History of Discovery

1. History of Discovery Lecture 1: Discovery and Exploration

2. What is Discovery? • The act or process of discovering; something discovered • Discover: to make known or visible; to obtain sight or knowledge of for the first time • Discover presupposes exploration, investigation, or chance encounter and always implies the previous existence of what becomes known • Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary

3. What is Exploration? • The act or an instance of exploring • Explore: to seek for or after; to search through or into; to penetrate into or range over for purposes of geographical discovery • Explorer: one that explores; a person who travels in search of geographical or scientific information • Internet search for ‘explorer’

4. Who ‘Discovers’ Whom? • When a discoverer lands on a distant shore, both parties ‘discover’ each other • From which perspective is the history of discovery written?

5. Why Study Discovery and Exploration? • Knowledge of the world and its people • Discovery as a way of learning • The history of geographic exploration is almost as old as humankind • There is no written history for some of the greatest discoveries because they are too old! • What are the motivations for discovery?

6. Motivations for Discovery • Gold, God, and Glory! • Loot, fame, and fun! • Economic gain • Trade, metals, products, markets • Fame and glory • Lust for fame • People want to be the ‘first’ • Religious mission • Universal religions • Geopolitical expansion • Allies against enemies • Love of adventure • Scientific knowledge • Quest for fire and the fountain of youth • Search for an unknown land • Terra Incognita

7. Thule • Mythical land to the far north, where ice, water, and air are mixed • Described by Pytheas as “those regions in which there was no longer any proper land nor sea nor air, but a sort of mixture of all three of the consistency of a jellyfish in which one can neither walk nor sail, holding everything together, so to speak.“ • Promoted centuries of explorers to travel vast distances to discover what lay unknown Edgar Allen Poe (Dream-Land, 1844): By a route obscure and lonely, Haunted by ill angels only, Where an Eidolon, named Night, On a black throne reigns upright, I have reached these lands but newly From an ultimate dim Thule — From a wild weird clime, that lieth, sublime, Out of Space — out of Time.

8. Definitions • History • a chronological record of significant events (as affecting a nation or institution) often including an explanation of their causes • a branch of knowledge that records and explains past events • Historiography • the writing of history; especially, the writing of history based on the critical examination of sources, the selection of particulars from the authentic materials, and the synthesis of particulars into a narrative that will stand the test of critical methods • the principles, theory, and history of historical writing • Thesis • a position or proposition that a person (as a candidate for scholastic honors) advances and offers to maintain by argument • a proposition to be proved or one advanced without proof

9. Definitions • Technology • the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area : engineering • a capability given by the practical application of knowledge <a car's fuel-saving technology> • a manner of accomplishing a task especially using technical processes, methods, or knowledge • Ontology (what exists) • a branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature and relations of being • a particular theory about the nature of being or the kinds of things that have existence • Epistemology (what do we know) • the study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity • Teleology (toward what ends do things exist) • the study of evidences of design in nature • a doctrine (as in vitalism) that ends are immanent in nature • a doctrine explaining phenomena by final causes • the fact or character attributed to nature or natural processes of being directed toward an end or shaped by a purpose • the use of design or purpose as an explanation of natural phenomena

10. Discovery Assignment • Take one hour and within the confines of GCSU central campus: • Discover the oldest and newest things on campus • Discover the highest and lowest things on campus • Discover the geographical coordinates of the northmost and southernmost places on campus • Discover someone on campus who speaks three languages • Discover someone on campus who has been to three other continents