Ofer Gal
Biographic Data
| ID | 1135935 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ofer Gal |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ofer |
| FAMILY NAME | Gal |
| SIGNATURE | GAL O |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Sydney |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2858-0137 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Skepticism’s Pictures
In Reply
Motion and Knowledge in the Changing Early Modern World
Science in the Age of Baroque
New Terms of Accommodation
Benjamin A. Elman, On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550–1900. A Cultural History of Modern Science in China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), xxxviii + 567 pp., ISBN 9780674016
Nature’s drawing
The ‘absolute existence’ of phlogiston
Long after its alleged demise, phlogiston was still presented, discussed and defended by leading chemists. Even some of the leading proponents of the new chemistry admitted its ‘absolute existence’. We demonstrate that what was defended under the title ‘phlogiston’ was no longer a particular hypothesis about combustion and respiration. Rather, it was a set of ontological and epistemological assumptions and the empirical practices associated with …
Baroque Optics and the Disappearance of the Observer
Seventeenth-century optics naturalizes the eye while estranging the mind from objects. A mere screen, on which rests a blurry array of light stains, the eye no longer furnishes the observer with genuine re-presentations of visible objects. The intellect is thus compelled to decipher flat images of no inherent epistemic value, accidental effects of a purely causal process, as vague, reversed reflections of wholly independent objects. Reflecting on…
The Archaeology of the Inverse Square Law
The Invention of Celestial Mechanics
How high up can one extend applicability of Descartes' fundamental mechanical dictum that each part of matter, considered individually, tends to continue its movement along straight lines? Not very far, if one judges by Descartes' own celestial speculations: the matter of heaven, in which planets are situated, unceasingly revolves. And how explanatorily powerful are Kepler's suppositions that the power that moves planets resides in body of sun' a…
The Archaeology of the Inverse Square Law
Producing knowledge in the workshop
Tropes and Topics in Scientific Discourse
The Argument This paper contains two main sections. In the first I suggest a mechanism of interpretation, based on a distinction between two aspects of meaning, analyzed using two kinds of rhetorical-poetical constructions: tropes to explore the linguistic relations—metaphors, metonyms, synecdoches, etc.—that endow terms with content, and topics to account for the structuring function of key expressions, which enables the recognition and adjudica…
Baroque Optics and the Disappearance of the Observer
Seventeenth-century optics naturalizes the eye while estranging the mind from objects. A mere screen, on which rests a blurry array of light stains, the eye no longer furnishes the observer with genuine re-presentations of visible objects. The intellect is thus compelled to decipher flat images of no inherent epistemic value, accidental effects of a purely causal process, as vague, reversed reflections of wholly independent objects. Reflecting on…
The ‘absolute existence’ of phlogiston
Long after its alleged demise, phlogiston was still presented, discussed and defended by leading chemists. Even some of the leading proponents of the new chemistry admitted its ‘absolute existence’. We demonstrate that what was defended under the title ‘phlogiston’ was no longer a particular hypothesis about combustion and respiration. Rather, it was a set of ontological and epistemological assumptions and the empirical practices associated with …
Science in the Age of Baroque
Nature’s drawing
The Invention of Celestial Mechanics
How high up can one extend applicability of Descartes' fundamental mechanical dictum that each part of matter, considered individually, tends to continue its movement along straight lines? Not very far, if one judges by Descartes' own celestial speculations: the matter of heaven, in which planets are situated, unceasingly revolves. And how explanatorily powerful are Kepler's suppositions that the power that moves planets resides in body of sun' a…
Tropes and Topics in Scientific Discourse
The Argument This paper contains two main sections. In the first I suggest a mechanism of interpretation, based on a distinction between two aspects of meaning, analyzed using two kinds of rhetorical-poetical constructions: tropes to explore the linguistic relations—metaphors, metonyms, synecdoches, etc.—that endow terms with content, and topics to account for the structuring function of key expressions, which enables the recognition and adjudica…
Producing knowledge in the workshop
The Invention of Celestial Mechanics
How high up can one extend applicability of Descartes' fundamental mechanical dictum that each part of matter, considered individually, tends to continue its movement along straight lines? Not very far, if one judges by Descartes' own celestial speculations: the matter of heaven, in which planets are situated, unceasingly revolves. And how explanatorily powerful are Kepler's suppositions that the power that moves planets resides in body of sun' a…
The Archaeology of the Inverse Square Law
The Archaeology of the Inverse Square Law
Baroque Optics and the Disappearance of the Observer
Seventeenth-century optics naturalizes the eye while estranging the mind from objects. A mere screen, on which rests a blurry array of light stains, the eye no longer furnishes the observer with genuine re-presentations of visible objects. The intellect is thus compelled to decipher flat images of no inherent epistemic value, accidental effects of a purely causal process, as vague, reversed reflections of wholly independent objects. Reflecting on…
New Terms of Accommodation
Benjamin A. Elman, On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550–1900. A Cultural History of Modern Science in China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), xxxviii + 567 pp., ISBN 9780674016
Nature’s drawing
The ‘absolute existence’ of phlogiston
Long after its alleged demise, phlogiston was still presented, discussed and defended by leading chemists. Even some of the leading proponents of the new chemistry admitted its ‘absolute existence’. We demonstrate that what was defended under the title ‘phlogiston’ was no longer a particular hypothesis about combustion and respiration. Rather, it was a set of ontological and epistemological assumptions and the empirical practices associated with …
Science in the Age of Baroque
Motion and Knowledge in the Changing Early Modern World
In Reply
Skepticism’s Pictures
Philosophy (8 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Historical Philosophy and Science (6 works) · History (6 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Physics (5 works) · Archaeology (4 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · History of Science and Medicine (4 works) · Art (3 works)