Illustrations vii

Foreword / Tim Lenoir xi

Prologue 1

Part I. Historical Epistemology

1. Ludwik Fleck, Edmond Husserl: On the Historicity of Scientific Knowledge 13

2. Gaston Bachelard: The Concept of "Phenomenotechnique" 25

3. Georges Canguilhem: Epistemological History 37

Part II. Model Organisms: Studies in the History of Heredity and Reproduction

4. Pisum: Carl Carren's Experiments on Xenia, 1896–99 51

5. Eudorina: Max Hartmann's Experiments on Biological Regulation in Protozoa, 1914–21 82

6. Ephistia: Alfred Kühn's Experimental Design for a Developmental Physiological Genetics, 1924–45 94

7. Tobacco Mosaic Virus: Virus Research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes for Biochemistry and Biology, 1937–45 128

Part III. Concepts and Instruments: Studies in the History of Molecular Biology

8. The Concept of the Gene: Molecular Biological Perspectives 153

9. The Liquid Scintillation Counter: Traces of Radioactivity 170

10. The Concept of Information 203

Part IV. Epistemic Configurations

11. Intersections 217

12. Preparations 233

13. The Economy of the Scribble 244

Acknowledgments 253

Abbreviations 255

Notes 257

Bibliography 289

Index 321

Timothy Lenoir

“[H]istorians of twentieth century biology will find much of value in this volume. Further afield, those who are already aficionados of Rheinberger’s unique melding of rationalist historical epistemology and phenomenology with Derridean literary theory will also find this a handy epitome of his disparate work.” — Nicolas Rasmussen, Metascience

“Hans-Jörg Rheinberger has played a prominent role in bringing those strands of thinking together, thus pioneering an integrated approach to the history and the philosophy of science and, most importantly, illuminating several long-standing philosophical debates with profound, creative and scientifically informed insights on the nature of experimental work. Within this wonderful volume, Rheinberger uses his understanding of the history of biology and his experience as a practising experimenter to build a sophisticated epistemology of scientific practice.” — Govert Valkenburg, International Studies in the Philosophy
of Science

“Part I, by far my favorite and the reason I would recommend the book to many, is a thoughtful and engaging exploration of recent trends in historiography and epistemology which pay specific attention to the relationships among epistemological theory, scientific objects, and experimental practices. . . . The theoretical and methodological insights articulated in Rheinberger’s text are, without a doubt, the high point of the book.” — S. Scott Graham, on his blog

“The reader will learn a great deal from Rheinberger’s essays on the scholars whom he sees as crucial in order to conceive of scientific knowledge as inherently historical, social, and ‘concrete’. The reader will also find an answer to what is historical epistemology today, or at least one version of it, both in theoretical terms and through case studies that show how a historical epistemological perspective enables the epistemologist, historian, and sociologist to read scientific activity.” — Christina Chimisso, Radical Philosophy

Rheinberger’s book is an invitation to study a world full of
epistemic things: they constitute its fabric. . . . It offers a detailed exegesis of a host of problems in the history of molecular biology and a fascinating overview of biological sciences as they were practiced in the twentieth century: they show what it meant (and maybe still means) to be working under the ‘lab’s knowledge regime,’ with technical devices but also pencils, notebooks, and animal models, together with many other things that are yearning to be studied by epistemologists and philosophers of science.” — Thierry Hoquet, HOPOS

“Readers will find that the overarching theme of the text is that scientific knowledge is not simply the result of a series of advances in which one pays forward into the next like a row of falling dominos. It is an emergent property of a nonlinear process involving a complex interplay of history, culture, and the scientific process. Rheinberger’s case studies present science as a productive enterprise with measurable outcomes such as conceptual models, experimental organisms, and instrumentation. . . . Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.” — J. A. Hewlett, Choice

“[H]istorians of twentieth century biology will find much of value in this volume. Further afield, those who are already aficionados of Rheinberger’s unique melding of rationalist historical epistemology and phenomenology with Derridean literary theory will also find this a handy epitome of his disparate work.” —Nicolas Rasmussen, Metascience

“Hans-Jörg Rheinberger has played a prominent role in bringing those strands of thinking together, thus pioneering an integrated approach to the history and the philosophy of science and, most importantly, illuminating several long-standing philosophical debates with profound, creative and scientifically informed insights on the nature of experimental work. Within this wonderful volume, Rheinberger uses his understanding of the history of biology and his experience as a practising experimenter to build a sophisticated epistemology of scientific practice.” —Govert Valkenburg, International Studies in the Philosophy
of Science

“Part I, by far my favorite and the reason I would recommend the book to many, is a thoughtful and engaging exploration of recent trends in historiography and epistemology which pay specific attention to the relationships among epistemological theory, scientific objects, and experimental practices. . . . The theoretical and methodological insights articulated in Rheinberger’s text are, without a doubt, the high point of the book.” —S. Scott Graham, on his blog

“The reader will learn a great deal from Rheinberger’s essays on the scholars whom he sees as crucial in order to conceive of scientific knowledge as inherently historical, social, and ‘concrete’. The reader will also find an answer to what is historical epistemology today, or at least one version of it, both in theoretical terms and through case studies that show how a historical epistemological perspective enables the epistemologist, historian, and sociologist to read scientific activity.” —Christina Chimisso, Radical Philosophy

Rheinberger’s book is an invitation to study a world full of
epistemic things: they constitute its fabric. . . . It offers a detailed exegesis of a host of problems in the history of molecular biology and a fascinating overview of biological sciences as they were practiced in the twentieth century: they show what it meant (and maybe still means) to be working under the ‘lab’s knowledge regime,’ with technical devices but also pencils, notebooks, and animal models, together with many other things that are yearning to be studied by epistemologists and philosophers of science.” —Thierry Hoquet, HOPOS

“Readers will find that the overarching theme of the text is that scientific knowledge is not simply the result of a series of advances in which one pays forward into the next like a row of falling dominos. It is an emergent property of a nonlinear process involving a complex interplay of history, culture, and the scientific process. Rheinberger’s case studies present science as a productive enterprise with measurable outcomes such as conceptual models, experimental organisms, and instrumentation. . . . Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.” —J. A. Hewlett, Choice

“An Epistemology of the Concrete offers a methodological framework and a set of research exemplars that will shape science studies for years to come.” — Tim Lenoir, from the foreword

“In this empirical and conceptual tour de force, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger provides an examination of the work of key twentieth-century epistemologists, rigorous historical vignettes of model-organism research, a materialist epistemology of experimental biology, and, consequently, a carefully precise yet broadly illuminating theorization of modes of knowledge production. An Epistemology of the Concrete is a major contribution not only to the history of science but also to fields such as anthropology, which are turning to epistemological analyses of the life sciences as a key site of inquiry.” — Kaushik Sunder Rajan, author of Biocapital: The Constitution of Postgenomic Life

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