Invention, Philosophy and Technology in the Seventeenth Century

This symposium marks the Fifth Annual Thomas Browne Seminar, a forum for exploring the intellectual history of the seventeenth century

Download Programme: TSB5 Programme (PDF , 313kb)

The symposium will look at the history of invention, technology and philosophy in the early modern era, and the ways in which material life changed in the period.  It will consider how the period constituted the relationships between science, philosophy and craft, or between trade and society.

Thomas Browne Seminar Overview

The Thomas Browne Seminar is a forum for exploring the intellectual history of the seventeenth century, the relations between its apparently incompatible disciplines and the social, scientific and political contexts in which they arose. It is not, by any means, restricted to Thomas Browne himself, but also examines more broadly the intellectual culture in the mid-seventeenth century.

Papers are invited on any aspect of mid-century culture, the history of science and scholarship, religious and antiquarian thought, natural history, politics and the history of trivia, in particular, but not restricted to, those related to Browne. As the seminar will involve an ongoing series of meetings, ideas for future seminars are also invited.

The Thomas Browne Seminar will consider publications of its proceedings and the website will continue to grow. In particular, the bibliography of scholarly work will be expanded. See the Thomas Browne Website

The TBS is run jointly by the Department of English and Related Literature and the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies. Thomas Browne was a significant figure in the scholarly and scientific community of the seventeenth century, who nevertheless defies categorisation and whose blend of humanism, scholasticism and natural philosophy is testament to the intellectual flux of the period.

For further information see: http://www.york.ac.uk/english/news-events/browne/

See also the Thomas Browne Project - Oxford University Press commission for complete works
Th Browne project (PDF , 500kb)