Dreams of Infinite Grain in the Nordic Fields
When Christian Wolff defined his concept of technology in 1728, his first example was his experiment of multiplying the production of grain published in 1718. In this article, I use this agricultural work as a way of exploring meanings that Wolff’s technological thinking – in the sense of systematiz...
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| Publicat a: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/artefact, |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
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Artefact
2025
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| Accés en línia: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Sumari: | When Christian Wolff defined his concept of technology in 1728, his first example was his experiment of multiplying the production of grain published in 1718. In this article, I use this agricultural work as a way of exploring meanings that Wolff’s technological thinking – in the sense of systematizing, reorganizing, and improving useful arts – had in early eighteenth-century Europe. I study its Swedish translation of 1728, produced by Anders Gabriel Duhre for the pupils of a new rural school for teaching useful mathematics and crafts. Through his efforts, technological thinking in the vein of Wolff became part of broader Swedish debates of the 1720s, found in parliament, state administrative bodies, and universities. These debates enable us to disentangle Wolff’s concept of technology from the connotations of industrialism and urbanisation of subsequent centuries, and instead to understand it through the many contemporary contexts of which it was a part. |
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