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 stadt und das reich in der verfassungslehre des marsilius von padua

This essay examines Tocqueville's interest in statistics, and how it informed his analysis of democracy. It explores his early engagement with the discipline and shows how this proved critical to his and Beaumont's 1833 study of the American penitentiary system. It shows that Tocqueville's interest in statistics was long lasting. And it pays particular attention to his links with the British Association for the Advancement of Science, examining his attendance at the statistical section meetings of the BAAS conference in Dublin in 1835. It shows how material presented at this conference appeared in a number of Tocqueville's works. The essay argues against the thesis that Tocqueville resisted the primacy of the social. Rather, it shows that his interest in statistics underscored the importance he attached to the social in his analysis of modern democracy.     

Wissenschaftliche Photographie als visuelle Kultur. Die Erforschung und Dokumentation von Spektren

This paper discusses facets of 19th‐century scientific photography as a visual culture. The example of spectral research and documentation is particularly well suited, because prismatically diffracted light from the sun or from luminous gases was one of the most frequently examined phenomena of that century. The results were significant not only for physics but also for analytical chemistry and astrophysics. The spectrum also served as an ideal test object for checking the effectiveness of a wide array of photochemically sensitizable surfaces to the various color regions. Scientific photography became the most important experimental technique in the infrared and ultraviolet. H. A. Rowland's spectrum charts are discussed as an example of the transition from comprehensiveness in documentation to fetishism. The discussion of the Lippmann process, one of the first methods of color photography, addresses the associated training of the eye. Issues of authenticity and the much averred ?mechanical objectivity”? are raised with regard to retouching. The overriding theme of visual science cultures leads furthermore to unanticipated interdependencies with other scientific fields, such as geography, and draws the importance of practitioners into the foreground.     

“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.