Senior Seminar: Week 4

Mechanical Objectivity I

Back to the Syllabus

Drawing (A) and images (B) of Golgi-impregnated neurons of the cerebral cortex. (A) The drawing is Plate I from Golgi (1885). In the legend Golgi stated
that the plate, illustrating “some types of ganglion cells in the cerebral cortex,” is especially destined to show the origin and branching of the axon (“the only nervous
prolongation of each ganglion cell”); the cells are from the frontal (“anterior central”; cells 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 10) and occipital (cells 3, 6–8) human cerebral cortex. The
legend states that, on the basis of their axonal ramifications, cells 1 and 3 illustrate examples of the first type of neurons (currently named as “Golgi type I,” see text)
and cell 2 an example of the second type (currently “Golgi type II”). The legend also states that the axon could not be followed because it became too thin “destined to
get lost in the diffuse net.” Scale bar in (B): 30μm. (From Bentivoglio et al. (2019), “The Original Histological Slides of Camillo Golgi and His Discoveries on Neuronal Structure.” Frontiers in Neuroanatomy 13.3.)

Synopsis

What is mechanical about mechanical objectivity? What is the photography’s role in the 19th century science and culture?

Assigned Reading

Daston and Galison, Ch. 3 (pp. 115–161) [46 pages]

By Noon on Thursday, February 11

Annotate the Daston and Galison reading on Perusall.

By the end of the week

Review Writing Workshop 1 and check the writing assignment for Workshop 2 here.