文章基本信息

标题：“The testimony of my own eyes”: The Strange Case of the Mammal with a Beak
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作者：Martin Kemp
期刊名称：Spontaneous Generations : A Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science
印刷版ISSN：1913-0465
出版年度：2012
卷号：6
期号：1
页码：43-49
语种：English
出版社：University of Toronto
摘要：There has always been a significant element of trust when we look at an image of something we have not seen, above all when it looks naturalistic and convincing. Illustrators often employ naturalistic tricks in the service of the “rhetoric of reality.” The case study is the Australian Duck-Billed Platypus, which stretched credibility when it was first discovered, resembling an artificially confected monster. The first scientific account, by George Shaw in T he Naturalist’s Miscellany in 1799, is a masterpiece of wonder and scepticism in which he finally convinces himself and us of the reality of the strange beast. However, how many of us have seen a real one?