Vielfalt der Wissenschaften bei Carnap,Lewin und Fleck. Zur Entwicklung eines pluralen Wissenschaftskonzepts

The Diversity of Science in Carnap's, Lewin's and Fleck's Philosophy: Toward a Pluralistic Point of View. In the 1920s and 1930s three different but simultaneous approaches of philosophy of science can be distinguished: the logical approach of the physicist Rudolf Carnap, the logico‐historical approach of the psychologist Kurt Lewin and the socio‐historical approach of the medical scientist Ludwik Fleck. While the philosophies of Lewin and Fleck can be characterized as contextual appraisals which account for the interactions between particular sciences and their historical, socio‐cultural or intellectual environments, Carnap's philosophy is narrowed to an internal methodology centered on scientific propositions and logical structures in general. In addition to these differences in aim and practice of methodological analysis the estimation of the real disunity and diversity of the special branches of science differs. Instead of Carnap's ideal of a unified science from the new pluralistic point of view the evaluation of the empirical multiplicity of particular sciences obtains philosophical acceptance.     

Package FLUIDS. Part 3: correlations between equations of state, thermodynamics and fluid inclusions

The computer package FLUIDS ( Bakker 2003 ) has been revised to calculate fluid properties in pores and inclusions. The programs are provided with a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and are adapted to new operating systems, including MacOS, Windows and Linux. The van der Waals equation of state has been added to the group Loners and is used to illustrate a large variety of calculation procedures for many thermodynamic parameters and properties. The mathematical transformations can be applied to any equation of state with the form p ( V , T , n ), i.e. the pressure of a multi-component fluid is expressed as a function of volume, temperature and amount of substance. The fluid properties that are usually observed in microthermometric analyses of fluid inclusions, such as phase separation, phase coexistence and stability, can be predicted with these equations of state by using its spinodal and critical point calculations, in addition to fugacity calculations of liquid and vapour phases. The computer program LonerW can be freely downloaded from the website: http://fluids.unileoben.ac.at/Computer.html .     

Etappen auf dem Weg zu einer Geschichte der Pflanzenzüchtung. Überlegungen aus Anlaß eines Buches von Thomas Wieland

Thomas Wieland's book is the first survey on the history of scientific plant breeding in Germany from 1889 to 1945. There are two mainlines of analysis: (1) The transformation of an agricultural practise of peasants into an academic discipline of scientists and (2) the importance of political arguments for this process of scientification. Most of the time Wieland's methods to present his thesis are exemplary: either as biographies or as breeding project histories. So he can write about a great diversity of aspects; but from his point of view – the discipline history as applied science – he cannot show the great importance of economic forces controlling plant breeding. This short article will not diminish the high value of Wieland's book. My aim is only to outline some desiderata for a history of plant breeding which is not yet written.     

Science and the History of the Sciences. Conceptual Innovations Through Historicizing Science in the Eighteenth Century

Science and the History of the Sciences. Conceptual Innovations Through Historicizing Science in the Eighteenth Century. The historical reconstruction of science is linked to philosophical discussions of the eighteenth century in many ways. The historiography of philosophy and the historiography of science share the conceptual problem to assemble the multitude of scientific and philosophical practices under general concepts. The historical analysis of scientific progress offers a clue by problematizing definitions of “science” and “sciences” as well as the system of sciences as a whole. By analyzing these conceptual problems and the typology of historical enterprises of the eighteenth century, this paper will discuss the close interrelations which existed between philosophical and historical discourses of eighteenth‐century reflection on science.     

Philosophical Instruments and Toys: Optical Devices Extending the Art of Seeing

In the nineteenth century, there was a continuous debate on the structure and function of the brain, focusing on localization of function and on epilepsy. France, Germany, and England played a leading role. This article addresses the question of what happened with respect to the study of epilepsy in the Netherlands in that period. A systematic search of the literature has been performed and papers by Schroeder van der Kolk, Huet, Jelgersma, and Niermeijer are discussed. Also two dissertations were selected for discussion, those of Kroon and Langelaan. It is concluded that from a scientific point of view, only the paper by Schroeder van der Kolk deserved and received international attention.