Abstract
This volume illustrates convincingly that the history of science is used for a great variety of purposes: to strengthen a particular approach to science; to glorify the achievements of great scientists; to identify a new discipline; to justify a particular political order; to establish links with antecedent philosophical systems; to herald a conceptual overturn; to laud science as the only progressive activity; and so forth. Most of these goals can be subsumed under the general term of ‘legitimation’. Historians of science, or scientists turning to the histories of their fields, have found history extremely useful in order to legitimate a particular goal of which they are partisans.
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© 1983 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Graham, L., Lepenies, W., Weingart, P. (1983). Epilogue. In: Graham, L., Lepenies, W., Weingart, P. (eds) Functions and Uses of Disciplinary Histories. Sociology of the Sciences a Yearbook, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7035-9_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7035-9_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-277-1521-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-7035-9
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