Herschel's experiments on radiant heat are analysed to see how he understood the role of experiment and how he handled potential difficulties in measurement. He believed that experiments could answer essential questions about nature and was willing to change his mind in light of evidence. Potential problems with data did not shake his confidence in the results of his experiments. Herschel's critic, Leslie, had even less patience with experimental results that did not fit his theory. His harsh condemnations of Herschel's (...) work could not be empirically substantiated, but they pointed to problems of which Herschel was aware. Although the theories of both men about radiant heat have subsequently been abandoned, attempts to address their concerns and differences contributed to the development of the electromagnetic spectrum. The unification of radiant heat and light through the spectrum came about after better instruments made it possible to account for the rival claims of earlier experimenters. (shrink)

Physics textbooks from ca 1800 are on the one hand self reflective texts that consider the then emerging discipline ‚physics’︁, and serve on the other hand as the bread and butter for the day to day work of teachers and students of physics. The two parts of this paper explore this twofold nature. First, those textbooks written and used by professors in Jena, Halle and Göttingen are used in order to identify a typical textbook. This relies on a close examination (...) of the respective introductory chapter and the one on electricity. The result is used in the second part to provide the background for the reconstruction of the use of physics textbooks in Jena. It is shown when and, as far as possible, why each particular textbook was chosen, withdrawn, neglected, changed or written in the course of physics teaching from 1780 to 1820. Some conclusions are drawn with regard to Jena's position in physics at that time. (shrink)

Hardly any ontological result of modern science is more firmly established than the fact that infrared radiation differs from light only in wavelength; this is part of the modern conception of the continuous spectrum of electromagnetic radiation reaching from radio waves to gamma radiation. Yet, like many such evident truths, the light-infrared unity was an extremely difficult thing to establish. We examine the competing arguments in favour of the unified and pluralistic theories of radiation, as put forward in the first (...) half of the nineteenth century by three of the most important early pioneers of the study of radiation: Herschel, Melloni and Draper. In this part of the paper, we conclude that there were no compelling reasons of observational adequacy to prefer the unified theory to the pluralistic theory. Keywords: Macedonio Melloni; John William Draper; William Herschel; Infrared; Observation; Theory-choice. (shrink)

Kants Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Naturwissenschaft von 1786 stehen ihrem Anspruch nach zwischen einer transzendentalen Kritik der Vernunft - Kant bereitete zur selben Zeit die in wesentlichen Stücken umgearbeitete zweite Auflage der KrV vor - und der Physik als empirischer Wissenschaft. Die Notwendigkeit einer Reflexion über die Naturwissenschaft verhilft dieser Schrift heute wieder zu systematischer Relevanz, nachdem sie lange Zeit nur aus dem Blickwinkel ihrer Bedeutsamkeit für die empirische Naturwissenschaft betrachtet und infolgedessen allenfalls aus wissenschaftshistorischem Interesse rezipiert wurde.

This book advocates a radical shift of concern in philosophical, historical, and sociological studies of the sciences, and explores the consequences of such a shift. The historically-oriented first part of the work deals with the ways in which ranges of questions become real and cease to be real for communities of inquirers. The more philosophically-oriented second part of the work introduces the notion of absolute reality of questions, and addresses doubt about the claims of the sciences to have accumulated absolutely (...) real questions. It is argued that recent studies in the sociology and social history of the science pose strong challenges to the sciences by revealing how appeals to authority, vested interests, and rhetorical and aesthetic sensibilities play substantial roles in the practices of the sciences. The final chapter defends the pragmatic stance of the work, and of its companion, The Fortunes of Inquiry, and draws morals about the roles of criticism and reflection in the philosophy of science and in the sciences themselves. (shrink)

This dissertation recovers a brief but critical moment in the history of romantic Naturphilosophie. It sets the stage for a local conflict over the boundaries of science, a conflict in which a talented young physicist, Johann Wilhelm Ritter, staked everything and lost. ;In following Ritter's fate I have come to see his life, his career, and his misfortunes as intimately bound up with the stories which separate the Enlightenment from modernist conceptions of science. These are the stories of the collapse (...) of a tradition of grand, totalizing systems of nature; of the expulsion of figurative language from scientific writing; of a strange alliance between a philosophically sophisticated elite and popular folk knowledge; and of a burgeoning class of professional researchers who rose up to break this alliance by deploying a powerful new technology: the division of intellectual labor. ;In the autumn of 1806, Ritter secured the support of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences for a pilgrimage into the Italian Tyrol. There he would investigate reports of a young villager named Francesco Campetti. Campetti, it had been claimed, possessed a special sensitivity enabling him to discover buried pieces of metal and underground sources of water. Ritter saw here the chance to continue his earlier research into the affinities between the apparently dead and living domains of nature. Following his enormously successful work with animal electricity, he expected his investigations of Campetti to open up a fertile new field along the borders of chemistry, physiology, and physics. Furthermore, Ritter presented this research as a continuation of the meticulous experimental methods upon which he had built his scientific reputation. ;Although Ritter's experiments attracted widespread public curiosity, many of his new colleagues in Munich and contributors to the most influential scientific journals were suspicious. In their view, Ritter had overstepped the bounds of legitimate science. The ensuing controversy stigmatized Ritter, left him personally and intellectually isolated, and came to signify the worst excesses of romantic Naturphilosophie. (shrink)