Is there room for the present in the history of science?

Giunta, Carmen J.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/128622 Copy

Description

Title

Is there room for the present in the history of science?

Author(s)

Giunta, Carmen J.

Issue Date

2022-01-01

Keyword(s)

• Chemistry
• History
• Presentism

Abstract

With due appreciation for insights of historians, sociologists, and philosophers of science about the contingency of history in the making, the susceptibility of grand narratives to propagandistic purposes of the narrators, and of the tentativeness of scientific knowledge, I propose that an eye on the present, prudently and consciously applied, can sometimes be illuminating in history of science. For at least one class of readers and writers in history of chemistry, namely chemists, the question of "how did we get here?" is a natural intellectual one. The question need not—ought not—imply that "here" is an inevitable or a final destination. Why narratives that refer to the present appeal to chemists is discussed, as are some of the pitfalls to which such narratives are prone. Historians of chemistry are invited to reconsider some aspects of their professional strictures against keeping an eye on the present.

Publisher

Division of the History of Chemistry

ISSN

1053-4385

Type of Resource

text

Genre of Resource

article

Language

eng

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/128622

DOI

https://doi.org/10.70359/bhc2022v047p163

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2022 Division of the History of Chemistry

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