Matthew Daniel Eddy, Professor and Chair in the History and Philosophy of Science at Durham University, discusses the fascinating role of notebooks during the Enlightenment. He elaborates on how these 'paper machines' aided Scottish students in transforming raw data into knowledge. Eddy reinterprets John Locke's tabula rasa, showing how notekeeping fostered dynamic learning. He highlights the evolution of notebooks as essential tools for education and knowledge sharing, extending their cultural significance across the British Empire and beyond.
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Notebooks as Active Learning Tools
Notebooks are not just physical objects but active learning tools that shape reasoning skills.
The notebook's use as a paper machine empowered students to engage with Enlightenment principles effectively.
insights INSIGHT
Student Notebooks as Crafted Artifacts
Student notebooks were crafted physical objects made from folded paper and bindings.
These notebooks served as foundational artifacts for knowledge making in primary, secondary, and university education.
insights INSIGHT
Notebooks as Paper Machines
Matthew Eddy approaches notebooks as real-time interactive paper machines shaped by human agency.
This methodology reveals how making and using notebooks influenced scientific reasoning development.
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Media and the Mind, Art, Science, Notebooks and as Paper Machines, 1700 to 1830
Media and the Mind, Art, Science, Notebooks and as Paper Machines, 1700 to 1830
Art, Science, and Notebooks as Paper Machines, 1700-1830
Matthew Daniel Eddy
Dr. Matthew Daniel Eddy's "Media and the Mind" explores the evolution of note-taking and its impact on learning during the long 18th century. The book examines how notebooks functioned as 'paper machines,' actively shaping the acquisition of knowledge. Eddy analyzes various note-taking skills, from basic writing to complex diagramming, demonstrating their role in developing reasoning abilities. He uses a wide range of student notebooks to illustrate how these skills were learned and applied across different educational levels. The book challenges traditional views of reason as a fixed entity, highlighting its dynamic and embodied nature.
We often think of reason as a fixed entity, as a definitive body of facts that do not change over time. But during the Enlightenment, reason also was seen as a process, as a set of skills enacted on a daily basis. How, why, and where were these skills learned? Concentrating on Scottish students living during the long eighteenth century, Media and the Mind: Art, Science, and Notebooks as Paper Machines, 1700-1830 (University of Chicago Press, 2023) by Dr. Matthew Daniel Eddy argues that notebooks were paper machines and that notekeeping was a capability-building exercise that enabled young notekeepers to mobilize everyday handwritten and printed forms of material and visual media in a way that empowered them to judge and enact the enlightened principles they encountered in the classroom.
Covering a rich selection of material ranging from simple scribbles to intricate watercolor diagrams, the book reinterprets John Locke’s comparison of the mind to a blank piece of paper, the tabula rasa. Although one of the most recognizable metaphors of the British Enlightenment, scholars seldom consider why it was so successful for those who used it. Each chapter uses one core notekeeping skill to reveal the fascinating world of material culture that enabled students in the arts, sciences, and humanities to transform the tabula rasa metaphor into a dynamic cognitive model. Starting in the home, moving to schools, and ending with universities, the book reconstructs the relationship between media and the mind from the bottom up. It reveals that the cognitive skills required to make and use notebooks were not simply aids to reason; rather, they were part of reason itself.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
New Books in the History of Science