Books of 2012
Book
Strategie Verständigung: zur transnationalen Vernetzung von Akademikerinnen 1917-1955
In den düstersten Tagen des Ersten Weltkriegs formierte sich ein neues akademisches Netzwerk mit einem hochgesteckten Ziel: Eine länderübergreifende weibliche Bildungselite sollte für die Verständigung der Völker eintreten und gleichzeitig ihr eigenes wissenschaftliches Fortkommen international befördern. More
Book
Das physikalische Prinzip: der epistemologische Status physikalischer Weltbetrachtung
Borzeszkowski, Horst-Heino von; Wahsner, Renate
Das Buch versteht sich als Beitrag zur Naturphilosophie, indem es den erkenntnistheoretischen Status der Physik untersucht. Die hier skizzierte epistemologische Verfaßtheit der Physik erfordert es, die Welt unter der Form des Objekts zu fassen, wodurch sich die Physik grundlegend von der Philosophie unterscheidet und der Übergang von einem zum anderen unvermittelt nicht möglich ist. More
Book
A history of the electron: J. J. and G. P. Thomson
Two landmarks in the history of physics are the discovery of the particulate nature of cathode rays (the electron) by J. J. Thomson in 1897 and the experimental demonstration by his son G. P. Thomson in 1927 that the electron exhibits the properties of a wave.
Together, the Thomsons are two of the most significant figures in modern physics, both winning Nobel prizes for their work.
More
Book
Europe's green revolution and others since: the rise and fall of peasant-friendly plant breeding
Harwood, Jonathan
How best to foster agricultural development in the Third World has long been a subject of debate and from a European perspective the persistent failure to design peasant-friendly technology is puzzling. From the late 19th century, for example, various western European countries also underwent ‘green revolutions’ in which systematic attempts were made to promote the adoption of technological innovation by peasant-farmers. More
Edited Book
Differing routes to stem cell research: Germany and Italy
Mazzolini, Renato G.; Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg
Stem cells have been in the center of a heated biomedical and biopolitical debate in the first decade of the new millennium. Ethical concerns prevailed. The present volume follows the controversial discussions on stem cells in Italy and Germany, respectively, over the past 15 years. It aims at an assessment of the situation, and its method is comparative. More
Book
A cultural history of heredity
Müller-Wille, Staffan; Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg
It was only around 1800 that heredity began to enter debates among physicians, breeders, and naturalists. Soon thereafter it evolved into one of the most fundamental concepts of biology. Here the authors offer a succinct cultural history of the scientific concept of heredity. They outline the dramatic changes the idea has undergone since the early modern period and describe the political and technological developments that brought about these changes. More
Working Group Book
The globalization of knowledge in history
This volume presents results of an interdisciplinary research project on the globalization of knowledge. The project is part of the research program of a historical epistemology whose aim is to contribute also to the reflexivity of present science and its institutions. It pursues a comparative history of knowledge in which present processes of globalization are conceived as the outcome of historical developments and their interactions. More
Edited Book
Verkörperungen
Blum, André L.; Krois, John M.; Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg
Neben dem Begriff des ,embodiment' existieren zahlreiche andere Bedeutungen von ,Verkörperung'. Die Beiträge dieses Bandes diskutieren den Begriff der Verkörperung daher interdisziplinär. Sie reichen von der Neurophysiologie über die Epistemologie bis zur Kunstgeschichte und zu den Literatur- und Theaterwissenschaften. More
Special journal issue
Artisanal-scientific experts in eighteenth-century France and Germany
The 18th century was an age of expanding and diversifying state bureaucracies. In France and the German states new administrative departments were founded in order to promote trade and manufacture, as were public institutions to provide technical and scientific education. The essays are based on a workshop held at the Institute in October 2010. More
Edited Book
Albert Einstein : Helden ohne Degen
Fischer, Ernst Peter; Renn, Jürgen; Ziegelmann, Horst; ;
Der Physiker und Nobelpreisträger Albert Einstein (1879–1955) revolutionierte das physikalische Weltbild. Sein Leben und Wirken als engagierter Wissenschaftler stellt dieser reich bebilderte Band in Einzelbeiträgen, so von Jürgen Renn "Einsteins Relativitätsrevolutionen" und mit einem Dokumentenanhang versehen umfassend dar. More
Book
Sulle spalle di giganti e nani
Albert Einstein è da tempo diventato l’icona dello scienziato geniale, colui che vede più lontano degli altri, l’eletto in grado di porre le basi di una rivoluzione scientifica fertile e duratura. La svolta della relatività, iniziata nell’annus mirabilis 1905 e proseguita con la formulazione della teoria della relatività generale nel 1915, offre però moltissimo materiale per indagare più a fondo e in maniera meno ovvia le ragioni e le modalità di un cambiamento tanto epocale nel nostro modo di intendere il mondo. More
Special journal issue
What (good) is historical epistemology?
Sturm, Thomas; Feest, Uljana
The central purpose of epistemology, as traditionally understood, is to identify and justify the epistemic basis of knowledge, including scientific knowledge. While epistemology in this sense is one of the strongest branches of contemporary philosophy, its universalizing approach has been criticized in various ways. More
Edited Book
Genetics and the unsettled past : the collision of DNA, race, and history
Wailoo, Keith; Nelson, Alondra; Lee, Catherine
Our genetic markers have come to be regarded as portals to the past. Analysis of these markers is increasingly used to tell the story of human migration; to investigate and judge issues of social membership and kinship; to rewrite history and collective memory; to right past wrongs and to arbitrate legal claims and human rights controversies; and to open new thinking about health and well-being More
Book
Theaterhistoriografie : eine Einführung
Lazardzig, Jan; Tkaczyk, Viktoria; Warstat, Matthias
Als wichtiges Teilgebiet der Theaterwissenschaft hat sich die Theaterhistoriografie in den letzten Jahrzehnten zu einer Geschichtsschreibung des Theatralen und Performativen erweitert. Diese Einführung vermittelt Bachelorstudierenden ein offenes und weit gefasstes Verständnis von Theaterhistoriografie. More
Book
William Petty on the order of nature : an unpublished manuscript treatise
Lewis, Rhodri
Stung by the allegation that his version of the new philosophy tended towards atheism and materialism, Sir William Petty – medic, mathematician, pioneering political economist, intellectual entrepreneur, and Fellow of the Royal Society – set out to compose a treatise vindicating his philosophical piety More
Book
Objectivité
Daston, Lorraine; Galison, Peter
L'objectivité a une histoire, et celle-ci se révèle pleine de surprises. Lorraine Daston et Peter Galison retracent dans cette somme l'émergence de l'objectivité dans les sciences au milieu du XIXe siècle et montrent comment ce concept se distingue de deux vertus concurrentes la vérité d'après nature et le jugement exercé. More
Book
What did the Romans know? An inquiry into science and worldmaking
Lehoux, Daryn
What did the Romans know about their world? Quite a lot, as Daryn Lehoux makes clear in this fascinating and much-needed contribution to the history and philosophy of ancient science. Lehoux draws upon a wide range of sources from what is unquestionably the most prolific period of ancient science, from the first century BC to the second century AD. More
Book
The equilibrium controversy: Guidobaldo del Monte's critical notes on the mechanics of Jordanus and Benedetti and their historical and conceptual background
This study, the second volume of the series "Sources" of the "Max Planck Research Library for the History and Development of Knowledge," reviews a historical discussion about the question of whether a balance in equilibrium, after having been deflected, returns to its original position. More
Edited Book
Apollonius Pictus: an illustrated late antique romance around 1000 ; facsimile edition of the Historia Apollonii Regis Tyri
Boreczky, Anna; Németh, András
This volume adjacently provides the reader with a facsimile and a multifold account of a thousand-year-old manuscript (Budapest, National Széchényi Library, Cod. Lat. 4), the oldest known illustrated copy of the late antique Latin adventure romance "History of Apollonius, King of Tyre". More
Book
The sciences of the soul: the early modern origins of psychology
The Sciences of the Soul is the first attempt to explain the development of the disciplinary conception of psychology from its appearance in the late sixteenth century to its redefinition at the end of the seventeenth and its emergence as an institutionalized field in the eighteenth. More
Working Group Book
Einstein and the changing worldviews of physics
Lehner, Christoph; Renn, Jürgen; Schemmel, Matthias
This volume reviews conceptual conflicts at the foundations of physics now and in the past century. The focus is on the conditions and consequences of Einstein's pathbreaking achievements that sealed the decline of the classical notions of space, time, radiation, and matter, and resulted in the theory of relativity. More
Book
Himmels-Falten : zur Theatralität des Fliegens in der Frühen Neuzeit
Himmels-Falten eröffnet eine neue Perspektive auf die Geschichte der Luftfahrt, indem es das Theater der Frühen Neuzeit als einen Schauplatz aviatischer Wissensproduktion herausstellt. Es werden acht exemplarische Interferenzbereiche zwischen Flugkunst und -wissen in den Blick genommen. More
Edited Book
The German Physical Society and the Third Reich: physicists between autonomy and accommodation
Hoffmann, Dieter; Walker, Mark
This is a history of one of the oldest and most important scientific societies, the German Physical Society, during the Nazi regime and immediate postwar period. More
