Positioning the History of Science

The present volume, compiled in honor of an outstanding historian of science, physicist and exceptional human being, Sam Schweber, is unique in assembling a broad spectrum of positions on the history of science by some of its leading representatives. Readers will find it illuminating to learn how prominent authors judge the current status and the future perspectives of their field. Students will find this volume helpful as a guide in a fragmented field that continues to be dominated by idiosyncratic expertise and that still lacks a methodical canon. The essays were written in response to our invitation to explicate the views of the authors concerning the state of the history of science today and the issues we felt are related to its future. Although not all the scholars invited to write have contributed an essay, this volume can nevertheless be considered as a rather comprehensive survey of the present state of the history of science. All the papers collected here reflect in one wayor another the strong influence Sam Schweber exerted during the past decades in his gentle way, on the history of science as well as on the lives of many of its protagonists worldwide. All who have had the opportunity of encountering him have benefited from his advice, benevolence, and friendship. Sam Schweber's intellectual taste, his passion for knowledge, and his erudition are all encompassing. It, therefore, seemed fitting to honor him with a collection of essays of comparable breadth; nothing less would suffice.

Unique in assembling a broad spectrum of positions on the history of science by some of its leading representatives Readers will find it illuminating to learn how prominent authors judge the current status and future perspectives of their field Historians of science will find this volume essential as a guide in a fragmented field

Autorentext
Professor Jürgen Renn is director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. His research focuses primarily on the emergence of mechanics in antiquity, the interaction between practical and theoretical knowledge since the Renaissance, the transition from classical to modern physics, the development of the theory of relativity, and the application of new media to the history of science. Professor Renn was coordinator of the exhibition 'Albert Einstein - Chief Engineer of the Universe' 2005 in Berlin.

Inhalt
Big History?.- Big History?.- Suggestions for the Study of Science.- Will Einstein Still be the Super-Hero of Physics History in 2050?.- For a History of Knowledge.- Working in Parallel, Working Together.- Challenges in Writing About Twentieth Century East Asian Physicists.- Why Should Scientists Become Historians?.- From the social to the moral to the spiritual: the postmodern exaltation of the history of science.- Between Science and History.- The Search for Autonomy in History of Science.- Without Parallels?: Averting a Schweberian Dystopia.- The Intellectual Strengths of Pluralism and Diversity.- On Connoisseurship.- Concerning Energy.- Reflections on a Discipline.- The Woman in Einstein's Shadow.- The Mutual Embrace: Institutions and Epistemology.- History, Science, and History of Science.- Parallel Lives and The History of Science.- Discarding Dichotomies, Creating Community: Sam Schweber and Darwin Studies.- Public Participation and Industrial Technoscience Today: The difficultquestion of accountability.- The Character of Truth.- Schweber, Physicist, Historian and Moral Example.- What's New in Science?.- On The Road.- Plutarchian Versus Socratic Scientific Biography.- Problems Not Disciplines.- Physicist-Historians.- Letting the Scientists Back In.- Science As History.- Postscript.