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SUMMARY:To graze and virtue: Anders Gabriel Duhre as a virtuous maker of u
 seful knowledge in early 18th-century Sweden - Jacob Orrje (Department of 
 History and Philosophy of Science)
DTSTART:20110209T130000Z
DTEND:20110209T140000Z
UID:TALK28556@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Alexandra Bacopoulos-Viau
DESCRIPTION:In the autumn of 1730 two groups of peasants inspected the sta
 te of the king's meadow at Ultuna just outside Uppsala in Sweden. Had the 
 tenant let \ntoo many animals graze the meadow\, and therefore put his own
  short time profit before the preservation of the king's property? One gro
 up thought so\, the other thought not. At stake in these inspections was t
 he virtue of the mathematician Anders Gabriel Duhre (1680?-1739) and of hi
 s "Laboratorium mathematico-oeconomicum".\n\nDuhre had been granted the le
 ase of Ultuna in 1723\, after having sent two memorials to the Swedish Die
 t. Its yield was to fund a Laboratorium for the making of useful mechanica
 l knowledge and would make the Laboratorium self-sufficient. But the proje
 ct was not uncontroversial and soon Duhre was drawn into an array of confl
 icts. Though the local court in the end deemed that the meadow had not bee
 n damaged\, Duhre still lost his lease in the Diet of 1731. This and many 
 other conflicts had affected his ability to perform as a maker of useful k
 nowledge.\n\nBy analysing these conflicts\, I show how agriculture\, craft
 s\, mathematics and mechanics converged in Duhre's project. I show how Duh
 re performed a multitude of roles to make his project credible: for exampl
 e those of the mathematicus\, the public servant\, and the responsible far
 mer. Duhre's \nstatus as a knowledge maker was what was at stake when the 
 two groups of peasants evaluated the muddy meadow and Duhre's ultimate fai
 lure to perform \nthese roles was what led to the end of his short-lived L
 aboratorium.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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