Humboldt and the modern German university

Humboldt and the modern German university

Author: Johan Östling

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2018-04-03

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 9198376829

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This book is about the idea of the university in modern Germany. Its primary focus is how the Humboldtian tradition was transformed and how it gave direction to debates around higher education. By combining approaches from intellectual history, conceptual history and the history of knowledge, the study investigates the ways in which Humboldt’s ideas have been appropriated for various purposes in different historical contexts and epochs. Ultimately, it shows that Humboldt’s ideals are not timeless – they are historical phenomena and have always been determined by the predicaments and issues of the day. Nevertheless, many of the key concepts and fundamental ideas have endured throughout the twentieth century, though they have been interpreted in different ways.


Science, Africa and Europe

Science, Africa and Europe

Author: Martin Lengwiler

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-10-12

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1351232657

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Historically, scientists and experts have played a prominent role in shaping the relationship between Europe and Africa. Starting with travel writers and missionary intellectuals in the 17th century, European savants have engaged in the study of nature and society in Africa. Knowledge about realms of the world like Africa provided a foil against which Europeans came to view themselves as members of enlightened and modern civilisations. Science and technology also offered crucial tools with which to administer, represent and legitimate power relations in a new global world but the knowledge drawn from contacts with people in far-off places provided Europeans with information and ideas that contributed in everyday ways to the scientific revolution and that provided explorers with the intellectual and social capital needed to develop science into modern disciplines at home in the metropole. This book poses questions about the changing role of European science and expert knowledge from early colonial times to post-colonial times. How did science shape understanding of Africa in Europe and how was scientific knowledge shaped, adapted and redefined in African contexts?


Students, Society and Politics in Imperial Germany

Students, Society and Politics in Imperial Germany

Author: Konrad H. Jarausch

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2014-07-14

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 1400855543

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Konrad H. Jarausch studies the social structure of the German university and the mentality of its students during the Imperial period as an example of a wider European academic desertion of liberalism. He finds that German higher education combined scientific world leadership and competent professional training with an eroding liberal education (Bildung) to create an educated class that was tragically susceptible to the appeal of the Third Reich. Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


Hermann von Helmholtz and the Foundations of Nineteenth-Century Science

Hermann von Helmholtz and the Foundations of Nineteenth-Century Science

Author: David Cahan

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1994-01-12

Total Pages: 701

ISBN-13: 0520914090

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Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) was a polymath of dazzling intellectual range and energy. Renowned for his co-discovery of the second law of thermodynamics and his invention of the ophthalmoscope, Helmholtz also made many other contributions to physiology, physical theory, philosophy of science and mathematics, and aesthetic thought. During the late nineteenth century, Helmholtz was revered as a scientist-sage—much like Albert Einstein in this century. David Cahan has assembled an outstanding group of European and North American historians of science and philosophy for this intellectual biography of Helmholtz, the first ever to critically assess both his published and unpublished writings. It represents a significant contribution not only to Helmholtz scholarship but also to the history of nineteenth-century science and philosophy in general.


Contrasts in Scientific Style

Contrasts in Scientific Style

Author: Joseph Stewart Fruton

Publisher: American Philosophical Society

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 506

ISBN-13: 9780871691910

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Recounts the various styles of leadership shown by several prominent German chemists and biochemists during the period 1830 to 1914. Featured particularly are chemists Liebig, Baeyer and Emil Fischer and biochemists Hoppe-Seyler, Kuhne and Hofmeister. In a final chapter, Fruton considers the relevance of the conclusions drawn from the style of these 19th- and early 20th-centuy men to the styles of more recent research groups in the chemical and biochemical sciences. Special emphasis is placed on their influence on their scientific progenies in Germany, and in England, Russia, and the U.S. Attention is given to the individual contributions of the junior members of these scientific groups to the growth of knowledge within their disciplines.


Making Ammonia

Making Ammonia

Author: Benjamin Johnson

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 3030855325

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This Open Access book discusses the progress of science and the transfer of scientific knowledge to technological application. It also identifies the factors necessary to achieve this progress. Based on a case study of the physical chemist Fritz Haber's discovery of ammonia synthesis between 1903 and 1909, the book places Haber's work in historical and scientific (physicochemical) context. The scientific developments of the preceding century are framed in a way that emphasizes the confluence of knowledge needed for Haber's success. Against this background, Haber's work is presented in detail along with the indispensable contributions of his colleague, the physical chemist, Walter Nernst, and their assistants. The detailed accounts of scientific advancement remind us of the physical basis on which our scientific theories and ideas are built. Without this reminder we often forget how complex, and how beautiful achievements in science can be.


Methods and Styles in the Development of Chemistry

Methods and Styles in the Development of Chemistry

Author: Joseph Stewart Fruton

Publisher: American Philosophical Society

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9780871692450

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Chemistry as it is known today is deeply rooted in a variety of thought & action, dating back at least as far as the fifth century B.C. In this book, Joseph Fruton weaves together the history of scientific investigation with social, religious, philosophical, & other events & practices that have contributed to the field of modern chemistry. The story begins with the influence of alchemy on early Greek numerology and philosophy, followed by the historical account of chemical composition and phlogiston. The life and work of Antoine Lavoisier receive extensive coverage in Chapter Three, with the remaining six chapters devoted to atoms, equivalents, and elements; radicals and types; valence and molectualr structure; stereochemistry and organic synthesis; forces, equilibria, and rates; and electrons, reaction mechanisms, and organic synthesis.