next year
Friday, 18th October 2024, 2.30 pm - 5.30 pm, location : tbd
Shadow of modernity on the history of science (organized by Karine Chemla)
Friday, 15th November 2024, 2.30 pm - 5.30 pm, location : tbd
What indian philosophy is ? (organized by Agathe Keller)
December 2024, 2.30 pm - 5.30 pm, location : tbd
Alexis Trouillot (Université de Texas)
Frank E. Chapman’s Prison Writings : Science and Africa
Abstract :
One of the first book to make the question of mathematics in Africa available to a large public was Claudia Zaslavsky’s (1917-2006) Africa Counts : Number and Pattern in African Cultures published in 1973. This talk will focus on one of her book’s inspirations, the unpublished Science and Africa : Essays on the Part Which People of Color Have Played in the Development of the Natural Sciences and Mathematics written by the young Frank E. Chapman in 1965 as he was serving a life sentence in a Missouri prison. Based on the original manuscript as well as correspondence, I will discuss Chapman ideas regarding the link between Black liberation in the United State and the history of science.
Répondant : Angel Pellerej (Masterant U-paris)