Hybrid Knowledge and the Historiography of Science

Alberto Bardi

doi:10.24117/2526-2270.2021.i11.09

Abstract

Originating in the field of biology, the concept of the hybrid has proved to be influential and effective in historical studies, too. Until now, however, the idea of hybrid knowledge has not been fully explored in the historiography of pre-modern science. This article examines the history of pre-Copernican astronomy and focuses on three case studies—Alexandria in the second century CE; Baghdad in the ninth century; and Constantinople in the fourteenth century—in which hybridization played a crucial role in the development of astronomical knowledge and in philosophical controversies about the status of astronomy and astrology in scholarly and/or institutional settings. By establishing a comparative framework, this analysis of hybrid knowledge highlights different facets of hybridization and shows how processes of hybridization shaped scientific controversies.

Highlights

Originating in the field of biology, the concept of the hybrid has proved to be influential and effective in historical studies, too (Stross 1999)
This article examines the history of astronomy2 from late antiquity till the fifteenth century and focuses on three case studies—Alexandria in the second century CE; Baghdad in the ninth century; and Constantinople in the fourteenth century—in which hybridization played a crucial role in the development of astronomical knowledge and philosophical controversies
By putting them into a comparative framework,5 this analysis of hybrid knowledge will highlight facets of hybridization in several instances, and will show the following: how processes of hybridization are used in intellectual controversies to legitimize or reject “foreign knowledge”; how legitimization triggered the creativity of scholars to produce or justify new forms of knowledge; how hybrid knowledge links to clashes between radical religious factions and groups of scholars open to new forms of knowledge in both the Islamic and the Byzantine worlds; and how hybrid knowledge links to the reconceptualization of the epistemology of astronomy and astrology from one culture to another

Summary

Introduction

Originating in the field of biology, the concept of the hybrid has proved to be influential and effective in historical studies, too (Stross 1999). Abū Mašar employs Ptolemy’s recommendation, mentioned above, that in order to study astrology properly, one must master mathematical astronomy along with its geometrical proofs.

Results

Conclusion