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Automata

Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy

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Abstract

Automata and self-moving mechanisms have a long history – part of which, namely the medieval chapter, remains largely unexplored in any systematic fashion – and have articulated not only issues of technology and mechanical explanation of the world but also ideas of foreigness and cunning intelligence, to say nothing of the deep-ranging political significance that these instruments served in Mediterranean diplomacy. If the Industrial Revolution reflected on robots as a threat to human civilization, the Age of the Enlightenment used automata to think about the complex cultural function of bodily motion and performances.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Newark, NJ, USA

    Stefano Gulizia

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  1. Stefano Gulizia
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Correspondence to Stefano Gulizia .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Verona, Mantova, Italy

    Marco Sgarbi

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Gulizia, S. (2016). Automata. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_900-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_900-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02848-4

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Automata, Renaissance
    Published:
    01 April 2020

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_900-2

  2. Original

    Automata
    Published:
    09 December 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_900-1

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