“…The practice of skrying is referred to only obliquely, beneath the heading of archemastrie. And although he cites his earlier natural philosophical work on astrology, Propaideumata aphoristica (London 1558, 1568), Dee makes no reference to another work: the Monas hieroglyphica (Antwerp, 1564), a short but obscure text in which tenets of alchemy are expounded with reference to the hieroglyphical monad, a figure which Dee described as encapsulating cabbalistic and alchemical precepts (see Clulee 1988Clulee , 2005also Josten 1964;Clulee 2001;Ha˚kansson 2001;Forshaw 2005).…”
Section: The Dangers Of Mathematicsmentioning
confidence: 97%
“…Indeed, Dee devoted some space in the Monas to considering the numerical significance of various weights and proportions of alchemical ingredients (Clulee 2005). The outcomes of alchemy -the transmutation of cheaper metals into precious ones, and the manufacture of healthful elixirs -are also highly utilitarian, providing the basis for numerous proposals made to Elizabeth I and her councillors by Dee's contemporaries, including several of his acquaintances (see Feingold 1984;Rampling 2009;also Moran 1991;Smith 1994;Nummedal 2007).…”
“…The practice of skrying is referred to only obliquely, beneath the heading of archemastrie. And although he cites his earlier natural philosophical work on astrology, Propaideumata aphoristica (London 1558, 1568), Dee makes no reference to another work: the Monas hieroglyphica (Antwerp, 1564), a short but obscure text in which tenets of alchemy are expounded with reference to the hieroglyphical monad, a figure which Dee described as encapsulating cabbalistic and alchemical precepts (see Clulee 1988Clulee , 2005also Josten 1964;Clulee 2001;Ha˚kansson 2001;Forshaw 2005).…”
Section: The Dangers Of Mathematicsmentioning
confidence: 97%
“…Indeed, Dee devoted some space in the Monas to considering the numerical significance of various weights and proportions of alchemical ingredients (Clulee 2005). The outcomes of alchemy -the transmutation of cheaper metals into precious ones, and the manufacture of healthful elixirs -are also highly utilitarian, providing the basis for numerous proposals made to Elizabeth I and her councillors by Dee's contemporaries, including several of his acquaintances (see Feingold 1984;Rampling 2009;also Moran 1991;Smith 1994;Nummedal 2007).…”
“…In the same vein, John Dee in 1564 proposed a symbol that he called monas hieroglyphica , which he took to encapsulate the essence of the universe (Figure 2; for further details, see Josten, 1964; Clulee, 2005, 2006). This compact symbol incorporates a circle that represents the sun, a semicircle that represents the moon, a cross, and the zodiacal sign of Aries.Figure 2John Dee's monas hieroglyphica and its component elements.…”
Section: Laws Of Nature As Expressive Symbolsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The contrast between images and words that he drew on that occasion should be qualified: after all, as Gombrich (1956;Mitchell 1986, pp. 75-94) (Boas 1993, p. 14) In the same vein, John Dee in 1564 proposed a symbol that he called monas hieroglyphica, which he took to encapsulate the essence of the universe (Josten 1964;Clulee 2005). This compact symbol incorporates a circle that represents the sun, a semicircle that represents the Moon, a cross, and the zodiacal sign of Aries.…”
Research into visual reasoning up to now has focused on images that are literal depictions of their objects. I argue in this article that an important further mode of visual reasoning operates on images that depict objects metaphorically. Such images form part of the class of expressive symbols: they are found, for example, in allegorical representations in works of visual art, studied by iconology. They were also a common way of encapsulating insights about the universe in natural philosophy in the Renaissance. Many writers assume that expressive symbols have vanished from modern science, but I argue in the second part of the article that mathematical law statements in present-day physics should be seen, in part, as images that constitute expressive symbols of the world. In support of this view, I offer evidence that law statements relate to their objects metaphorically and that physicists engage with them primarily through visual inspection and visual reasoning.
REASONING WITH VISUAL METAPHORS 2 1 Visual reasoning with literal depictionsThis article has two aims. The first is to broaden the scope of discussions of visual reasoning by arguing that visual reasoning operates on a larger class of images than hitherto acknowledged. Whereas discussions of visual reasoning have so far focused on images taken to be literal depictions of the objects of the reasoning, I will seek to extend the domain to cover images that constitute-for want of a better word at this stage-metaphorical depictions of objects. I will proceed partly by bringing into contact bodies of literature that are usually kept apart. The second aim, to which I will turn in section 4, is to argue that this account applies also to law statements in present-day sciences such as physics. I will argue both that law statements partly constitute metaphorical depictions of their objects, and that physicists achieve understanding of them mainly by visual inspection and visual reasoning.
“…5 John Dee and alchemy , Birkbeck College (University of London), 28 May 2005 (organised by Stephen Clucas and the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry); papers published in Clucas (2005).…”
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