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Different Undertakings, Common Practices: Some Directions for the History of Science

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Relocating the History of Science

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science ((BSPS,volume 312))

Abstract

Having participated in collaborative projects with Kostas Gavroglu both in the realm of history of quantum chemistry and in the framework of the international group Science and Technology in the European Periphery (STEP), in this chapter I offer a brief assessment of STEP and the history of quantum chemistry undertakings to highlight ways in which the praxis informing both reveals common features. This comparative exercise is used to suggest a few directions the discipline of history of science might take into consideration in the future. These directions point to the importance of organizational and methodological pluralism and multi-perspectivity, and the promises of exploring the “in-between” character of subdisciplines or areas of studies in both the sciences and the history of science.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This idea, which I have entertained for long, was reinforced following a discussion held during the meeting “Fifty years after T.S. Kuhn Structure of Scientific Revolutions” held at the Institute Max Planck for the History of Science in the fall of 2012.

  2. 2.

    European Community Project, Human Capital and Mobility, Scientific and Technical Cooperation Networks Project Prometheus – The Spreading of the Scientific Revolution from the countries where it originated to the countries in the Periphery of Europe, during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. CHRX-CT93-0299, 1994–1996.

  3. 3.

    See Chap. 5 in this volume by AgustÚ Nieto-Galan.

  4. 4.

    Website: http://147.156.155.104/. List: NODUS: Science and Technology in the European Periphery e-mail list NODUS@LISTSERV.UV.ES.

  5. 5.

    Scientific Travels, Lisbon, Portugal 2000; Scientific and Technological Textbooks, Aigina, Greece, 2002; Traditions and realities of national historiographies of science, Aarhus, Denmark, 2004; Scientific and Technological popularization in the European Periphery, Mao, Minorca, 2006; Looking back, Stepping Forward, Istanbul, Turkey, 2008; Galway, Ireland, 2010; Corfu, Greece, 2012; Lisbon, Portugal, 2014.

  6. 6.

    For an extended discussion of the STEP project and research output see also Chaps. 5 and 10 in this volume by AgustÚ Nieto-Galan and JosÕ Ramon Bertomeu-Sanchez.

  7. 7.

    Since the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the reference to European science has usually encompassed the space enclosed by a “polygon starting in Cracow, going onto Padua and Florence, proceeding to Paris and London to Edinburgh and completed at Kracow including the Low Countries,” which has come to define roughly the European Center (Gavroglu 2012, 311–312).

  8. 8.

    Traditionally, a subgroup of comparative reception studies has been concerned with accounting either for the differences between centers and peripheries or between peripheries. Although there are not many comparative studies written by “peripheral” authors, impressionistic comments abound, oscillating between a hagiographic type and the rhetoric of backwardness or decadence. In turn, the accounts about peripheries built up by historians of the so-called centers tend to assess peripheries using criteria stemming from the centre, thereby overlooking the creative role of peripheries.

  9. 9.

    Despite contributions to the history of quantum chemistry by a growing number of scholars, including A. Karachalios, H. Kragh, V. Mosini, M.J. Nye, J. James, S.S. Schweber, and B.S. Park, having in mind the purpose of this paper, in what follows I briefly recall a few main steps in the history of quantum chemistry as developed by Kostas, individually or in joint collaborations.

  10. 10.

    Scholars who have contributed to this area include D. Baird, D.A. Bantz, P.A. Bogaard, J. van Brakel, Marta Harris, R.F. Hendry, L.C. McIntyre, N. Psarros, J.L. Ramsey, J. Schummer, E.R. Scerri, H. Vermeeren, G.K. Vermulapalli, S.J. Weininger, A.I. Woody, and R.J. Woolley.

  11. 11.

    See the contribution to this volume by Sam Schweber.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e Tecnologia (CIUHCT), Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

    Ana Simões

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Theodore Arabatzis

  2. Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany

    Jürgen Renn

  3. Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e Tecnologia (CIUHCT), Faculdade de Ciência, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

    Ana Simões

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Simões, A. (2015). Different Undertakings, Common Practices: Some Directions for the History of Science. In: Arabatzis, T., Renn, J., Simões, A. (eds) Relocating the History of Science. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 312. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14553-2_20

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