Boston Flora

Tag: St. John’s University

  • Wednesday, April 8, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing

    “See for yourself!” was the clarion call of the 1600s. Scientists peered at nature through microscopes and telescopes, making the discoveries in astronomy, physics, chemistry, and anatomy that ignited the Scientific Revolution. Artists investigated nature with lenses, mirrors, and camera obscuras, creating extraordinarily detailed paintings of flowers and insects, and scenes filled with realistic effects of light, shadow, and color. By extending the reach of sight the new optical instruments prompted the realization that there is more than meets the eye. But they also raised questions about how we see and what it means to see. In answering these questions, scientists and artists in Delft changed how we perceive the world. Author of The Philosophical Breakfast Club, a Scientific American Notable Book, Laura Snyder, professor of philosophy at St. John’s University, returns to the Arnold Arboretum on Wednesday, April 8 at 7 pm to share her latest book, Eye of the Beholder, in which she pairs painter with natural philosopher to explain the revelatory ways of seeing in the 17th century. Fee $5 Arboretum member, $10 nonmember. Register online at https://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?DayPlanner=1411&DayPlannerDate=4/8/2015.

  • Wednesday, May 9, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Philosophical Breakfast Club and the Invention of the “Scientist”

    In 1812, four remarkable men met at Cambridge University: Charles Babbage, John Herschel, Richard Jones and William Whewell. Recognizing that they shared a love of science (as well as good food and drink), they began to meet on Sunday mornings to talk about the state of science in Britain and the world at large. Inspired by the great seventeenth-century scientific reformer and political figure Francis Bacon, the Philosophical Breakfast Club plotted to bring about a scientific revolution—one which privileged an evidence-based, inductive method of discovery, and one which asserted the need for science to serve the public good. In her book, The Philosophical Breakfast Club, Laura Snyder follows the intertwined lives and works of these men over the next 60 years, and shows that by the end of their lives they had succeeded, even beyond their wildest dreams, in bringing about a scientific revolution. She will speak about one aspect of the revolution they wrought: the shift from the amateur natural philosopher to the professional scientist.  Dr. Snyder, Associate Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University, will speak at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum on Wednesday, May 9, from 7 – 8:30 pm.  Register online at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.  Fee: Free for Arboretum members; $15 nonmembers.