The Missing Syntheses in the Historiography of Science

This paper is a slightly adapted version of a lecture held at a symposium commemorating the 75th anniversary of the (Dutch) Society for the History of Medicine, Mathematics, Science and Technology (Genootschap GeWiNa), 8 October 1988. Originally published as “De ontbrekende syntheses in de geschiedschrijving van de natuurwetenschappen”, Tijdschrift voor de geschiedenis der geneeskunde, natuurwetenschappen, wiskunde en techniek, xii (1989), 14–24. Translated by Perlin-West E.

Mason S. F. , A history of the sciences (New York, 1962), originally published as Main currents of scientific thought: A history of the sciences (New York, 1953). Hooykaas R. , Geschiedenis der natuurwetenschappen: Van Babel tot Bohr [A history of the sciences: From Babel to Bohr] (Utrecht, 1971). Gillispie C. C. , The edge of objectivity: An essay in the history of scientific ideas (Princeton, 1960).

According to the data found in Whitrow M. (ed.), Isis cumulative bibliography. A bibliography of the history of science formed from Isis Critical Bibliographies 1–90, 1913–65, iii: Subjects (London, 1976) and the Critical Bibliographies in Isis, lvii (1966) up to and including lxxvi (1985), in the period 1946–65 one-and-a-half times more surveys appeared than in the period 1966–85 (29 and 19 respectively). This decline has to be viewed in relation to the background of the increase in the number of history of science publications. An even more important factor is the shift in the value placed on the works (see the next section for this). Many survey works from the first period were regarded at that time as syntheses, while present-day historians of science can see no syntheses in comparable works from the second period. Therefore today there are not only fewer survey works appearing; there are considerably fewer synthetic survey works.

Rosenberg C. , “Editorial: Isis at seventy-five”, Isis, lxxxviii (1987), 515–17, p. 517.

Westfall R. S. , Never at rest: A biography of Isaac Newton (Cambridge, 1980).

van Berkel K. , In het voetspoor van Stevin: Geschiedenis van de natuurwetenschap in Nederland 1580–1940 [In Stevin's footsteps: History of science in the Netherlands 1580–1940] (Meppel, 1985).

Ronan C. A. , The Cambridge illustrated history of the world's science (Cambridge, 1983); American edition: Science: Its history and development among the world's cultures (New York, 1983). Review of the American edition by Schank M. , Isis, lxxv (1984), 564–5.

For a discussion and critique see: Agassi J. , Towards an historiography of science (History and theory, Beiheft 2; The Hague, 1963).

Kuhn T. S. , “The histories of science: Diverse worlds for diverse audiences”, Academe, lxxii, no. 4 (July-August 1986), 29–33, p. 33.

“The scientist … must appear to the systematic epistemologist as a type of unscrupulous opportunist”, Einstein A. , “Remarks concerning the essays brought together in this cooperative volume”, in Albert Einstein: Philosopher-scientist, ed. by Schilpp P. A. , ii (New York, 1959), 665–88, p. 684.