Séminaire PhilSci

Nous aurons le plaisir d'écouter : Matteo Costa

Titre : Sponge Words and Anachronisms in the History of Science"

Résumé : This presentation brings together two interconnected lines of inquiry in the philosophy and history of science. The first introduces the notion of sponge words – terms that absorb multiple, often contradictory meanings and provide apparent explanatory closure while systematically evading empirical constraint. Drawing on cases such as pneuma, ether, phlogiston, and caloric, I argue that the progressive elimination or refinement of such concepts constitutes a fundamental, underappreciated dimension of scientific maturation. The second line of inquiry examines the historiographical risk posed by anachronistic categories, using Isaac Newton as a central case study. The seemingly irreconcilable contradiction between ‘Newton the modern scientist’ and ‘Newton the alchemist and Priest of Nature’ dissolves once we critically interrogate the retrospective imposition of contemporary notions of science onto his natural philosophy. Together, these two perspectives converge on a broader argument: the history of science demands both conceptual discipline – resisting premature explanatory closure – and methodological reflexivity, remaining vigilant against the distortions that arise when the present uncritically imposes itself upon the past.