Erzählformen der Wissenschaftsgeschichte

Speaker
Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin

About the lecture
The telling of history can take very different forms. Using the history of science as an example, the speaker will take a look at some of them. The focus will be on moving away from a pure history of ideas towards a history in which the practice of science, especially its processes of observation and experimentation, take center stage. Another dimension is the time horizon. A story must be told differently depending on whether it is a case study (short periods of time), the development of a scientific field of activity (medium periods of time) or the long-term development of knowledge systems. The considerations are illustrated using examples of the history of the life sciences in the 20th century and the long-term history of hereditary thinking in biology.
 

Erzählformen der Wissenschaftsgeschichte, lecture manuscript