Thomas S. Kuhn, Earwitness: Interviewing and the Making of a New History of Science

Abstract

What are the narratives that guide the history of science? Certainly one of the more recent ones is “science in action,” the emphasis on practices and the imperative of studying science as performed. Perhaps not surprisingly, this story itself has a history; it starts in the early 1960s, when the project “Sources for History of Quantum Physics” was established. The main task of Thomas S. Kuhn, John L. Heilbron, and Paul Forman’s work, lasting three years, was to interview the old heroes of quantum mechanics and to archive the spoken word. While giving an account of the project’s history, this essay will focus on the process of interviewing and characterize its wider context. Not only does their approach offer us important insights into the shaping of the persona of the scientist; it also represents an important step toward the post-Kuhnian way of doing history of science.