Scholar's Award - The Matter of Calculation: Early Modern Calculating Machines, Statecraft and Thinking about Thinking

学者奖 - 计算的问题：早期现代计算机器、治国之道和关于思考的思考

• 批准号: 0551849
• 负责人: Matthew Jones
• 金额: $ 13.95万
• 依托单位: Columbia University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-06-01 至 2008-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0551849&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Scholar; Award; Matter; Calculation; Early

The Matter of Calculation:Early Modern Calculating Machines, Statecraft and Thinking about ThinkingMatthew L. Jones Columbia UniversityIn the seventeenth century mathematicians devised calculating machines capable ofperforming arithmetical operations long considered the exclusive province of rational beings. The new machines invented by Blaise Pascal and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz challenged the boundary between the merely animal and rational capacities of human beings. Existing histories of early modern calculating machines largely chart their technological development with little attention to philosophical and political context or uses. Pascal and Leibniz initially conceived and produced their machines as practical tools of calculation for governance and scientific work. This project will first describe the local bureaucratic, political, and technical contexts, largely in France and Germany, in which Pascal and Leibniz developed their machines; and then will explore the philosophical, technological, and political implications they and others found in their machines into the eighteenth century. The project will also examine the work of Samuel Morland, an English artisan who developed his own calculating machine in the eighteenth century. The project will rely heavily on analysis of archival sources in Germany, England and France. Intellectual merit: This project will go beyond existing technical histories of the calculating machines by providing an informed study of the political and bureaucratic contexts of their creation, their intended uses, and their philosophical and scientific implications. The project will make a significant contribution to the history of modern calculation, to the role of calculation in statecraft, and to a history of philosophy that pays close attention to the concrete, technical work done by philosophers. Broader impact: The project aims to produce a text for an audience of general well educated readers that (1) explores early modern concerns about the boundary between machine and human intelligence, (2) compares them with contemporary questions about artificial intelligence, and (3) underscores the interplay of intellectual innovation and artisanal skill in technological change.

计算的问题：早期现代计算机器、治国之道和对思考的思考马修·l·琼斯哥伦比亚大学17世纪数学家们发明了能够执行算术运算的计算机器，这种运算长久以来被认为是理性人类的专属领域。布莱兹·帕斯卡和戈特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨发明的新机器挑战了纯粹的动物能力和人类理性能力之间的界限。早期现代计算机的现有历史很大程度上描绘了它们的技术发展，很少关注哲学和政治背景或用途。帕斯卡和莱布尼茨最初设想并生产他们的机器是作为治理和科学工作的实用计算工具。这个项目将首先描述当地的官僚、政治和技术背景，主要是在法国和德国，帕斯卡和莱布尼茨在那里开发了他们的机器；然后将探讨他们和其他人在他们的机器中发现的哲学，技术和政治含义，直到18世纪。该项目还将考察塞缪尔·莫兰的作品，他是一位英国工匠，在18世纪发明了自己的计算机。该项目将在很大程度上依赖于德国、英国和法国的档案资料分析。知识价值：这个项目将超越现有的计算机器的技术历史，通过提供对其创造的政治和官僚背景、其预期用途以及其哲学和科学含义的知情研究。该项目将对现代计算史、计算在治国方略中的作用以及密切关注哲学家所做的具体技术工作的哲学史做出重大贡献。更广泛的影响：该项目旨在为受过良好教育的普通读者提供一份文本，(1)探讨早期现代对机器和人类智能之间边界的关注，(2)将其与当代有关人工智能的问题进行比较，(3)强调技术变革中智力创新和手工技能的相互作用。