Abstract
History is commonly described in many scientific texts. Yet it is often not clear why. In this chapter, six reasons for studying history of a science are distinguished. On the one hand, there are three kinds of history use which reflect identity building on the part of the author rather than any contribution to the content of scientific knowledge. These uses of history are either neutral or hinder the progress of science. On the other hand, three kinds of studies of the history of science are distinguished that are essential for the development of scientific knowledge. In the last part of the chapter, the idea of scientific progress is discussed, and it is shown that only historical science can be progressive. Ahistorical science, which usually uses history only for identity building, becomes noncumulative and fragmented and increasingly ceases to be science.
To my mother who was present when I started to write this chapter and became history before I finished.
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Notes
- 1.
I discuss the role of history of psychology in the area of psychology, but these justifications for the history of a science would be relevant for all the sciences.
- 2.
http://www.learner.org/series/discoveringpsychology/history/history_nonflash.html, retrieved 26 February 2016.
- 3.
There actually were four names more; these, however, were given to identify two court cases extremely important for the development of the foundations of modern psychology; these four people were not mentioned as contributors themselves.
- 4.
Well, one also moved from the USA to Canada, but Canada is still North America and he was born and studied in the USA. So he definitely belongs to the USA as well.
- 5.
The sixth edition of the same book (Eysenck & Keane, 2010) presents history almost identically but misses some interesting details relevant for this chapter.
- 6.
I think the needed paradigm-independent criterion of truth can be formulated (Toomela, 2016a).
- 7.
I partly disagree with Sarton on this point: even though construction of the synthetic theory must be historical, it is not up to the historian to create such a theory. The theory requires deep understanding of the thing or phenomenon, about which synthetic theory is created. When we study history of science from the synthetic theory perspective, we learn how the theory as a human mental creation was constructed. This is necessary but not sufficient. We also need to be scientists, we need to know how to select relevant and to ignore irrelevant facts, and we need to know the methodology and the methods of the relevant science to be able to evaluate the facts.
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This research was supported by the Estonian Research Council Grant No IUT03-03 (Academic and Personal Development of an Individual in the System of Formal Education).
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Toomela, A. (2016). Six Meanings of the History of Science: The Case of Psychology. In: Klempe, S., Smith, R. (eds) Centrality of History for Theory Construction in Psychology . Annals of Theoretical Psychology, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42760-7_3
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