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Quote by Deborah Blum

“The name explains the structure: carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen bond into a ring-shaped structure called a cresol (also found in creosote), and phosphorus hangs on to the ring like an exhausted swimmer gripping a life preserver.”

Book:The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York

Work

The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York

This book delves into the fascinating world of poisonings and the development of forensic medicine during the jazz age in New York. It explores the cases and investigations of a pioneering forensic toxicologist and the impact of his work on modern criminal justice. more

Author

Deborah Blum

Deborah Blum is an American journalist renowned for her contributions to science and environmental reporting. Born in October 1954, she graduated from Harvard University and earned a master's degree in science journalism from Columbia University. Blum's work has won multiple Pulitzer Prizes, and her books 'The Poisoner's Handbook' and 'The Body Electric' have received widespread acclaim for their in-depth exploration of scientific and environmental issues. more

“I saw an exhibition of paintings of alchemists once,’ said Ruth. ‘It used to be a popular setpiece. There was one I liked by Joseph Wright of Derby―of an alchemist who’d accidentally discovered phosphorus. He’s just crouching there, staring in amazement at his test tube or alembic, or whatever you call it. A bloody good painting, actually.”

Alchemist Philosopher S Stone Phosphorus Alembic Chemical Astrologers Joseph Wright Of Derby Test Tube

Book:The Apothecary’s House

Source: The Apothecary’s House

“That’s the rankest psychologism, and was conclusively revealed as hogwash by Gottlob Frege in the 1890s!”

Frege Psychologism

Author:Sheldon Cooper

“In Frege’s conception of logic, a logical law states an absolutely general truth—one whose truth every rational being must, on pain of contradiction, acknowledge. In later Wittgenstein’s practice, a grammatical remark inherits an aspect of Frege’s conception of the logical. On a proper understanding of a grammatical remark, it articulates a truism— something that admits of no contrary—hence something that every speaker of the language must acknowledge. Or conversely, if there is something in a given candidate grammatical remark that proves to admit of disagreement, then the remark in question cannot serve its methodological role. It fails to bring into view a point of (what later Wittgenstein calls) grammar. Grammatical remarks acquire their point—that is, our need for such reminders derives—from our attempting but failing to achieve a proper reflective understanding of our way around our own language. If the grammatical remark serves its purpose, what is thereby acknowledged is something that can come into view only against the background of a prior failed attempt to achieve a perspicuous overview of our own concepts. A Wittgensteinian grammatical remark comes to life as such only against the background of a philosophical confusion. Logic or grammar for later Wittgenstein, pace Frege, could qualify as a science only if philosophy is one. This also means that, for later Wittgenstein, unlike for Frege, there is no preexisting stock of propositions that constitutes all of the logico-grammatical truths there are. In potentiality there are perhaps indefinitely many, but in actuality the only remarks that actually exercise the power to disclose a philosophico-grammatical truth, for later Wittgenstein, are those that allow us to make progress with the problems that actually vex us in philosophy.”

Philosophy Truth Science Language Progress Grammar Frege

Book:The Logical Alien: Conant and His Critics

Source: The Logical Alien: Conant and His Critics

“Today, I'm giving thanks to God for my failures, my successes, people who aren’t in my life anymore, those around me who speak life and tell me the truth, my health, and greater blessings still to come.”