Die Komplementarität von interner und externer Wissenschaftsgeschichte

In studies of the history of science two apparently diverging ‘ideal types’ can be distinguished. The internal analysis relies on methodology and on the philosophy of science and concentrates on the cognitive system and on the sequence of theories. The external analysis relies on sociology, the history of institutions, biographies, etc. and concentrates on the social system and on the interrelationship between science and society. Neither of the two approaches can claim to cover the whole truth and to give the only possible (causal) explanation, The cognitive content of scientific theories and the social process of bringing about and using them are by their very nature complementary.     

“Die wissenschaftliche Ausbildung des Arztes ist eine Culturfrage …”. Über das Verhältnis von Wissenschaftsanspruch,Bildungsprogramm und Praxis der Medizin

The article shows that the elite, nationalistic and imperial mentality of German medicine in the second half of the nineteenth century was closely connected to its aim to be understodd as a natural science. With this in view leading representatives of German medicine propagated a scientific approach to man and nature instead of the traditional values of humanistic education (“Bildung”). One of the most important consequences of the new scientific ideal in medicine — integration in governmental planning, the change in professionel status of doctors, the increasing tendeny to recognize biologistic ideologies — was the loss of the medical ideal of the ars medica, a subject which has not received sufficient thematic attention. This theme is explored in the third part of the article.     

Die Seele auf der Bühne der Justiz. Die Entstehung der Kriminalpsychologie im 19. Jahrhundert und ihre interdisziplinäre Erforschung

The mind on the stage of justice: The formation of criminal psychology in the 19th century and its interdisciplinary research. – Criminal psychology emerges at the end of the 18th century as a new academic discipline in lectures and publications. It has recently been investigated by a considerable number of contributions from researchers of different academic backgrounds. In many respects criminal psychology can be seen as a predecessor of criminology. Its subject is the analysis of the origins of crime and its causes and determinants in the human mind. Criminal psychology embraced at that time philosophical, medical, legal and biological aspects. The latter increase in importance in the second half of the 19th century. The conditions of individual responsibility were generally codified in penal law, but had to be individually investigated in crucial cases through expertise in court. There a conflict emerged between medical experts and judges about their ability and competence to decide. At the end of the 19th century criminal psychology is used to fulfil the needs and interests of a criminal law which understands itself as increasingly utilitarian. Force and new instruments of treatment of offenders were legitimized by scientists who were very optimistic about their own epistemological abilities.