Historical epistemology in action

Science and scholarship in the humanities evolve as parts of a comprehensive system of knowledge.  External representations of knowledge such as language, writing, and new media such as the Internet are closely intertwined with this evolution. The emergence of digital humanities is therefore expected to have profound repercussions on the structure of scholarly work and its impact on society at large.

In compliance with this insight the Department explores new web-based forms of knowledge dissemination in order to probe the potential of innovative information technologies for opening up new horizons for the humanities and their place in society, and also in order to investigate the capacity of the history of science to act as a mediator between science and society.

New media and the Internet have facilitated new modes of cooperation and new forms of publishing scholarly data and results. Against this setting, the idea of an Epistemic Web has emerged. Ideally, the Epistemic Web of the future will promote the creation of dynamic representations of knowledge, integrate research and dissemination, accommodate recursive processes of knowledge formation, and assimilate conceptual models and data.

Department I pushes forward the realization of some of the key concepts of the Epistemic Web, in particular by further developing the research-driven infrastructure that is fundamental to all Internet-based working environments and presentations of the Department’s research projects. Research results are integrated in these virtual research environments and are published as online publications or in traditional formats.  Digitized cultural heritage is made publicly accessible on the Internet in a sustainable form, complemented by tools for a web-based scholarly analysis of these sources.

Novel forms of dissemination combining scholarly communication with public outreach have are adopted to investigate the potential of the history of science as a mediator between science and society, also in the service of the Max Planck Society as a whole. Research is furthermore made public in the framework of exhibitions, lectures, school and public relation activities,  as well as by developing workflows for open access publications.