Nick Jardine Explained

Nicholas Jardine FBA (born 4 September 1943) is a British mathematician, philosopher of science and its history, historian of astronomy and natural history, and amateur mycologist. He is Emeritus Professor at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) at the University of Cambridge.^[1]

Career

Jardine was educated at Monkton Combe School in Somerset and read natural sciences at King's College, Cambridge. He then worked as a King's College and Royal Society Research Fellow on the automation of classification and information retrieval and its applications to biological taxonomy and diagnosis. In 1975 he moved to Darwin College, Cambridge and to the Department of History and Philosophy of Science. Since then he has developed a question-based pragmatic philosophy of science (inspired by the work of Ian Hacking), as well as studying the history of early-modern astronomy and natural history, and reflecting on the methodology of the history of the sciences.

From 1987–2011 he was Senior Editor of Studies in History and Philosophy of Science and from 1998 of Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. Since his retirement in 2010 he has been Senior Consultant to the Cambridge Scientific Heritage Project (2010–13) and principal investigator of the project Diagrams, Figures and the Transformation of Astronomy, 1450–1650 (2008–14) http://www.astronomicalimages.group.cam.ac.uk

Hobbies

Jardine was a founding member in 1988 of the popular research seminar "The Cabinet of Natural History (Cambridge Group for the History of Natural History and the Environmental Sciences)". This is organised by staff and students of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, and in term time it holds weekly seminars led by academic speakers. Jardine is a keen amateur mycologist and for over twenty years has led the annual HPS fungus hunt.^[2]

Personal life

Jardine married historian Lisa Bronowski in 1969, divorcing in 1979; the couple had two children.^[3]

Selected publications

• Jardine, Nicholas and Sibson, Robin (1971) Mathematical Taxonomy, Wiley: London and New York
• Jardine, Nicholas and van Rijsbergen, C. J. (1974) Automatic Document Classification and Retrieval, Office for Scientific and Technical Information Report No. 5134, distributed by the National Lending Library
• Jardine, Nicholas (1984) The Birth of History and Philosophy of Science. Kepler's 'A Defence of Tycho against Ursus' with Essays on its Provenance and Significance, Cambridge University Press (2nd rev. ed. 1988)
• Jardine, Nicholas (1986) The Fortunes of Inquiry, Clarendon Press: Oxford (1986)
• Cunningham, Andrew and Jardine, Nicholas eds (1990) Romanticism and the Sciences, Cambridge University Press.
• Jardine, Nicholas (1991) The Scenes of Inquiry: On the Reality of Questions in the Sciences, Oxford University Press (2nd ed. with supplementary essays 2000)
• Jardine, Nicholas, Secord, J.A., and Spary, E.C. eds (1996) Cultures of Natural History, Cambridge University Press^[4] hbk ; pbk
• Frasca-Spada, Marina and Jardine, Nicholas eds (2000) Books and the Sciences in History, Cambridge University Press ^[5]
• Jardine, Nicholas, Frasca-Spada, Marina, Raven, Faith and Stearn, W. T. eds (2001) Plants and Plant Lore in Ancient Greece by J. E. Raven, Leopard's Head: Oxford;^[6]
• Jardine, Nicholas and Segonds, Alain-Philippe eds (2008) La Guerre des astronomes: La querelle au sujet de l'origine du système géo-héliocentrique à la fin du XVIe siècle, Les Belles Lettres: Paris, 3 vols
• Jardine, Nicholas, and Raphael, R. eds (2010) Forms and Functions of Early Modern Celestial Imagery, Part I, special issue of Journal for the History of Astronomy 41/3
• Jardine, Nicholas, and Raphael, R. eds (2011) Forms and Functions of Early Modern Celestial Imagery, Part II, special issue of Journal for the History of Astronomy 42/1
• Jardine, Nicholas, and Fay, I. eds (2013) Observing the World through Images: Diagrams and Figures in the Early-Modern Arts and Sciences, Brill: Leiden
• Jardine, Nicholas, and Wilson, L. eds (2013) Recent Material Heritage of the Sciences, part special issue of Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 44/4
• Jardine, Nicholas, Granada, M.A, and Mosley, A. (2014) Christoph Rothmann's Treatise on the Comet of 1585: An Edition and Translation with Accompanying Essays, Brill: Leiden

Notes and References

1. http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/people/jardine/ HPS Cambridge: Teaching Officers Nick Jardine
2. HPS Cambridge: Fungus Hunt 2009 http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/oldnews/fungushunt2009/ Retrieved 28 August 2010.
3. Web site: Prize fighter. The Guardian. 26 May 2002.
4. 24137448. Taylor . Kenneth L. . Kenneth L. Taylor. Reviewed work: Cultures of Natural History edited by N. Jardine, J. A. Secord, and E. C. Spary . Earth Sciences History . 1999 . 18 . 1 . 111–113 .
5. 10.1017/S000708740121437X. Review of Books and the Sciences in History edited by Marina Frasca-Spada and Nick Jardine . 2001 . Porter . Roy . Roy Porter . The British Journal for the History of Science . 34 . 2 . 233–250 . 145132151 .
6. McMahon, John M.. Review of Plants and plant lore in Ancient Greece by John E. Raven. Scholia: Studies in Classical Antiquity. 11. 1. 2002. 147–150.