Historiography
Code
9921
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia
Department
Departamento de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas
Credits
6.0
Teacher in charge
Palmira de Jesus Fontes da Costa
Weekly hours
6
Total hours
88
Teaching language
Português
Objectives
1. To understand the object of enquiry in History of Science;
2. To understand the object of enquiry in Historiography of Science;
3. To perspectivate trends in historiography of science;
4. To understand tools and methods of historical approaches;
5. To better understand the relationship between the history of
science and other fields of knowledge;
6. To understand current debates in the history of science.
Subject matter
1. What is historiography; specificities of the historiography of science and technology.
2. The history of history of science
The history of science as a faithful description of facts: Paul Tannery, Georges Sarton and Pierre Duhem; the first sociological approaches: Merton, Zilsel, Hessen, Bernal; the history of science as the history of ideas: Alexandre Koyré; the first studies on history of science in Portugal; the first steps in the institutionalization of the history of science in America and Europe.
3. The curremt organization of the discipline
Departments, societies, journals, meetings, etc; the education of professionals, their careers and evaluation; the organization of history of science in Portugal.
4. The great historiographical debates
The debate on anachronism and presentism; The debate on nternalisms vs externalism; Kuhn and the debate on continuism vs descontinuism; constructivism and postmodernism.
5. Sociological approaches in history of science
6. History of science in the context of cultural history
7. History of science and the history of the book and of visual representations
8. History of science and gender studies
9. The revival of grand narrative and biographies
10. History of science and popularization. The centre-periphery dichotomy
11. The research and writing in History of science
Periodization; primary and secondary sources; public and private sources; scientific instruments and other material culture; the history of science done by scientists; How to write an article on history of science and technology; How to prepare a research project in History of Science and History of Technology.
Bibliography
Arne Hessenbruch, ed. Reader''s Guide to the History of Science. (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearbor Publishers, 2000);
Cohen, H. Floris, The Scientific Revolution: A Historiographical Inquiry (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994);
Doel, Roald E., Thomas Soderqvist, The Historiography of Contemporary Science, Technology , and Medicine: Writing Recent Science (Routledge, 2006);
Gavrolu,Kostas, O Passado das Ciências como História (Porto: Porto Editora, 2007);
Iggers, Georg G., Historiography in the Twentieth Century. From Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge, with a New Epilogue (Middletwon, Weleyan University Press, 2005);
Shortland, Michael and Richard Yeo (eds.), Telling Lives in Science. Essays on Scientific Biography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996);
Soderqvist,T., ed., The Historiography of Contemporary science and technology (UK: Harwood academic publishers, 1996).
Evaluation method
Presentation of an article; moderation of the presentation of an article by another student; Essay review, participation in the classes and in the weekly proposed activities.