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SUMMARY:Cabinets\, eclipses and lightning rods: the role of curiosity in t
 he perception of science in 18th-century Russia - Alexander Iosad (Univers
 ity of Oxford)
DTSTART:20150119T130000Z
DTEND:20150119T141500Z
UID:TALK57284@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Margaret Carlyle
DESCRIPTION:The historiography of science in 18th-century Russia has large
 ly focused on the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences\, founded in 1725. Whi
 le understandable in the light of available sources\, this institutional b
 ias has sometimes obscured the larger issue of the place of science in con
 temporary Russian culture. By considering the kinds of objects and phenome
 na that attracted the attention of Russians in the first half of the centu
 ry\, we can learn more about the way European science was seen in a countr
 y that had little tradition of systematic study of nature and its relation
  to the wider culture of Russianelites. In particular\, we can trace the w
 ay in which different European approaches to nature\, introduced under the
  banner of Europeanization\, were appropriated and conflicted with each ot
 her as the century wore on. Ultimately\, the presentation will show that t
 he story of the Academy is just one part of a complex cultural landscape i
 n Russia before Catherine II. 
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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