History of Knowledg

This book explores the hypothesis that the types of inscription or text used by a given community of practitioners are designed in the very same process as the one producing concepts and results. The book sets out to show how, in exactly the same way as for the other outcomes of scientific activity, all kinds of factors, cognitive as well as cultural, technological, social or institutional, conjoin in shaping the various types of writings and texts used by the practitioners of the sciences. To make this point, the book opts for a genuinely multicultural approach to the texts produced in the context of practices of knowledge.

Baragwanath Hospital, Soweto illustrates how this rapidly growing, underfunded but surprisingly effective institution found the niche that allowed it to exist, to provide medical care to a massive patient body and at times even to flourish in the apartheid state. The book offers new ways of exploring the history of apartheid, apartheid medicine and health care.

This book explores the history of modern human creativity/innovation, highlighting examples of solutions to basic human’ needs that have been developed over time. The title – Femina Problematis Solvendis – is a play on the scientific classifications of humans (Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo sapiens), but with special focus on inventions pioneered by women (“femina”) and is intended to suggest that a defining characteristic of modern humans is our fundamental ability to solve problems (i.e., problem-solving woman = Femina problematis solvendis), Written by David H. Cropley, an internationally recognised expert on creativity and innovation, it also builds on his previous book “Homo Problematis Solvendis –Problem-solving Man”, published in 2019.

This book investigates the history of writing as a cultural practice in a variety of contexts and periods. It analyses the rituals and practices determining intimate or ‘ordinary’ writing as well as bureaucratic and religious writing. From the inscribed images of ‘pre-literate’ societies, to the democratization of writing in the modern era, access to writing technology and its public and private uses are examined. In ten studies, presented by leading historians of scribal culture from seven countries, the book investigates the uses of writing in non-alphabetical as well as alphabetical script, in societies ranging from Native America and ancient Korea to modern Europe. The authors emphasise the material characteristics of writing, and in so doing they pose questions about the definition of writing itself. Drawing on expertise in various disciplines, they give an up-to-date account of the current state of knowledge in a field at the forefront of ‘Book History’.

Italy is well known for its prominent economists, as well as for the typical public profile they have constantly revealed. But, when facing an illiberal and totalitarian regime, how closely did Italian economists collaborate with government in shaping its economic and political institutions, or work independently?

This book attempts to fill two gaps which exist in the standard textbooks on the History of Mathematics. One is to provide students with material that could encourage more critical thinking. General textbooks, attempting to cover three thousand years of mathematical history, must necessarily oversimplify almost everything, the practice of which can scarcely promote a critical approach to the subject. For this reason, Craig Smorynski chooses a more narrow but deeper coverage of a few select topics.

Most electrical and electronics engineers and technicians know very little about the history of their chosen profession. During their education and training they are offered minimal information on this subject-what they do learn often comes in the form of anecdotal footnotes in textbooks or as the reminiscences of an older generation.