Steven Shapin, Harvard University
New York Academy of Medicine
Date: March 17, 2015
Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm
Location: The New York Academy of Medicine, 1216 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street, New York, NY 10029
It’s commonly said that “you are what you eat.” These days, we tend to mean that if you consume the right foods, containing the right nutrients, you’ll tend to be healthy and live long. But some centuries ago, other sensibilities were available that helped define the nature and causes of human character, individual and collective. One dealt with the ways in which the “qualities” of different foods affected the “humoral” balance of your body, and therefore your “temperament” or “complexion.” Another, less familiar, scheme inferred from the character of the animals you ate to your character. In his talk, Harvard historian Dr. Steven Shapin discusses one of the more familiar examples of this analogical and causal mode of reasoning in the period from the 16th to the 18th centuries—why beef-eating made the English who they were. He concludes by asking whether this type of reasoning has been entirely lost in modern times.
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