School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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    Craft to applied science : the Institution of Civil Engineers, London and the development of scientific civil engineering in Britain, 1818-1880
    Harper, Brian C. S ( 1996)
    This thesis examines civil engineering practitioners and practice in Britain in middle part of the nineteenth century. The background and education of a sample of the engineers of the period, who were members of the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, have been determined from the published records of that Institution. This showed, contrary to what has been commonly believed, that civil engineers were drawn from the middle and upper strata of society. They were well educated for the time. Many had advanced schooling, and almost a quarter of them has some university education. The technical papers on civil engineering subjects were also examined over the period from when they commenced publication in 1837 to 1880 to assess any change that may have taken place in the way the engineers approached their problems by adopting or adapting techniques developed in areas of science to their task so as to turn engineering towards applied science. This examination had to be restricted to a few representative areas of civil engineering activity, and structural design, hydrology and hydraulics, foundations and stability of slopes, materials and railway construction were taken as being fairly representative of the range of tasks faced by civil engineers. This study showed a slow and erratic movement towards embracing "scientific methods" into engineering practice. It became established in the field of structural design, but hardly impacted on the approach to railway permanent way or design, or in the area of foundations and slope stability. There were moves however in all areas. Interestingly these moves were generally led by members who had a university training. Their names appear in many of the areas studied indicating they made a significant contribution to shifting engineering towards applied science.
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    An unreasonable profession : spiritualism and mediumship between the wars in Britain
    Hazelgrove, Jennifer P ( 1996)
    In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Spiritualist claims that the dead survive in another world and communicate with the living became a subject of heated debate within English society. Originating in America in the eighteen-forties, Spiritualism found ready converts in England. By 1870, many periodicals were devoted to chronicling the activities of believers, while newspaper articles, church sermons and scientific reports issued a stream of diverse interpretations to a fascinated audience. Spiritualism has become a subject of lively historical interest in recent times, but most historians assume that it was a Victorian and Edwardian phenomenon, with little relevance in post World War I Britain. I began this study with similar assumptions, but as my research progressed, it became clear that the number of people who identified as Spiritualists grew in the interwar years and that Spiritualism was as controversial during this period as in the previous century. In sketching its passage and growth between the wars, I emphasise Spiritualism's ability to absorb and organise both modem and ancient tropes. As the movement continued to gain in popularity the debate over its meaning and possibilities for humankind grew apace. At the centre of these controversies stood the figure of the medium. The mediumistic persona was constructed inside and outside the Spiritualist movement as feminine. This project engages with issues of gender, subjectivity and power in relation to the development of the mediumistic identity. In doing so I stress the profound ambiguity of that identity. The medium, as represented through diverse narratives, appeared as both subject and object, the source of truth and lies, and the mother of life and death. It was always unclear whether she was psychically gifted or demented, or whether she intended to harm or heal. Confronted with opposing narratives, a coherent sense of "self' was not easily achieved by a medium. Ultimately, this study attempts to show that the mediumistic "self' was never a stable result of private conviction, but a deeply unstable and continually shifting production that developed within particular historical circumstances
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    The early Royal Society of London
    Taylor, Alan B. H ( 1989)
    The Early Royal Society of London - Alan B. H. Taylor This thesis examines the factors that influenced the Royal Society from c1663 to c1681. Included in these factors are the approaches to knowing of the time and the background intellectual beliefs from which they were derived, as well as the Society's administration, its activities and its approaches The findings of this thesis are that the classical intellectual framework played an influential role, as did the administration' of the Society, in its operations, also it is claimed that the Fellows of the Royal Society did not achieve their plans to conduct the investigations carried out at the Society in a Baconian style. I commence this work with an evaluation of the historical methods employed by writers on the Royal Society to date. In section one the emphasis of the writing is on the influence of the classical inteIlectual structure (in contrast to its content) on influential thinkers of the time. The section commences with the argument that the classical structure was implanted at Oxford and Cambridge in the thoughts of its students. Included in this chapter is a list of the influential Fellows of the Royal Society showing those who attended Oxford and Cambridge. These Fellows listed are assigned a weighting according to their degree of activity in the Society. An examination is made in subsequent chapters of the influence of the classical framework on Bacon, Harvey and Hooke. Included in the latter is the point that Hooke believed he could use the processes of analysis and synthesis as part of a process of discovery. Finally in this section the approaches to knowing of a mystic and a non-mystic are contrasted and the commoalities and differences highlighted. Again the classical framework is shown to be of influence. With the above as a background an evaluation is then carried out of the administration, approaches and activities of the Royal Society. Initially the focus is on the intended administration and approach of the Society. The claim is made that the Society's intention was to empirically evaluate all claims to knowing, both those made in the past and in the future. The Fellows were not against the teachings of Aristotle per se but were opposed to the blind acceptance of any claims on the basis of authority The planned administration and approach of the Royal Society, as will be shown in subsequent chapters, were of considerable influence on the day-to-day operations of the Society. In the following chapters, which cover the periods spanned by the years 1663, 1672 and 1680, the fortunes of the above facets of the Society's existence are addressed. It is argued that although initially the Society planned to conduct its operations in a Baconian style, this did not eventuate. The Society moved from its putative goal of initiating and conducting co-operative research to being an institution that reacted to and facilitated the contributions of its members. Nonetheless it is shown that in 1680 the Fellows did conduct a co-operative investigation, and investigation in which the Fellows placed theory first propounded by Hooke. In the approaches to knowing that are carried out under the Society's auspices the debt to the classical framework is most revealed in the episode of Newton's theory of colour and in the process of analysis, with its classical connotations, in the above mentioned 1680 investigation. Also discussed is the style of reporting that the Fellows employed in the investigations carried out at the Society and in the journals. It is argued that the Philosophical Transactions and the Philosophical Collections did not reflect the activities carried out at the Society.