Professor Nicholas Jardine FBA
History of Science
Early Modern History
Philosophy of Science
About this Fellow
Nicholas Jardine (born 4 September 1943) is a British mathematician, philosopher of science and its history, historian of astronomy and natural history, and amateur mycologist. He is Emeritus Professor at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) at the University of Cambridge. Jardine was educated at Monkton Combe School in Somerset and read natural sciences at King's College, Cambridge. He then worked as a King's College and Royal Society Research Fellow on the automation of classification and information retrieval and its applications to biological taxonomy and diagnosis. In 1975 he moved to Darwin College, Cambridge and to the Department of History and Philosophy of Science. Since then he has developed a question-based pragmatic philosophy of science (inspired by the work of Ian Hacking), as well as studying the history of early-modern astronomy and natural history. Currently he is writing a book on the aims and methods of histories of the sciences.
Appointments
Current post
- Professor of History and Philosophy of the Sciences, University of Cambridge
Past Appointments
- Royal Society Research Fellow, Unknown Unknown, 1968 - 1973
- Editor, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Unknown Unknown, 1987
- Professor of History and Philosophy of the Sciences, University of Cambridge, 1992
- Professor of History and Philosophy of the Sciences, University of Cambridge, University of Cambridge, 1992
- , University of Cambridge, 1975
- Professor of History and Philosophy of the Sciences, University of Cambridge, University of Cambridge, 1992
Publications
Christoph Rothmann's Treatise on the Comet of 1585: An Edition and Translation with Accompanying Essays (with M.A. Granada and A. Mosley) 2014, Leiden, Brill
La guerre des astronomes, 2 vols 2008
Mathematical Taxonomy 1971
The Birth of History and Philosophy of Science. Kepler's A defence of Tycho against Ursus with Essays on its Provenance and Significance 1988 (revised edition)
The Scenes of Inquiry 2000 (2nd edition)
Other Early Modern History to 1850 Fellows
Professor Knud Haakonssen
History of moral, political & legal thought 1600-1800, especially natural law & rights; Enlightenment in Germany, Scandinavia & Scotland; scholarly editions of eighteenth century texts.
Professor Peter Mandler
Modern British history, especially cultural, intellectual and social; the histories of the humanities and social sciences in comparative perspective
Professor Simon Franklin
History and culture of Russia & Eastern Europe, Medieval & Early Modern; cultural and social history of information technologies
Professor Julian Hoppit
The economic & political history of Britain, 1650-1850, including the history of economic thought.
