Introduction: Boris Hessen and the Dialectics of Natural Science Sean Winkler Boris Hessen (1893 – 1936)1 is best known for his talk at the 2nd International Congress of the History of Science and Technology in London in 1931, entitled “The Socio-Economic Roots of Newton‟s Principia”. The talk is considered among the most famous in […]
Category: 2019
Boris Hessen as Philosopher and Polemicist. Ideology, Politics and the New Physics in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s
Boris Hessen as Philosopher and Polemicist. Ideology, Politics and the New Physics in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s Paul Josephson Abstract. Boris Hessen, a Soviet philosopher and physicist active in the 1920s and 1930s, made significant contributions to the history of science, in particular the so-called externalist approach, and to the […]
Boris Hessen at the Crossroads of Science and Ideology. From International Circulation to the Soviet Context
Boris Hessen at the Crossroads of Science and Ideology. From International Circulation to the Soviet Context Gerardo Ienna Giulia Rispoli Abstract. This article is based on a joint endeavor. The first part introduces Hessen‘s theses and reconstructs their reception from the 1930s to the most contemporary research in Science and Technology Studies in an […]
Boris Hessen and Newton’s God
Boris Hessen and Newton’s God Ioannis Trisokkas Abstract. A significant thread in Boris Hessen‟s iconic essay, The Social and Economic Roots of Newton’s Principia (1931), is his critique of Newton‟s involving God in his physics. Contra Newton, Hessen believes that nature does not need God in order to function properly. Hessen gives two, quite […]
Translation of Boris Hessen’s “Preface to Articles by A. Einstein and J.J. Thomson”
Translation of Boris Hessen’s “Preface to Articles by A. Einstein and J.J. Thomson” Sean Winkler Abstract. The following is a translation of Boris Hessen‟s «Предисловие к статьям А. Эйнштейна и Дж. Дж. Томсона», which was published in the Soviet Journal, Под знаменем марксизма.1 The paper was an introduction to the Russian translations of Albert […]
Selected Bibliography
Selected Bibliography Sean Winkler Primary Literature2 English Letters from Boris Hessen to J.G. Crowther, 5 April 1934 – 26 June 1936. In Special Collections: The J.G. Crowther Archive; SxMs29/1/3/2/6/11, SxMs29/1/3/4/1/14. Sussex: University of Sussex Library, 1934–1936. “The Social and Economic Roots of Newton‟s „Principia‟.” In Science at the Crossroads: Papers Presented to the International […]