Platonists, Aristotelians, or sexists? The implicit metaphysics in geometrical conceptions associated to the production of artificial hearts

Abstract

Our aim is to explore mathematical conceptions of nature, the assumption that the supposedly natural world manifests itself through mathematical codes, investigating the echoes of these arguments in the production of circulatory assistant devices, called artificial hearts. The starting point is a situation related to the doctoral candidacy examination and research process of one of the bioengineers of the network, whose thesis justifies mathematically the correlation between the design of the rotor blades of the device to a real algebraic constant drawn from the Fibonacci sequence, also known as golden or divine proportion. It is a matter of illuminating a possible relationship between metaphysical themes associated with perfection, harmony and beauty with the role of femininity and the presence of women in bioengineering. The purpose is not to reify, naturalize, or generalize gender positions, but to explore the strategic role of the female presence in a field considered masculine. Recovering Alexandre Koyré’s arguments and establishing a dialogue with Edwin Burtt’s hypothesis about the metaphysical bases of modern science, the aim is to problematize the emergence of metaphysical arguments, despite the effort of purification that can be seen operating throughout the history of the modern sciences and technological development