Experimental Systems and Spaces of Knowledge

The research projects in Hans-Jörg Rheinberger’s department (formerly Department III) were completed in 2011. Since then Hans-Jörg Rheinberger has continued his scholarly work as director of the MPIWG. 

The research activities of the department revolved around the practical, conceptual, and cultural conditions of scientifc innovation and the historical dynamics of scientifc change.  Research centered on the area of the life sciences from the 18th to the 20th century, with a focus on (1) history and epistemology of experimentation, (2) history of objects and spaces of knowledge, and (3) formation of concepts and uses of theory. The three main actual projects were (I) Experimentalization of Life, (II) A Cultural History of Heredity, and (III) Knowledge in the Making: Drawing and Writing as Research Techniques.

Currently, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger is working on the following projects:

The Relation between Epistemology and Poetology (in the Oeuvre of Gaston Bachelard)

System and Synthesis: A Historical Assessment of the Life Sciences in the Long Twentieth Century

Stilling Life: Technologies of Slow-down in Experimenting with Life