Science and the Knowing Body

Project Description

The embodiment of knowledge has been a concern amongst historians, philosophers and sociologists of science as well as cultural historians. But it is, given the notorious difficulty of reconstructing bodily as opposed to textual knowledge, still a historiographical and conceptual challenge to give an adequate account of the relation between individual scientists and the environment and community of which they are a part. In this project we explore ways of linking individual scientist’s actions to collectives, traditions and realms of experience that are not always readily accessible through written resources alone. For the utility of this kind of historical investigation of the micro-level of scientific change and the implications for the notion of ‚tacit knowledge’ (M. Polanyi) in particular, see H. Otto Sibum, “Les gestes de la mesure. Joule, les pratiques de la brasserie et la science.“ Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 53, 4-5 (1998), 745-774.