Historians have studied extensively how sciences begin. But how do they end? Previous attention to the founding, disciplinisation, and professionalisation of individual sciences has provided robust frameworks in which to think about the birth and growth of scientific knowledge communities. Less attention has been directed at how those same communities decay, dissolve, or evolve beyond the contemporary boundaries of science. SciEnds is a research network cultivating case studies of the ends of sciences in order to motivate a new approach to thinking about the developmental trajectories of scientific disciplines, communities, institutions, and the ordering of knowledge. This working group explores specific cases of the ends of sciences as well as reflects on general methodological questions raised by scrutinizing the unmaking of scientific practices.
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We will discuss two readings on the end of natural history:
Both are available in the attached zip file.
TBA
TBA
Reading:
Simon Schaffer, "Scientific Discoveries and the End of Natural Philosophy," Social Studies of Science 16, no. 3 (1986): 387–420.
Alex Aylward is Departmental Lecturer in History of Science at the Faculty of History, Oxford University. He works in history of the modern life sciences, especially evolutionary biology, genetics, and eugenics.
Joseph Martin is Associate Professor of the History of Science and Technology at Durham University. He has published on the history of twentieth-century physical sciences and the philosophy of science and technology.
Michelle Pfeffer is a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. She is an early modernist focusing on history of science, religion, and scholarship in Europe with an emphasis on the history of astrology.
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