The recipient of the American Philosophical Society’s 2021 Patrick Suppes Prize in the History of Science is Jessica Riskin, Professor of History at Stanford University, in recognition of her book The Restless Clock: A History of the Centuries-Long Argument over What Makes Living Things Tick (University of Chicago Press, 2016).

In this ambitious and elegant book, Jessica Riskin argues that although the dominant understanding of mechanism is passive (even a clock must be wound up in order to tick), there is also a competing view of mechanism as active, enspirited, having its source of motion within it—to borrow a term from Liebniz, a “restless clock.” Mechanistic thinkers could empty nature of agency because God had set it all in motion. Yet the rise of naturalistic science left no place for divinity. Riskin traces the centuries-long struggle to banish agency from scientific explanation in favor of a passive view of nature’s machinery, while showing how this effort remained both incomplete and futile. In doing so, she boldly recasts the old vitalist-mechanist debate as a contradiction that grew out of the successive revolutionary ideas of the Reformation and Enlightenment. These were not mere abstractions; Riskin shows how the paradox became materialized, in automata, cells, robots, eggs, AI, and epigenetics. She makes a persuasive case that the early scientific attributions of action and purpose to God still haunt naturalistic explanations. No matter how rigorous and naturalistic, scientists still find the language of biological agency useful, even indispensable. In the end, as Riskin makes clear, the old tension between mechanism and purpose remains with us, and that is not a bad thing for science.

The Patrick Suppes Prize honors accomplishments in three deeply significant scholarly fields, with the prize rotating each year between philosophy of science, psychology or neuroscience, and history of science. The history of science prize is awarded for an outstanding book in history of science appearing within the preceding six years.  The works considered for the prize are restricted to works that emphasize detailed analysis of important systematic findings in any branch of science, ancient or modern, using quantitative and mathematical methods.

The selection committee was Ruth Schwartz Cowan (chair), Janice and Julian Bers Professor Emerita, History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania; Babak Ashrafi, President, Chief Executive Officer, Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine; Mahzarin R. Banaji, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, Department of Psychology, Harvard University; Angela N. H. Creager, Thomas M. Siebel Professor in the History of Science, Chair, Department of History, Princeton University; Noel M. Swerdlow, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and Astrophysics and of History, University of Chicago, Visiting Professor, California Institute of Technology; Susan Wolf, Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Harriet Zuckerman, Professor of Sociology Emerita, Columbia University; and the committee was put together by Richard Shiffrin, Distinguished Professor, Luther Dana Waterman Professor, Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Indiana University.
 

“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
-Benjamin Franklin

The American Philosophical Society, this country’s first learned society, has continued to play an important role in American culture and intellectual life since its founding nearly 275 years ago. 

An eminent learned organization of international reputation, the APS promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and community outreach. 

Help us preserve the past and shape the future with a gift to the APS. Gifts from Members and Friends provide important support for the annual operations of the organization, as well as endowment, restricted programs, and capital needs.

For further information, please contact the Development office at 215-440-3434 or [email protected].

The recipient of the 2020 Henry Allen Moe Prize is Judge David S. Tatel in recognition of his paper “Separation of Powers and Statutory Interpretation: A Battle Hidden in Plain Sight” read at the American Philosophical Society’s 2019 April Meeting and published in its Proceedings Volume 163, Number 3, September 2019.  David S. Tatel is the Senior United States Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.  The 2020 Moe Prize was presented at the Society's November 2022 Meeting.

Of the separation of powers, James Madison wrote in Federalist 47: that “No political truth is certainly of greater intrinsic value, or is stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty.” With this constitutional principle, instilled in every citizen from childhood, Judge David S. Tatel opens his elegant paper “Separation of Powers and Statutory Interpretation: A Battle Hidden in Plain Sight.” Declining political debate, Judge Tatel guides the reader succinctly through the arcane thicket of statutory interpretation. Unpacking the significance of the 1984 Supreme Court Chevron decision (more often cited than understood), he explains that it is not the decision itself which is of the greatest importance (although he does explain its impact), but rather the way that the “Chevron two-step” has brought about the passage of decision-making power, in effect law-making powers, to a vast range of Federal government agencies. Scrupulously avoiding interpretive partiality, Judge Tatel presents a model argument that is clear, logical, and compelling. He expresses some real concern that this transfer of power has considerably expanded the regulatory powers of new parts of the government well beyond anything envisaged by the Framers of the Constitution. Such concern has been expressed in several Supreme Court decisions summarized here by Judge Tatel, but these have not yet amounted to a redress of the balance of authority among Congress, the courts and the agencies.  This deft and plain spoken, yet subtle essay instructs the citizen reader on the often hidden, prolonged constitutional debate over the extent to which important and regular aspects of the lives of Americans are governed not by the executive branch (directly, at least), by their elected representatives, or even by the courts.  Hidden in plain sight, in Judge Tatel’s words, is the continuing struggle “to keep our three branches of government ‘separate and distinct.’”

Established in 1982 by a gift from the widow of Henry Allen Moe to honor the longtime head of the Guggenheim Foundation and president of the American Philosophical Society from 1959 to 1970. It pays particular tribute to his firm commitment to the humanities and those who pursue them. The Moe Prize is awarded annually to the author of a paper in the humanities or jurisprudence read at a Meeting of the Society.

The selection committee was Elizabeth Cropper, chair, Dean Emerita, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art; Michael McCormick, Goelet Professor of Medieval History, Harvard University; and Brent D. Shaw, Andrew Fleming West Professor of Classics Emeritus, Princeton University.
 

The recipient of the 2021 Magellanic Premium Medal is Sara Seager.  Sara Seager is a theoretical astrophysicist and leader in the exciting field of exoplanets, particularly in the quest to discover and analyze habitable planets beyond the solar system.  The citation inscribed on the medal is “For theoretical work that led to the first detection of exoplanet atmospheres.” The 2021 Magellanic Premium was presented at the Society's November 2022 Meeting.

Sara Seager is known for her work on exoplanet atmospheres and interiors; her modeling led to the first detection of an exoplanet atmosphere.  She was the Deputy Director of Science for NASA’s TESS satellite, which to date has discovered 66 new exoplanets, all close enough to be imaged and searched for signatures of life. Her current research focuses on the bio-signatures in the atmospheres of potential life-bearing planets that could be used to discover evidence for extraterrestrial life.  She is a Professor of Physics, Professor of Planetary Science, and a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she holds the Class of 1941 Professor Chair. Her books include Exoplanet Atmospheres: Physical Processes, 2010, Exoplanets, 2010, and The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir, 2020.

Born in Toronto, Canada, she received her B.Sc. in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Toronto in 1994.  Dr. Seager did her Ph.D. work at Harvard where she developed theoretical models for atmospheres of exoplanets. Her honors include the Helen B. Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society, a MacArthur fellowship, and membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society (elected 2018).

The award was established from a gift of 200 guineas by John Hyacinth de Magellan, of London, in 1786, “for a gold medal to be awarded from time to time under prescribed terms, to the author of the best discovery or most useful invention relating to navigation, astronomy, or natural philosophy (mere natural history only excepted).”  The medal, named the Magellanic Premium, was first awarded in 1790.   It is the oldest medal recognizing scientific achievements given by a North American institution.

The selection committee members were Gordon Baym (chair), Professor Emeritus, Research Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Marvin Cohen, University Professor of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, Senior Faculty Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory; Jeremiah Ostriker, Professor of Astronomy, Columbia University, Professor Emeritus of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University; and Michael Turner, Director, Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, Bruce V. and Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago.

The 2018 Magellanic Premium medal was awarded to Fabiola Gianotti “for her role in the discovery of the Higgs boson and her leadership in elementary particle physics.  From the design and construction of the ATLAS detector to the analysis of the data and discovery of the Higgs, Gianotti played a leading role in this milestone event. Today she serves as the Director-General of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and is leading the quest to understand matter, energy, space and time at the most fundamental level.”  The medal is engraved “for the discovery of the Higgs boson and leadership in high energy physics.”

The presentation of the prize took place at the Society's virtual April 2021 Meeting.  In the video of the award ceremony above, APS president Linda Greenhouse introduces the prize and the chair of the prize selection committee, Gordon Baym, presents the prize to her.  In her acceptance speech Dr. Gianotti discusses the significance of the relationship between the humanities and sciences and provides thought provoking insight about the idea of "useful knowledge" and the purpose of pure scientific investigation.  For instance, scientific investigation pursued purely for the sake of curiosity and knowledge may have appeared useless to society at the time, but generations later led to the development of transistors, GPS, and other advances that have had a profound impact on society today.

Fabiola Gianotti is an experimental elementary particle physicist. As the Spokesperson of ATLAS, one of the major experiments at CERN, Gianotti led one of the two, 3000-member teams that discovered the Higgs boson in 2012. The discovery of the Higgs was recognized by a Nobel Prize for the theory, but none for the experiment.  Her involvement in the Higgs discovery began with the design and building of the 7000-ton ATLAS detector with its almost 100 million readout channels and continued through the physics analysis that led to the actual discovery.  As CERN DG, she is shaping the global future of the field whose modest mission is a fundamental understanding of matter, energy, space and time.  Gianotti, a Foreign Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and an International Member of the American Philosophical Society, also trained as a classical pianist at the Milan Conservatory.

From a gift of 200 guineas by John Hyacinth de Magellan, of London, in 1786, for a gold medal to be awarded from time to time under prescribed terms, to the author of the best discovery or most useful invention relating to navigation, astronomy, or natural philosophy (mere natural history only excepted).  The medal, named the Magellanic Premium, was first awarded in 1790.   It is the oldest medal recognizing scientific achievements given by a North American institution.

The selection committee members were Gordon Baym, Professor Emeritus, Research Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Marvin Cohen, University Professor of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, Senior Faculty Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory; Jeremiah Ostriker, Professor of Astronomy, Columbia University, Professor Emeritus of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University; and Michael Turner, Director, Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, Bruce V. and Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago.

This bibliographic database will include the works of such figures as George Washington, John Adams, John Jay, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson, as well as dozens of lesser-known though important scholars and thinkers in the early American republic. The database will, ultimately, document the development of early American science and intellectual life. For this resource, we push educators to ask themselves the following question before and after exploring the project: what objectives can you achieve by having students work with a bibliography?

We hope this resource will be of use in pushing bibliographies beyond a check-point assignment in your classrooms and provide inspiration for both you and your students. We’ve found that thinking about this bibliography in particular provides good notes on constructing bibliographies-as-assignments, new research tips and opportunities, and a variety of new perspectives.

This public-facing digital project is creating a database to document many of the most generative works and authors in the Atlantic world—including reprints and editions in any language—produced by Members elected to the American Philosophical Society (APS) between 1743 and 1865. This is no small task: APS Members were the who’s who of thinkers during the rise of natural philosophy and science, medical inquiry, and ethnography. Many of these early Members had deep connections to the American Revolution and the early republic. 

Like any bibliography, this project started by gathering information about the publications needed or used. In this case, Fellow Jeff Appelhans (among other APS Fellows), drew together records from the public catalog of major historical libraries to see what our Member authors published. By drawing together records from the British Library’s English Short Title Catalog, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Library Company of Philadelphia, with APS holdings—and the vast foreign-language holdings cataloged in WorldCat—the project’s managers aspire to comprehensive coverage. The process and large scope taught a few lessons that can relate to smaller bibliographies. 

Consider some of the big hits of the period covered in the project. For example, searching for famous Member Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, would result in a flood of results. Thus, the first considerations in a large (or small scale bibliography): scope of the project. As the early modern print revolution spun up, the boom of multiple editions alone could grind a project like this to a halt. When assigning large bibliographies or research projects, consider the scope of the project and the amount of available information. The time period covered should also go into consideration. Make sure learners know if they should be looking for editions within certain years or if any edition will do. The more narrow you as an educator can make the search, the easier for learners. Staying up to date on projects like this from classroom allies like the APS can help inspire research projects, trips, and other assignments. 

When it comes to research for students and ourselves, Wikipedia is a common go-to starting location. This bibliography also contains many facets contained in a Wikipedia article: additional resources (the bibliography itself), small biographies, and a sense of historical connections. The biographies are vetted by staff at the APS, as content in Wikipedia is vetted, but these biographies are smaller and usually clock-in at around 250 words. The connections seen in this bibliography are slightly different as well. Instead of seeing paragraphs about the context of, let’s say George Washington’s Farewell Address, students will see the history of and media of publication and use of the Address. Additionally, the resources listed in this bibliography provide the same jumping points that a Wikipedia article might. Imagine what questions might be provoked! 

Just as Wikipedia is a comfortable research go-to, manuscripts (hand-written materials) tend to be a comfortable primary source go-to. There is no doubting the power of a hand-written letter to connect students to history and historical figures on an intimate and empathetic scale. But there’s an equal and slightly different power that comes with published materials which can provide a new perspective on how we use primary sources. Let’s go back to George Washington’s Farewell Address. If you typically use a copy from 1800 as your primary source and compare that to this bibliography, the explorations of this document can change. Why were so many copies printed in 1800? What of the locations? Each of those copies is an individual primary source that shows a larger cultural network and narrative than a single manuscript might reveal. Taking a step back onto that larger scale, think about the bibliography’s display of locations and years. The Republic of Letters, the Enlightenment—both happened via the exchange of printed and manuscript materials together. This bibliography allows you to track that exchange in a networked, birds-eye view. Again, imagine what questions that might provoke! 

A bibliography is not as flashy as a virtual exhibition. But, as our thinking about uses of the bibliography deepened, there was an excitement that built up around its possible applications and the spin-off thoughts. Think about the definition of “bibliography.” Compare and contrast the surprisingly broad definition to how you use bibliographies in the classroom. There’s a reason National History Day assigns them and scholars so heavily use them. There’s a comparison to be made to popular book lists like the New York Times’ “Best-seller List” and this bibliography. That comparison and novel (possibly more interesting and enriching) uses of bibliographies rely on a reframing of those objectives we asked you to think about in the beginning.

Resources like this take more creative work but are always worth exploring. There are questions, ideas, concepts, activities, that can be discovered if we push to think outside of the usual assignments.  From how to construct a complex, comprehensive bibliography to exploring Enlightenment era exchange, we invite you to join the APS Library & Museum in rethinking the dusty bibliography!

Written by APS Fellow Dr. Jeff Appelhans and Mike Madeja, Head of Education Programs

Using Open Data - Franklin Ledgers

By Craig Fox (Museum Guide) 

One of the hardest parts of creating projects with open data is figuring out how to extract the endless supply of data into something useful. Here’s a guide on how we turned some of the data from the Benjamin Franklin Postal Project into an educational resource for students and educators.

The goal is to convert the data file into something usable for young students to understand more about early American history. A lot of the modifications involve removing incomplete or unused data in order to simplify the spreadsheet. It helps to know what information you want to extract or be left with before you go through some of these steps. The steps below assume the reader has a basic level of understanding of how to use Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. While the process is mostly the same for both programs, all major differences are mentioned. If you want to see the finished version and the original file look at the sheets here.

Setup

First, download the data used for the project. The data used can be gotten at https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/compound:53#page/44/mode/1up by clicking on the “Datasets and Documentation” icon or by clicking here. Unzip the downloaded folder and use the “BF85f6-30_Dataset A_Post office book, letters received, 1767-1768.csv” file. Other datasets and a guide to reading them can be found here. Any datasets used from this project will end in “.csv” which is an open source, human readable file format for storing tables and spreadsheets. We will then convert this to Microsoft Excel’s file format (xlsx) or to a Google Sheets file.

Steps for Google Sheets

Setup: Open up Google Sheets and click the folder icon (it should read “open file picker” when hovered over). Click the upload tab in the window that pops up and add the file.

1. Insert 2 rows at the top of the document. Copy formatting from Initial Columns section located below. Pay attention to which cells are merged (cells are merged by highlighting them and then pressing the merge icon).
2. Hide the following Columns: “Notes” (Not Used), “Transcribers Notes” (Not Used), “Belonging to this office only” (Empty for the data we are using), “Sorting ID” (Not Used), “Page Number” (Not Used), “URL” (Not Used)
3. Highlight the third row, then click the “Data” tab and press “Create a new filter”. Select the filter icon next to “Data Completeness” and pick “Complete”.
4. Hide “Data Completeness” column
5. Create a new Column called “Time of Receiving” to the right of “Time of Receiving: Day”. Set the first row below the header equal to =DATEVALUE(CONCATENATE(TO_TEXT(F66), "-", TO_TEXT(G66), "-", TO_TEXT(E66))). Then drag this down to fill in all the rows.

(Note: The DATE function is not used because it will not accept pre-1900 years, so this workaround is needed to properly display those dates)

6. Highlight the column and go click the “Format” tab, then “Number”, then “More Formats”, then “custom number formats” and enter: mmm" "d", "yyyy
7. Hide “Time of Receiving: Year”, “Time of Receiving: Month”, “Time of Receiving: Day” columns
8. Create a new Column called “Date of the Bills Received” to the right of “Date of the Bills Received: Day”. Set the first row below the header equal to =DATEVALUE(CONCATENATE(TO_TEXT(K66), "-", TO_TEXT(L66), "-", TO_TEXT(J66))). Then drag this down to fill in all the rows.
9. Highlight the column and go click the “Format” tab, then “Number”, then “More Formats”, then “custom number formats” and enter: mmm" "d", "yyyy
10. Hide “Date of the Bills Received: Year”, “Date of the Bills Received: Month”, “Date of the Bills Received: Day” columns
11. Select the filter icon next to “Name of the Offices and Ships, from whence they were received” and pick everything except “#Value”.
12. Repeat step 12 for “Date of the Bills received” column
13. Select the filter icon next to “Number paid for” and pick everything except “null”.
14. Hide row 3 (Note: This row exists to allow filtering since you can not use merged cells like those in rows 1 and 2 to do filtering. It is hidden to provide a cleaner view)
15. Highlight the whole document and set horizontal align to center, vertical align to center, and width to auto

Steps for Microsoft Excel

Setup: Open Microsoft Office and click “upload and open”. Put in the file. Once the file loads, click “Edit Workbook” on the yellow bar that appears above the data, then press “Convert” in the pop-up that appears.

1. Insert 2 rows at the top of the document. Copy formatting from Initial Columns section located below. Pay attention to which cells are merged (cells are merged by highlighting them and then pressing the merge icon).
2. Hide the following Columns: “Notes” (Not Used), “Transcribers Notes” (Not Used), “Belonging to this office only” (Empty for the data we are using), “Sorting ID” (Not Used), “Page Number” (Not Used), “URL” (Not Used)
3. Highlight the third row, then click the “Data” tab and press “Create a new filter”. Select the filter icon next to “Data Completeness” and pick “Complete”.
4. Hide “Data Completeness” column
5. Create a new Column called “Time of Receiving” to the right of “Time of Receiving: Day”. Set the first row below the header equal to =CONCATENATE(F66, "-", G66, "-", E66). Then drag this down to fill in all the rows.

(Note: The DATE function is not used because it will not accept pre-1900 years. Microsoft Excel does not have a concise workaround so the date is left as numbers in the form of mm-dd-yyyy)

6. Highlight the column and go click the “Format” tab, then “Number”, then “More Formats”, then “custom number formats” and enter: mmm" "d", "yyyy
7. Hide “Time of Receiving: Year”, “Time of Receiving: Month”, “Time of Receiving: Day” columns
8. Create a new Column called “Date of the Bills Received” to the right of “Date of the Bills Received: Day”. Set the first row below the header equal to =CONCATENATE(K66, "-", L66, "-", J66). Then drag this down to fill in all the rows.
9. Highlight the column and go click the “Format” tab, then “Number”, then “More Formats”, then “custom number formats” and enter: mmm" "d", "yyyy
10. Hide “Date of the Bills Received: Year”, “Date of the Bills Received: Month”, “Date of the Bills Received: Day” columns
11. Select the filter icon next to “Name of the Offices and Ships, from whence they were received” and pick everything except “#Value”.
12. Repeat step 12 for “Date of the Bills received” column
13. Select the filter icon next to “Number paid for” and pick everything except “null”.
14. Hide row 3 (Note: This row exists to allow filtering since you can not use merged cells like those in rows 1 and 2 to do filtering. It is hidden to provide a cleaner view)
15. Highlight the whole document and set horizontal align to center, vertical align to center, and width to auto

Initial Columns

Help Expand These Records

Postal records like these can be hard to find because they sometimes weren't considered valuable enough to put in an archive! But to tell a fuller story about relationships between people and places in colonial British North America, we'd love to be able to connect our records from Philadelphia to similar postal records from the other twelve colonies. We could use your help! If you know of any account books, postal records, or other data sources related to the postal service prior to 1800, please let us know at [email protected].