Ein Haus für Pettenkofer. Wissenschaftliche Traditionspflege in München 1902–1962
Abstract
A House for Pettenkofer. Cultivation of a Scientific Tradition in Munich, 1902–1962. The article deals with three attempts to preserve the memory as well as the scientific heritage of Max von Pettenkofer, made by his successors at the University of Munich's Institute of Hygiene, Max von Gruber, Karl Kisskalt, and Hermann Eyer. All of those scientific memorials were supposed to take the form of a building: an interdisciplinary center of science and education in the city of Munich, an outpost of the Institute of Hygiene in Pettenkofer's birthplace in rural Bavaria, and a new building for the institute itself. The effort to establish such a place of memory and emulation were driven, on the one hand, by Pettenkofer's downright mythical reputation as the man who not only had established a new scientific field but saved Munich from dirt and pestilence; on the other hand, it was motivated by his successors’ respective understanding of which aspects of Pettenkofer's legacy were worth preserving as well as helpful in order to advance their own scientific and institutional standing – a calculation which turned out to be still valid and compelling more than half a decennium after Pettenkofer's death.
Quelle: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bewi.201901910?af=R
Der Klassische Archäologe Hermann Thiersch (1874–1939) und der Erwerb der Basler Papyrussammlung im Jahr 1899/1900
Abstract
The Classical Archaeologist Hermann Thiersch (1874–1939) and the Acquisition of the Basel Papyrus Collection in 1899/1900. During the winter of 1899/1900, the young archaeologist Hermann Thiersch traveled to Cairo to purchase papyri for the universities in Basel, Strasbourg, and Munich. By this point, European and North American collectors and researchers were racing to discover the finest material either for their own archaeological excavations or by purchasing papyri from local antiquities dealers who were generally supplied with material by looters. This article examines the acquisition of the Basel papyrus collection in the context of the great ‘papyrus rush’ that was in full swing. It also offers an insight into the collaboration of European archaeologists and classicists working in Egypt at the turn of the twentieth century.
Quelle: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bewi.201901953?af=R
Afrika im Blick der akademischen Welt der DDR. Ein wissenschaftsgeschichtlicher Überblick der afrikabezogenen Ethnographie
Abstract
Africa in the View of the Academic World of the GDR: An Overview of the History of African Ethnography. Ethnography – also referred to as ethnology by the GDR – was a “minor subject” in which typical big science problems such as mass‐study and large‐scale research played no role. It was therefore not the focus of science policy interventions by the state and/or its ruling party. Nevertheless, ethnographic research, exemplified by the sub‐discipline related to Africa, remained within the limits set by the state and ruling party. Despite of these relative restrictions, the two East German universities in Berlin and Leipzig, as well as the ethnological museums in Leipzig and Dresden, have succeeded in presenting research results that are relevant and remain valid to the present day.
Quelle: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bewi.201901907?af=R
Die Wiener Hirnforschung und die Entstehung des österreichischen Positivismus
Abstract
Viennese Brain Research and the Formation of Austrian Positivism. In this paper, I want to argue that the Vienna School of Medicine and especially the Viennese Brain Anatomy had an impact on the formation of the Austrian positivism. I argue that Carl von Rokitansky's (1804–1878) doctrine that psychological phenomena must be translated into anatomical facts and Theodor Meynert's (1833–1892) theory of brain functions served as one basis for the formation of the Austrian positivism. In this sense, two of the main early positivistic thinkers, Ernst Mach (1838–1916) and Richard Wahle (1857–1935), used Meynert's brain theory to argue for a bundle view of the Self. Friedrich Jodl (1849–1914) also thought about his theory, and even Moritz Schlick (1882–1936) who demanded a ‘reduction of the psychology to the brain physiology’ grappled with this approach. Meynert, a scholar of Rokitansky, the founder of the Vienna School of Medicine, was a leading figure in the history of neurology and has made several significant contributions to this discipline. He argues that the Self does not exist from an anatomical point of view. As Richard Wahle tells us, Meynert's theory of the brain functions was widely accepted under the brain researchers by the end of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century. He makes clear that brain researchers did in common refer to Meynert's theory to explain psychical functions as brain functions. He says from their point of view there was no doubt about it. Mach talks about Meynert's theory in Erkenntnis und Irrtum. There he says that Meynert's brain theory explains the nature and conditions of the consciousness. Michael Hagner argues that Mach's “Das Ich ist unrettbar” is hardly imaginable without the cerebral embedding of the mental functions.
Quelle: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bewi.201901858?af=R
Amerikanische Policy‐Forschung, Komplexität und die Krise des Regierens: Zur gesellschaftlichen Einbettung sozialwissenschaftlicher Begriffsbildung
Abstract
The American Policy Sciences, Complexity and the Crisis of Government: On the Social Embeddedness of Concept Formation in the Social Sciences. By analyzing debates about social “complexity” in the American policy sciences and in intellectual discourse of the 1970s, this article draws attention to the social embeddedness of concept formation and theory building in the social sciences. In the 1970s, a new concept of social “complexity” emerged in the social sciences, when scholars transferred and adapted elements of complexity theory from mathematics, computer science, cybernetics, and general systems theory to refine social theory. The article analyzes the context and conditions in which this transfer occurred. It shows that the scholarly debates about social complexity were entwined with broader public‐political discourses, dealing in particular with the challenges of government and public policy in the advanced Western democracies. The discourse on complexity among social scientists had additional layers of meaning: even in academic discourse, “complexity” was also used as a buzzword and as a metaphor.
Quelle: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bewi.201901879?af=R
Inhaltsverzeichnis: Ber. Wissenschaftsgesch. 1/2019
Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Volume 42, Issue 1, Page 5-5, March 2019.
Quelle: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bewi.201980111?af=R