Medical Electricity, Embodied Experiences, and Knowledge Construction in Europe and the Atlantic World, c.1740-1840
ELBOW investigates the influence of lay embodied experiences on eighteenth-century scientific knowledge construction through the study of medical electricity, aiming to redefine historical epistemologies.
Projectdetails
Introduction
Scientific knowledge has long been understood to be subjective and situated. ELBOW examines this situatedness from a previously unexplored historical viewpoint by investigating the role of lay embodied experiences in eighteenth-century scientific knowledge construction.
Premise of the Project
The project starts from the premise that knowledge is necessarily filtered through individuals’ embodied cognition and therefore tactile, sensory, and experiential. Using eighteenth-century medical electricity as an empirical case study, the project analyses how patients’ embodied and experiential knowledge influenced the medical knowledge emerging from electrotherapies, as well as whose experiences and ways of knowing ended up contributing to scientific knowledge.
Case Study: Medical Electricity
As a novel experimental therapy, medical electricity provides an exceptional window into practices of knowledge construction, authorisation, and marginalisation. Since electrical treatments and the bodily sensations they created were meticulously recorded by doctors and patients alike, these descriptions can be analysed as repositories of experiences and understandings of embodiment as well as epistemological beliefs regarding body, life, and matter.
Vantage Point for Examination
Medical electricity offers the perfect vantage point for examining popular epistemological understandings, their interaction with scientific epistemologies, and the way they manifested themselves in electrotherapeutic practices.
Methodological Approach
ELBOW devises an innovative methodological approach to tease out patients’ embodied experiences and epistemological beliefs from a variety of sources, including:
- Scientific treatises
- Doctors’ casebooks
- Advertisements
- Fiction
- Ego-documents
Combining phenomenology and cognitive science with history of medicine methods, the project proposes a new, theoretically sophisticated approach to analysing historical everyday experiences and embodied knowledge—and thereby a turn towards a new experiential paradigm in the history of knowledge.
Financiële details & Tijdlijn
Financiële details
Subsidiebedrag | € 1.499.775 |
Totale projectbegroting | € 1.499.775 |
Tijdlijn
Startdatum | 1-9-2022 |
Einddatum | 31-8-2027 |
Subsidiejaar | 2022 |
Partners & Locaties
Projectpartners
- HELSINGIN YLIOPISTOpenvoerder
Land(en)
Vergelijkbare projecten binnen European Research Council
Project | Regeling | Bedrag | Jaar | Actie |
---|---|---|---|---|
Medieval Placebo Effect: Hope and Belief in Healthcare in Christian Southern Europe 1100-1500This project explores the role of hope, belief, and trust in late medieval medicine, linking historical healing practices to modern concepts of the placebo effect to inform contemporary healthcare challenges. | ERC Starting... | € 1.487.500 | 2024 | Details |
Acting Out Disease. How Patient Organizations Shaped Modern MedicineThis project analyzes the historical impact of 20th-century patient organizations on modern medicine, exploring their role in shaping disease concepts and patient involvement in healthcare. | ERC Starting... | € 1.499.773 | 2023 | Details |
Fever. Global Histories of (a) Disease, 1750–1840This ERC project investigates the historical significance and global perceptions of fever in the Atlantic world from 1750 to 1840 through interdisciplinary archival research. | ERC Consolid... | € 1.730.895 | 2023 | Details |
Network epistemology in practiceThis project aims to analyze collective research practices at CERN using digital humanities tools to enhance understanding of knowledge generation in large scientific collaborations. | ERC Consolid... | € 1.992.181 | 2023 | Details |
Reassessing Late Medieval Pharmacology: Logical and Metaphysical Tools in the Medical ContextReMedY explores the influence of modist philosophy on late medieval rational pharmacology, aiming to connect disparate research fields through critical editions and interdisciplinary analysis. | ERC Starting... | € 1.498.828 | 2025 | Details |
Medieval Placebo Effect: Hope and Belief in Healthcare in Christian Southern Europe 1100-1500
This project explores the role of hope, belief, and trust in late medieval medicine, linking historical healing practices to modern concepts of the placebo effect to inform contemporary healthcare challenges.
Acting Out Disease. How Patient Organizations Shaped Modern Medicine
This project analyzes the historical impact of 20th-century patient organizations on modern medicine, exploring their role in shaping disease concepts and patient involvement in healthcare.
Fever. Global Histories of (a) Disease, 1750–1840
This ERC project investigates the historical significance and global perceptions of fever in the Atlantic world from 1750 to 1840 through interdisciplinary archival research.
Network epistemology in practice
This project aims to analyze collective research practices at CERN using digital humanities tools to enhance understanding of knowledge generation in large scientific collaborations.
Reassessing Late Medieval Pharmacology: Logical and Metaphysical Tools in the Medical Context
ReMedY explores the influence of modist philosophy on late medieval rational pharmacology, aiming to connect disparate research fields through critical editions and interdisciplinary analysis.
Vergelijkbare projecten uit andere regelingen
Project | Regeling | Bedrag | Jaar | Actie |
---|---|---|---|---|
MagnetoElectric and Ultrasonic Technology for Advanced BRAIN modulationMETA-BRAIN aims to develop non-invasive, precise control of brain activity using magnetoelectric nanoarchitectures and ultrasonic technologies, enhancing treatment for neurological disorders. | EIC Pathfinder | € 2.987.655 | 2024 | Details |
MagnetoElectric and Ultrasonic Technology for Advanced BRAIN modulation
META-BRAIN aims to develop non-invasive, precise control of brain activity using magnetoelectric nanoarchitectures and ultrasonic technologies, enhancing treatment for neurological disorders.