Wie sozialisiert man eine Hochschule? Die Eröffnungsfeiern der mittelalterlichen deutschen Universitäten und die Gründung der Erfurter Universität (28. April 1392)

In pre-Reformation Germany, nearly all university foundations culminated in elaborated opening celebrations which were closely linked to the local liturgy. This article tries to understand these well-recorded acts as rituals and asks how social knowledge of what a university actually was was transmitted to the non-academic environment. It shows that the opening celebrations were designed both to make the new institution acceptable and to distance it from its environment, thus reducing its vulnerability.     

Der priesterkönig Johannes und sein Reich — Legende oder realität?

In the middle of the twelfth century rumours of a powerful Christian ruler beyond Islam, called Prester John, spread through Europe. In his vast kingdom, according to report, society was at peace and strange people, animals and plants, as well as valuable precious stones with miraculous powers, were to be found.At first this kingdom was sought for in India, then in the thirteenth century was transferred to Central Asia, and in the fourteenth to Ethiopia. Henry the Navigator and his captains tried to reach this powerful ruler in order to combine with him in attacking Islam in the rear. But it was only in 1517 that the Portuguese succeeded in contacting the Ethiopian ruler in person and helping him against his Islamic enemies. Through political ineptitude they made themselves unpopular, were persecuted, and finally in 1640 driven out of the country.Using an interdisciplinary approach based on history and ethnology, but also on geography, Germanistics and theology, an attempt is made here to decide if Prester John really existed and where his kingdom was, and, failing both possibilities, to ascertain who in the twelfth century had an interest in the ‘discovery’ of such a person, and to review the consequences of this ‘discovery’ in subsequent centuries.     

Über Georges Canguilhems Was heißt eine wissenschaftliche Ideologie? und über deutsch‐französische Beiträge zum Thema Wissenschaft und Ideologie aus den letzten vierzig Jahren

On Georges Canguilhem's What does a Scientific Ideology mean? and on French‐German Contributions on Science and Ideology in the Last Fourty Years. This paper is based on Canguilhem's text on the concept of scientific ideology, which he introduced in 1969. We describe Canguilhem's attempts at designing a methodological framework for the history of science including the status of kinds of knowledge related to science, like scientific ideologies preceding particular scientific domains (like ideologies about inheritance before Mendel, or Spencer's universal evolutionary laws preceding Darwin). This attempt at picturing the relationships between science and ideology is compared with Jürgen Habermas's book Technology and Science as ‘Ideology’ in 1968. The philosphical issue of human normativity provides the framework of this discussion.     

Die Entwürfe der Schlachtenkupfer der Kienlung- und Taokuang-Zeit

Henkama, ?Daddy Heng“ – A Mediator between the Kangxi Emperor and Jesuit Missionaries during Chinese Rites Controversy in the 18th Century

The author's main concern is to turn the somewhat enigmatic person of Henkama (1645/1646–1708), known under many (also false) names, into a more tangible historical figure. For this purpose, all the available sources in European languages, Manchu, and Chinese are taken into account. Beginning with investigating the very name of this Manchu official who was responsible for the administration of the affairs of the Europeans, the author tries to obtain available and solid knowledge of Henkama's life and work, possibly year by year, which goes far beyond what is normally known about him, i.e., his role as main intermediary during the papal legation in Beijing (December 1705 – August 1706). However, this mediatory role cost him the trust of all around him, including the Kangxi Emperor, who was convinced that Henkama had been paid off by the papal legate and cardinal Charles-Thomas Maillard de Tournon (1668–1710). At the end of his life, being in ill health, he became a Catholic. Henkama died in 1708 in disfavor due to slander. In the rest of his article, the author depicts another four important contact persons between the Kangxi Emperor (state administration) and Jesuit missionaries, all of whom are to be considered as Henkama's co-workers or his successors. Among these four, there are two Chinese – Zhao Chang (1654–1729) and Wang Daohua (fl. 1706–1720) and two persons of Manchu origin – Bursai (fl. 1705–1706) and Zhang Changzhu/Carki (fl. 1707–1722).     

Über den ursprung der voneinander abweichenden Strukturen der Munda- und Khmer-Nikobar-Sprachen

Vorbemerkung Da die Bezeichnung Mon-Khmer zweideutig ist - sie umfasst nämlich einmal nur die Mon-Khmer-Sprachen im engeren Sinne, also Mon, Khmer, Bahnar, Mnong usw., zum anderen aber diese Sprachen und die verwandten Gruppen Khasi, Nikobar, Palaung-Wa, Semang, Sakai und Jakud - sei hier vorgeschlagen, den Terminus Mon-Khmer nur noch im engeren Sinne zu verwenden und ihn im weiteren Sinne gegen die Bezeichnung Khmer-Nikobar einzutauschen, da dadurch Irrtümer vermieden und ausserdem die zu bezeichnenden Sprachgruppen besser charakterisiert werden als durch die zu einer Gruppe gehörenden Sprachen Mon und Khmer. Die gesamte Ostobergruppe der austroasiatischen Sprachen wird durch die beiden charakteristischen und wichtigen Sprachen, die alte Literatursprache Khmer und die besonders altertümliche Nikobar-Gruppe, wohl am besten repräsentiert. Die Bezeichnung Mon-Annam-Sprachen ist wegen des Übergangscharakters des Vietnamesischen abzulehnen. Die Khmer-Nikobar-Sprachen stehen also den Mundasprachen in Vorderindien gegenüber.     

Was zählt der Preis? Dogmengeschichte und Wissensgeschichte der Ökonomie

What’s in a Price? History of Economic Ideologies vs. History of Economic Ideas. This paper suggests applying the approach of a historical epistemology to the field of economics. We observe that an assumedly fundamental opposition between the market and the state dominates popular images of the history of economic ideas. Two conflicting ideologies are roughly assigned to the two opposing sides in the Cold War. To this historical narrative the paper opposes a different view. The argument is that when taking the technical practices of economic knowledge production in the twentieth century into view, similarities abound across ideological ruptures. The chief characteristic change in the recent history of economics was a radical turn towards quantification, measurement, and mathematical modelling. A historical epistemology of economics could show how deeply both, admirers of the state and of the market, share a history. The paper concludes that to-date critique of political economy should also take into consideration a critical perspective towards the unfolding of this measurement revolution in the social sciences.     

Menschenbild und Wirtschaftsordnung: Der Menschenbegriff im Kameralismus und in der National?konomie

This essay addresses the construction of human nature in cameralism and early German political economy. It suggests that the emergent economic sciences in Germany propounded a vision of human beings that stressed the psycho‐physiological roots of human behavior in general, and of economic activity in particular. In this vision, human beings possessed a body and soul whose constant interaction gave rise to needs and desires, and thus to the drive to behave as economic agents. Here the cameralists and early German political economists adopted conceptions of human nature current in the ‘Sciences of Man’ of the Enlightenment. This stress on the non‐rational, psycho‐physiological aspects of human nature prevented the theoretical construction of a stable human social life, and in this way justified the continued need for governmental oversight and control of economic activity.     

Bewertung durch Auswahl Wieviel wählt der Wissenschaftshistoriker aus,wieviel übergeht er?

In presenting events in history, the historian is forced to select a few people. This selection of people choosen by the historian is an evaluation in itself. How restricted is his selection? In the history of science we could ask: How large is the proportion of selected scientists in comparison with those that are not mentioned? The answer: A book that covers the entire history of science, usually will select one out of about three hundred scientists.