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Philosopher wins prestigious scientific book prize

30 July 2024
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A man wearing glasses and smiling at the camera next to a book cover of a painting of woman in period dress. The book is called Media & Mind.

Congratulations to Professor Matthew Daniel Eddy who has won The British Society for the History of Science’s (BSHS) Pickstone Prize.

Matthew was awarded the prestigious honour for his book, Media and the Mind.

The book shows how scientific notebooks worked as “paper machines” in the context of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Drawing on a wide range of sources and images, Media and the Mind looks at notebooks through the learning styles of their makers.

It also explores the extraordinary range of embodied, experimental, and creative skills activated by notekeeping.

The judges were impressed with the book’s use of hitherto forgotten notebooks to reveal how the humanities, particularly writing and drawing techniques, significantly shaped scientific knowledge during the Scottish Enlightenment and in ways that are still important for today’s increasingly digital world.
Professor Matthew Daniel Eddy
Department of Philosophy

The BSHS Pickstone Prize is awarded every two years to the best scholarly book in the history of science in English.

It recognises pioneering works that advance the scholarly understanding and interpretation of the scientific past.

Exceptional contribution to history of science

The judges were impressed by the compelling argument of the book and its exceptional engagement with material and visual cultures.

They also commented on the book’s innovative historiographical reading of Enlightenment scientific and moral values as shown in skills that were painstakingly developed through time.

The judges said that Matthew’s exploration of the material life of reason, and how it was made and remade in the pages of notebooks, stood out as an exceptional and exciting contribution to the history of science.

In addition to the Pickstone Prize, Media and the Mind was also shortlisted for the best work in book history by the Society for the History of Authorship, Readership and Publishing. 

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