Historical Sources of Science-as-Social-Practice: Michael Polanyi's Berlin Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 2007 Nye, Mary Jo Department of History, Oregon State University Originally published by: The University of California Press and can be found at: http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=histstudphysbiol MARY JONYE* Historical sources of science-as-social-practice: Michael Polanyi's Berlin IN THE LAST decades of the 20th century, studies in the history and sociology of science undermined distinctions between scientific content and social context, scientific ideas and social relations of science, and internal and external histories of science. Many histories of science focus on material or social practices in local Department of History, Oregon State University,Corvallis, OR 97331-5104 USA;
[email protected]. It is a privilege to contribute an essay in a volume honoring Russell McCormmach, whose scholarshiphas profoundlyinfluenced my own and so many ofmy colleagues in our historical understanding and research interests. Among other debts, I am gratefulfor the experience of workingwith Russell in the publication of my firstmajor article, on Gustave LeBon's "black light," in HSPS, 4 (1972). The present essay makes considerableuse of theMichael Polanyi Papers, which are held at theSpecial Collections of theRegenstein Library at theUniversity of Chicago. I am gratefulfor permission to have consulted these papers and ones at the Archives of theMax-Planck-Gesellschaft in Berlin Dahlem. Research for thisproject was supportedby theNational Science Foundation grant no. SBR-9321305 and by the Thomas Hart and Mary Jones Horning Endowment at Oregon State University. I am grateful to have been a Visiting Scholar at theMax-Planck-Instimt-fur Wissenschaftsgeschichtein Berlin forbrief periods during 1999,2002, and 2004, and a Senior Fellow at theDibner Institutefor theHistory of Science and Technology during 2000/1.