History of science
The history of science began to emerge as a distinct subject in the early 20th century, studied in the main by scientists rather than historians, and tending to positivist chronologies of the triumphs of science. Following the Second World War and diviisions emerged between those stressing the importance of situating science within social and cultural contexts ('externalists', usually those coming from a historical background), and those who considered internal factors to be more important ('internalists'). Since the 1980s historians have become increasingly interested in the 'construction' of science, using literary techniques to examine the rhetoric of science, though this has coincided with a growing diveristy of approaches, in many ways mirroring the growth in scientific sub-disciplines themselves.
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- Historians:
- Kuhn, Thomas S.
- Themes:
- History and interdisciplinarity
History of medicine
Related publications
- Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago, 1962)
