Besides the theory of evolution, cell theory is regarded as biology's crucial contribution to a modern, secular world view. But whereas Darwin's complex relationship with religion has been a topic in the history of science for a long time, the bearing of religion on cell theory has hardly been studied so far. This project aims at closing this gap. It focuses on the unpublished works of the German founder of cell theory, Theodor Schwann (1810-1882), which have received little attention yet. On the basis of his manuscripts from the 1840s to the 1870s, interrelations between his research and his catholic world view will be closely investigated and placed in a broader cultural context. Schwann's oeuvre will be examined as part of an intellectual current of the second half of the nineteenth century that rejected both a democratic reshaping of society and an understanding of man and nature detached from religion. Parallels and differences between Schwann's ideas and other alternatives to the materialist concepts of this era will be highlighted by a comparison with the writings of Matthias Schleiden (1804-1881). Overall, the project aims to open up a new perspective on the relations between biology, religion and politics in the nineteenth century. Presentation of project - Vienne (pdf, 165 KByte)
Researcher in charge of the project:
Dr. Florence Vienne
Abteilung für Pharmazie- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte der TU Braunschweig
Bethovenstr. 55
38106 Braunschweig
Co-operation partners:
Prof. Lynn K. Nyhart
Vilas-Bablitch-Kelch Distinguished Achievement Professor
Department of History
University of Wisconsin- Madison
Dr. Marion Thomas
Maître de conférences en histoire des sciences de la vie et de la santé
Université de Strasbourg
Faculté de médecine
Département d'histoire et de philosophie des sciences de la vie et de la santé (DHVS)
SAGE (Sociétés, Acteurs, Gouvernement en Europe)
The meeting provides a starting point for scientific exchanges between Taiwan (the Republic of China) and Germany in the field of history of science. The history of Taiwan may be closely intertwined with that of the People's Republic of China and the Chinese empire, but it is not identical. Before it became a Japanese colony in 1895, Taiwan - at the time known as Formosa - was part of the Chinese empire. We will focus on questions of material culture, of medicine and of humanities in the early modern and modern period, thus covering different aspects of both countries' cultural history in a diachronical and a synchronical perspective.
In the course of two workshops, one in Braunschweig (January 2016) and one in Taipei (February 2017), the group has identified four main fields of interest for collaborative research:
More workshops and collaborative projects will explore these four topics in a comparative European-Asian perspective.
Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Ministery of Science and Technologie, Taiwan. German cooperation partners: Max Planck-Institut for History of Science, Berlin, Christian Albrechts-Universität Kiel.
We were happy to welcome as a speaker:
Yubin Shen, PhD, Max Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftgeschichte
State Medicine, International Health, and the Global Network of Tropical Medicine in Nanjing (China): The Department of Parasitology of the Central Field Health Station, 1931-1936.
10th July 2018, 5 p.m. Pharmacy Building, Beethovenstr.55, Room BV 55.1
Subject of this joint project of the film scholar Heike Kippel and the historian of science Bettina Wahrig, is - depending on perspective - either a substance or a process: Poison/Poisoning. Each project in itself and both at the same time focus on particular concepts that are related to the semantic field that poisons and poisoning outline, their representation in our respective subject areas, as well as the interdiscourse between them.
The temporal focus of each of the projects is not identical, because film as a medium fully exploits the motivational repertoires of science and literature, beginning with the early modern era. The shared third project (Literatur und "causes célébres") is incorporated through a long-existing collaboration with scholars of literature and through the presence of forensic-medical literature in the corpus of sources, for the part of the project that belongs to the history of science.
A key concept regarding film is the "Abjekt" (abject) and its functions, which are examined in its relationship to the "Objekt" (object) and its (in-)visibility. Regarding the history of science, the concept of precarious matters is at the core of the analysis. Both concepts are examined using the methods of the respective disciplines; for the field of film, through historically and theoretically perspectivised motivation research, and for the history of science through an analysis of substance narratives. This method is applied to a combination of histories of concepts, metaphors and experiments. Both projects are concerned with explicit and implicit constructs of masculinity and femininity in connection to poisons, poisoning, poisoners and scientists.
The main research question for the project in the history of science is the interaction between scientific methods and the conceptualisation of poisons and poisoning from a longue durée perspective, focusing on the time between the late eighteenth century and the twentieth century. In the course of exploratory studies, it has been striking to recover elements of the complex of motivations of the "Abjekt" (e.g. the mixture and the pure/impure, femininity as predisposition of poisioning) and the narrative of precarious matters (e.g. 'small amount, large effect', the proximity of healing and mortal danger) in scientific texts as well as in film narratives.
There is specific interest in the following scales:
Supervision:
Prof. Dr. Bettina Wahrig
Abteilung für Pharmazie- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte der TU Braunschweig
Beethovenstr.55
38106 Braunschweig
Prof. Dr. Heike Klippel
Institut für Medienforschung
Hochschule für Bildende Künste
Johannes-Selenka-Pl. 1
D-38118 Braunschweig
Links: HBK
Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), 2013-2016
The aim of this project is to shed a new light on the development of the cell theory in the 19th Century, in France and Germany. One part of the project investigates the pre-history of central categories of the cell theory such as "individuality", "universality", the analogy between "organism" and the "state", between 1800 and 1839 and from a German-French perspective. The other part studies the reception of the cell theory in France between 1838 and 1900 by focusing on two scientific centers: Strasbourg and Paris. The main issue of the project is to explore the intertwined links between the cell theory and its political contexts. We consider these links as reciprocal relationships through which new orders of nature and politics were symmetrically constructed. By means of transnational and transdisciplinary comparisons, the French-German collaboration retrieves differences and similarities between different political and philosophical concepts, epistemic schemes and research practices that shaped the emergence and development of the cell theory. Last but not least, the comparative approach enhances the dialogue between French and German historians of science.
(Duration of the project: July 2013 - July 2016)
Applicants:
Dr. Florence Vienne
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin
Abteilung für Pharmazie- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte der TU Braunschweig
Beethovenstr.55
38106 Braunschweig
Dr. Marion Thomas
Maître de conférences en histoire des sciences de la vie et de la santé
Université de Strasbourg
Faculté de médecine
Département d'histoire et de philosophie des sciences de la vie et de la santé (DHVS)
SAGE (Sociétés, Acteurs, Gouvernement en Europe)
Scholars involved:
Dr. Laurent Loison
Post-doctorant, projet ANR POLCELL
Département d'histoire et de philosophie des sciences de la vie et de la santé (DHVS)
SAGE (Sociétés, Acteurs, Gouvernement en Europe)
Pr. Dr. Christian Bonah
Professeur en histoire des sciences de la vie et de la santé
Université de Strasbourg
Faculté de médecine
Département d'histoire et de philosophie des sciences de la vie et de la santé (DHVS)
SAGE (Sociétés, Acteurs, Gouvernement en Europe)
Pr. Dr. Thierry Hoquet
Professeur de philosophie des sciences
Université Jean Moulin-Lyon3
Faculté de philosophie
Institut de Recherches Philosophiques de Lyon
Pr. Dr. Stéphane Tirard
Professeur d'épistémologie et d'histoire des sciences
Université de Nantes
Faculté des sciences et des techniques
Centre François Viète d'histoire des sciences et des techniques