Mental Models in the History of Knowledge: The Relation of Practical Experience and Conceptual Structures in the Emergence of Science

The project focuses on mechanics as a part of science that has extraordinary significance for the development of science in general. More than other disciplines, mechanics has a continuous tradition from its origins in antiquity to the elimination of fundamental categories of mechanics by modern physics. The project covers the period from antiquity to the emergence of classical mechanics in early modern times. Key issues are followed up into the 20th century by the research activities of the project on Reorganizing Knowledge in Developed Science. Substantial parts of the project have been completed. The results have motivated an extension of the project to cover related areas such as hydromechanics and practical pneumatics. Furthermore, central ideas of the project are being pursued in cooperations with other institutions and with several visiting scholars, enriching the project’s findings with complementary investigations, such as the reconstruction of the process of transformation of ancient culture during the early modern period. In the case of mechanics, knowledge structures can be reconstructed in terms of a variety of mental models which partly fulfilled functions in specific contexts of application, later covered by abstract concepts such as weight or force. The overarching vision of the project is realized following a series of different phases ranging from the emergence of theoretical mechanics in antiquity, via its elaboration in the scholastic framework, to the further transformations of this knowledge in the Renaissance and the subsequent creation of classical mechanics. This vision includes the investigation of the crucial role that practical knowledge played in all these historical phases as well as the relation between individual and shared knowledge. Taking these dimensions into account, the project has been able to show how social conditions and material culture shaped the large-scale structures of scientific development.