/ Philosophical Toys Today /

Philosophical toys were objects designed to examine various scientific phenomena experimentally while providing popular amusement; they were simultaneously vehicles of scientific investigation and knowledge production, sources of puzzlement, entertainment and popularization for the lay public and stimuli eagerly adopted by many artists. Their heyday is the first half of the 19th century when they were applied widely in natural philosophy, although we can find many of their earlier precedents as well as later offspring.

A special issue of Theory of Science will pursue an experiment - hopefully both entertaining and educational - in an attempt to revive the category of philosophical toys and to find more recent and contemporary counterparts to these devices of extension of the senses (such as were kaleidoscopes, stereoscopes, thaumatropes or phenakistoscopes) that have the potential to break down barriers between sciences, arts and popular culture, between theory and practice, between knowledge and amusement.

Send abstracts for research papers in Czech or English (c. 300 words) by 30^th September 2012 to teorievedy@flu.cas.cz; full papers will be expected by 31^st December 2012. We also accept book reviews, annotations, conference reports and other miscellanea relevant to the theme.

For more information see http://teorievedy.flu.cas.cz

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