Toward a Hermeneutic Theory of the History of the Natural Sciences

Abstract

The history of science has a relatively short but interesting history of its own.1 At first scientists engaged in the history of science for pedagogical and educational reasons without being explicitly trained as historians (Lagrange). Later philosophers began to concern themselves with the history of science, mainly because they wanted to come to a better understanding of the “true” meaning and function of a given science. In most cases these authors were both scientists and philosophers. Yet they all had in common that they were never explicitly trained as historians. Only lately, after World War II, did one begin to see people trained in history concerning themselves with the history of science as such (Sarton) or with the history of a particular science (Jammer). These authors were also trained in one or more sciences. Yet in many cases the knowledge of science on the part of these scholars seldom went beyond the kind of science “passively” acquired at the college level; very few of these historians were ever actually engaged in scientific research.