Between the genesis of computer science in the 1960s and the advent of the World Wide Web around 1990, computer science evolved in significant ways. The author has termed this period the second age of computer science. This book describes its evolution in the form of several interconnected parallel histories.
Explorations in Cognitive History
Utilizing cognitive history, this book innovatively merges cognitive science with historical research, offering a fresh perspective on Renaissance studies. It challenges traditional methodologies, providing new insights into the era by examining the interplay between cognitive processes and historical contexts.
The exploration of art and technology reveals how cognitive history can bridge the gap between these two seemingly opposing cultures. Through case studies of both ancient and modern artifacts, the book uncovers the connections and reconciliations that exist, highlighting the interplay between creativity and innovation. This unique perspective invites readers to reconsider the relationship between these disciplines and how they have influenced each other throughout history.
By using the fresh investigative language of cognitive history, a symbiosis of the methods of cognitive science and historical inquiry, this book departs from almost all previous approaches to Renaissance studies. The Renaissance has attracted the attention of distinguished scholars from many different vantage points -- political, social, economic, intellectual, and cultural. In this volume, Subrata Dasgupta sheds an alternative light on the Renaissance by considering it as a creative phenomenon. To be creative is to make history by producing material and/or abstract artifacts that are both new and consequential; to be creative also entails drawing on history and on the culture of the time. Most significantly, the creative process occurs in individual minds: it is a cognitive process of a very special kind. Beginning with a 'prehistory' set in classical Greece and medieval Islam, this book explores a variety of inventions and discoveries through the 14th-16th centuries, mainly in Italy, in the humanities, painting, architecture, craft technology, anatomy, natural science, and engineering. This book will be of interest not only to Renaissance scholars but also to students interested in Renaissance history and the nature of the creative tradition.