The Mind Is a Collection

Case Studies in Eighteenth-Century Thought (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015).

http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15446.html

What precedes accidental discovery?

"The Prehistory of Serendipity: Bacon to Walpole," _Isis_ 106.2 (2015): 235-56.  

This piece, and a related interview, have been generously reviewed by Jeroen Bouterse.

/s/Silver-Prehistory-of-Serendipity.pdf

How is flavor historical?

“Locke’s Pineapple and the History of Taste.” The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation 49.1 (2008): 43-65. Recipient of the James L. Clifford award (ASECS, 2009).

/s/Silver-Lockes-Pineapple-and-Taste.pdf

When talk becomes serious-- or conversations are struck dead...

“Pale Fire and Johnson’s Cat: The Anecdote in Polite Conversation.” Criticism 53.2 (2011): 243-66.

/s/Silver-Anecdotes-and-Politeness.pdf

The literary origins of game theoretical analysis

“The Rape of the Lock and the Origins of Game Theory.” Connotations 19.1-3 (2010): 203-228.

/s/Silver-RotL-and-Game-Theory.pdf

Horace Walpole's historical imagination

“Visiting Strawberry Hill: Horace Walpole’s Gothic Historiography.” Eighteenth-Century Fiction 21.4 (2009): 535-564.

/s/Silver-Walpoles-Gothic.pdf

What kind of stories might a coin tell?

"John Evelyn and Numismata: Material History and Autobiography," Word and Image 31.3 (2015): 331-42. 

/s/Silver-Evelyn-and-Numismata.pdf

How do we think with instruments?

Sean Silver, "Hooke, Latour, and the History of Extended Cognition," The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation 57.2 (2016): 197-216.