MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE RESEARCH REPORT 2015—2017 Research Report 2015–2017 Research Max PlanckInstitutefortheHistoryofScience FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT Horoscope of Prince Iskandar, grandson of Tamerlane, the Turkman Mongol conqueror. This horoscope shows the position of the heavens at the moment of Iskandar’s birth on April 25, 1384. Wellcome Collection. MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Research Report 2015–2017 Introduction The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science MPIWG( ) was founded 25 years ago, as one of the 18 new institutes of the Max Planck Society in unified Germany. The history of science had for some time been a desideratum in the Max Planck Society, but earlier attempts to create a research institute had been unsuccessful. In the Fed- eral Republic of Germany, the history of science was taught at merely a handful of universities; in the German Democratic Republic, however, the field was represented prominently, including in the Academy of Sciences. Internationally, the field had be- come increasingly significant as the point of intersection between the natural sci- ences, the social sciences, and the humanities. In the 1980s and 1990s, its potential to reflect on science in its cultural and social contexts made the history of science a forum for intense discussions about the place of science in modern societies. Insights from cultural history, philosophical epistemology, psychology, sociology, anthropol- ogy, and cognitive science had enriched an already highly interdisciplinary discipline. The decision of the Max Planck Society to create a new institute thus came at the right moment. The founding directors, Lorenz Krüger, Lorraine Daston, and Jürgen Renn, contrib- uted different backgrounds and research agendas. The Institute was to become a plu- ralistic place, fostering investigations of the development of many sciences in many times and places from many perspectives and using many approaches. The subject of these investigations was not to be a particular discipline or epoch, but rather science and technology in their manifold forms of existence, always conceived as being deeply embedded in their historical contexts. Dedication to rigorous historical inquiry came first and foremost, but research was also informed by reflections on how understand- ing past science might help meet present challenges. Tragically, Lorenz Krüger, who had been deeply involved in the planning of the new institution, became seriously ill and died before he could begin work at the new Insti- tute. He very generously bequeathed his library, which has since become a lasting commemoration of his decisive role in the founding and conception of the Institute. The two remaining directors took up their positions in March 1994 (Jürgen Renn) and in January 1995 (Lorraine Daston) in the premises of the Czech Embassy in Berlin Mitte, which served as a preliminary home for the Institute. They were joined by Hans-Jörg Rheinberger as a third director in 1997. In addition to the three depart- ments headed by the directors, the Institute has hosted twelve independent Research Groups since its founding, as well as two Partner Groups in China (at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and at Capital Normal University, Beijing). Since 2006, the Institute has resided in its own building in Berlin Dahlem. Over the years, the Institute has built up a large and diverse international community around its research projects, which have included “The Structure of Practical Knowl- edge,” “Sciences of the Archive,” and “The Experimentalization of Life.” It has also Introduction succeeded in promoting the history of science in Berlin. New chairs have been created at all three Berlin universities; the Institute’s Research Group Leaders have taken up temporary professorships at the Berlin universities, parallel to their research activities at the MPIWG; and common endeavors are being pursued under the aegis of the Berlin Center for the History of Knowledge, which has closely integrated research and teaching in Berlin since its beginnings in 2006. After the retirement of Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Dagmar Schäfer was appointed director of Department III, reorienting the department toward the history of technology and material culture, especially in East Asia. As an external member of the Institute since 2012, Glenn W. Most (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa) has played an active role in the Institute’s collaborative research, as has Gerd Graßhoff (Humboldt University, Berlin), a Max Planck Fellow since 2016. In addition to its three main departments, the Institute is home to a varying number of independent research groups. The current groups are headed by Elaine Leong, Viktoria Tkaczyk, Alexander Blum, and Katja Krause (starting November 2018). The Institute has also hosted major independent research programs funded by the Max Planck Society: first the Program for the History of The Kaiser-Wilhelm Society un- der National Socialism (1997–2007), and now the Research Program for the History of the Max Planck Society (2014–2022), headed by Jürgen Kocka, Carsten Reinhardt, Jürgen Renn, and Florian Schmaltz. Within the Max Planck Society, the Institute is part of the Human Sciences Section and plays a notable role in building bridges be- tween the natural sciences and the humanities. The period covered by this report saw several major innovations, among them the rapid growth of the new department headed by Dagmar Schäfer and the consolida- tion of the Berlin Center for the History of Knowledge with a postdoctoral program (jointly funded by the Max Planck Society and the Berlin universities), as well as joint workshops, lecture series, and courses. The Institute’s cooperation with universities has expanded to include teaching opportunities for early-career scholars at Indiana University Bloomington, the University of Chicago, Tel Aviv University, the Univer- sity of Sydney, and Bard College Berlin. In cooperation with a number of interna- tional societies in the history of science and technology, the Institute has sponsored translations of key texts of the history of science from English into Chinese and vice versa, published in both languages in the form of a reader. Through this initiative, as well as its ongoing research projects, the Institute strives to be a center for dialogue between cultures and disciplines. Dr. Ohad Parnes was appointed in February 2015 as the new Research Coordinatior, curating internal exchanges within the Institute and fostering the development of common research themes. The Institute’s colloquium has a new format, now combin- ing lectures with workshops under a thematic focus. Esther Chen became the Head of the Library in April 2015, and, in cooperation with Dagmar Schäfer and her depart- ment, has overseen the expansion of the library’s collection of non-European materi- als, as well as its increasing global engagement with digital sources and information management. With two additional IT positions granted following the evaluation and recommendation by the Scientific Advisory Board, the Institute is now in the position 4 MPIWG RESEARCH REPORT 2015–2017 Introduction to adequately support its IT-heavy research projects, and to consolidate and strength- en its leading position in the digital humanities. With its journalist-in-residence pro- gram, organized by Hansjakob Ziemer (Head of Cooperation and Communication), the Institute has not only achieved international media visibility, building on its well- established scholarly reputation, but has also contributed to addressing the urgent need for a reflective and occasionally critical dialogue between science and the pub- lic. By the end of 2017, the Institute had relaunched its website to make its research more accessible to scholars and the general public worldwide. Twenty-five years after the Institute’s foundation, the Institute sees itself as both a participant in and analyst of the far-reaching changes driven by science and technol- ogy. The digital transformation of all areas of life, climate change, shifting power bal- ances, the fragility of democracies, and the menaces to the openness and freedom of science in many countries are only some of the current global developments that de- mand new responses, including a continuing debate on the role of science in society, politics, and the economy. The long historical and broad geographic perspective of- fered by the history of science and knowledge offers a rare resource for reflection on these challenges. MPIWG RESEARCH REPORT 2015–2017 5 Table of Contents Table of Contents 10 Structure and Organization of the Institute 11 Department I Structural Changes in Systems of Knowledge (Jürgen Renn) 12 Department II Ideals and Practices of Rationality (Lorraine Daston) 13 Department III Artifacts, Action, Knowledge (Dagmar Schäfer) 14 External Scientific Member Glenn W. Most 14 Max Planck Fellow Gerd Graßhoff 14 Emeritus Scientific Member Hans-Jörg Rheinberger 15 Max Planck Research Groups 16 Research Services, Coordination, and Administration 19 Department I director Jürgen Renn Structural Changes in Systems of Knowledge 21 Introduction 24 Global Perspectives of Knowledge 34 The Long-term Evolution of Mechanical Knowledge 42 Cosmological Knowledge from the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century 50 Rethinking Basic Science 60 Historical Theories of Knowledge 65 Knowledge in and of the Anthropocene 75 Digital and Computational History of Science