Dr. Yael Kedar

Bild von Yael Kedar

Internationales Kolleg für Geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung "Schicksal, Freiheit und Prognose. Bewältigungsstrategien in Ostasien und Europa"
 Hartmannstr. 14
91052 Erlangen




Home Institution: Department for Multi-disciplinary Studies, Tel Hai College


IKGF Visiting Fellow February 2020 – February 2021

IKGF Research Project:

Roger Bacon's (ca. 1220-1292) Idea of Progress, Laws of Nature and the Laws of the Stars


Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Yael Kedar is a senior faculty member of the Multi-disciplinary studies department (philosophy branch) at Tel Hai College and a research fellow at the philosophy department of the University of Haifa. She wrote her dissertation at the University of Haifa on Roger Bacon's theory of the multiplication of species, concentrating on its cognitive and semiotic aspects. Her postdoctoral project at Georgetown University explored the influence of Bacon's theory of the multiplication of species. Her second postdoctoral project at the University of Haifa was awarded an ISF grant. It brought to light the medieval idea of laws of nature, especially as it appeared in the writings of Roger Bacon. Following this project, she organized (together with Prof. G. Hon of the University of Haifa) an international workshop on the status of natural regularities before the scientific revolution, and is now serving as guest editor (together with Prof. Hon) of a special issue of Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (part A), entitled "law and order".
She has written on Robert Grosseteste, Roger Bacon, and Albert the Great's physics and metaphysics of light, often related to issues of Christian theology. Her current projects concern accounts of action at a distance and the medieval idea of scientific progress, especially in its relation to astrology and to theological conceptions of man's place in history.

Selected Publications

Books edited

(with Giora Hon) Law and Order: The status of natural regularities before the scientific revolution (Studies in History and Philosophy of Science). (forthcoming)

Articles

(with Dominique Demange) "Physical action, species and matter: The debate between Roger Bacon and Peter John Olivi", in: Journal for the History of Philosophy (forthcoming).
2017(with G. Hon) "Roger Bacon (c. 1220-1292) and his System of Laws of Nature: Classification, Hierarchy and Significance", in: Perspectives on Science 26, pp. 719-745.
2017(with G. Hon) "'Natures' and 'Laws': the Making of the Concept of Law of Nature Robert Grosseteste (c. 1168-1253) and Roger Bacon (1214/1220-1292)", in: Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science Part A 61, pp. 21-31.
2016"Laying the Foundation for the Nomological Image of Nature: From Corporeity in Robert Grosseteste (c. 1168-1253) to Species in Roger Bacon (1220-1292)", in: Robert Grosseteste and the Pursuit of Religious and Scientific Learning in the Middle-Ages, ed. by J. P. Cunningham, New York: Springer, pp. 165-185.
2016"The Nomological Image of Nature: Explaining the Tide in the Thirteenth Century", in: Annals of Science 73/1, pp. 68-88.
2009"The Intellect Naturalized: Roger Bacon on the Existence of Corporeal Species within the Intellect", in: Early science and Medicine 14, pp. 131-157.
2008"Questioning Aristotle: Roger Bacon on the True Essence of Colour", in: The Journal of Medieval Latin 17, pp. 372-383.
2006"Plotinus' Conception of Unity and Multiplicity as the Root to the Medieval Distinction between Lux and Lumen", in: Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 37, pp. 379-397.