7th ESHS Conference Prague 2016

7th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science
Symposium 374: Historical-Epistemological Prospects on Science as
Power
Organizers: Sascha Freyberg (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany),
Pietro Daniel Omodeo (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany)
Chair: Sascha Freyberg (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany)
The growing interest in the close connection between science and society/science and power casts
doubt on reductionist epistemologies (very much in vogue from the 1950s onwards), and calls for a
wider conception of science. This is where historical investigation and the theoretical reflection can
converge and reinforce each other. In this session we assess the ways in which considerations on
power challenge established views on science in history and force us to revise established epistemological
outlooks.
Recent developments in the history and philosophy of science seek for a richer understanding of science
capable of encompassing its cultural and political dimensions. This is not only due to (inter-)
disciplinary reasons pertaining to methodology of inquiry. Rather, political motivations have come to
the fore—questions pertaining to the role of science in society, to scientists’ public responsibility, the
global impact of human activity and technology on the terrestrial systems, the agendas underlying
scientific and academic discourses, and so on.
However, the meaning of this turn for Science Studies in general and Historical Epistemology in particular
is still waiting for a clarification. If the different strains of Historical Epistemology and culturalist
historiography can be seen as a critique of reductionist treatments of science (Feest & Sturm 2011),
the different historiographical methods and their consequences have to be discussed.
Keywords: Meta-Science, Historiography and Philosophy of Science, Concept of Science, Science and
Society, Political Epistemology, Historical Epistemology, Methodology
Narratives of Superiority in the Historiography of Pre-modern Science (ID 408)
Sonja Brentjes (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany)
This paper discusses the political background of narratives on pre-modern science from the viewpoint
of a global history of cross-cultural exchanges. Twentieth-century historians of science throughout the
Cold War have generally been trapped in an approach that can be aptly depicted as teleological, linear,
mono-cultural and static. Some examples will be presented, discussed and critically assessed. Whereas
Eurocentric mainstream narratives have often established themself at the level of commonsense, alternative
approaches proved not less monolithic and static, as is the case with recent ‘Islamocentric’
historiography. It will be argued that such mono-cultural approaches are not apt to account for the
history of knowledge. Intellectual history has rather to be seen as a cross-cultural process. What’s
more, the one-sidedness of the aforementioned ‘narratives of superiority’ is not only misled from a
methodological viewpoint but also is affected by ideological shortcomings that have to be understood
in political terms. Such a criticism of implicit and explicit politico-cultural agendas underlying historiography
is aimed to foster a dynamic and non-linear model. Such a change of perspective would make
justice to the participation of many different cultures in the production, transfer and advance of science.
The presentation will include a discussion of some instances of historical inquiry developed from
such point of view. Such cases will show the fruitfulness of an approach devoted to the study of the in
history of knowledge as the field of cross-cultural exchanges.
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