Hans-Jorg Rheinberger – författare

It was only around 1800 that heredity began to enter debates among physicians, breeders, and naturalists. Soon thereafter it evolved into one of the most fundamental concepts of biology. Here Staffan Muller-Wille and Hans-Jorg Rheinberger offer a succinct cultural history of the scientific concept of heredity. They outline the dramatic changes the idea has undergone since the early modern period and describe the political and technological developments that brought about these changes. Muller-Wille and Rheinberger begin with an account of premodern theories of generation, showing that these were concerned with the procreation of individuals rather than with hereditary transmission. The authors reveal that when hereditarian thinking first emerged, it did so in a variety of cultural domains, such as politics and law, medicine, natural history, breeding, and anthropology.Muller-Wille and Rheinberger then track theories of heredity from the late nineteenth century - when leading biologists considered it in light of growing societal concerns with race and eugenics - through the rise of classical and molecular genetics in the twentieth century, to today, as researchers apply sophisticated information technologies to understand heredity. The book concludes with a commentary on recent developments in genomics and synthetic biology as a new biotechnological regime.

Few concepts played a more important role in twentieth-century life sciences than that of the gene. Yet at this moment, the field of genetics is undergoing radical conceptual transformation, and some scientists are questioning the very usefulness of the concept of the gene, arguing instead for more systemic perspectives. The time could not be better, therefore, for Hans-Jorg Rheinberger and Staffan Muller-Wille's magisterial history of the concept of the gene. Though the gene has long been the central organizing theme of biology, both conceptually and as an object of study, Rheinberger and Muller-Wille conclude that we have never even had a universally accepted, stable definition of it. Rather, the concept has been in continual flux a state that, they contend, is typical of historically important and productive scientific concepts. It is that very openness to change and manipulation, the authors argue, that made it so useful: its very mutability enabled it to be useful while the technologies and approaches used to study and theorize about it changed dramatically.

It was only around 1800 that heredity began to enter debates among physicians, breeders, and naturalists. Soon thereafter it evolved into one of the most fundamental concepts of biology. Here Staffan Muller-Wille and Hans-Jorg Rheinberger offer a succinct cultural history of the scientific concept of heredity. They outline the dramatic changes the idea has undergone since the early modern period and describe the political and technological developments that brought about these changes. Muller-Wille and Rheinberger begin with an account of premodern theories of generation, showing that these were concerned with the procreation of individuals rather than with hereditary transmission. The authors reveal that when hereditarian thinking first emerged, it did so in a variety of cultural domains, such as politics and law, medicine, natural history, breeding, and anthropology.Muller-Wille and Rheinberger then track theories of heredity from the late nineteenth century - when leading biologists considered it in light of growing societal concerns with race and eugenics - through the rise of classical and molecular genetics in the twentieth century to today, as researchers apply sophisticated information technologies to understand heredity. What readers come to see from this exquisite history is why it took such a long time for heredity to become a prominent concept in the life sciences and why it gained such overwhelming importance in those sciences and the broader culture over the last two centuries.

An esteemed historian of science explores the diversity of scientific experimentation.   The experiment has long been seen as a test bed for theory, but in Split and Splice, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger makes the case, instead, for treating experimentation as a creative practice. His latest book provides an innovative look at the experimental protocols and connections that have made the life sciences so productive.   Delving into the materiality of the experiment, the first part of the book assesses traces, models, grafting, and note-taking—the conditions that give experiments structure and make discovery possible. The second section widens its focus from micro-level laboratory processes to the temporal, spatial, and narrative links between experimental systems. Rheinberger narrates with accessible examples, most of which are drawn from molecular biology, including from the author’s laboratory notebooks from his years researching ribosomes.   A critical hit when it was released in Germany, Split and Splice describes a method that involves irregular results and hit-or-miss connections—not analysis, not synthesis, but the splitting and splicing that form a scientific experiment. Building on Rheinberger’s earlier writing about science and epistemology, this book is a major achievement by one of today’s most influential theorists of scientific practice.

Research records composed of notes and protocols have long played a role in the efforts to understand the origins of what have come to be seen as the established milestones in the development of modern science. The use of research records to probe the nature of scientific investigation itself however is a recent development in the history of science. With Eduard Dijksterhuis, we could address them as a veritable "epistemologiCal laboratory". The purpose of a workshop entitled "Reworking the Bench: Laboratory Notebooks in the History of Science", held at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin was to bring together historians who have been exploiting such resources, to compare the similarities and differences in the materials they had used and and to measure the potential and scope for future explorations of "science in the making" based on such forms of documentation. The contributions which form this volume are based on papers presented at this workshop or written afterward by participants in the discussions. This is the first book that addresses the issue of research notes for writing history of science in a comprehensive manner. Its case studies range from the early modern period to present and cover a broad range of different disciplines.

An Epistemology of the Concrete brings together case studies and theoretical reflections on the history and epistemology of the life sciences by Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, one of the world’s foremost philosophers of science. In these essays, he examines the history of experiments, concepts, model organisms, instruments, and the gamut of epistemological, institutional, political, and social factors that determine the actual course of the development of knowledge. Building on ideas from his influential book Toward a History of Epistemic Things, Rheinberger first considers ways of historicizing scientific knowledge, and then explores different configurations of genetic experimentation in the first half of the twentieth century and the interaction between apparatuses, experiments, and concept formation in molecular biology in the second half of the twentieth century. He delves into fundamental epistemological issues bearing on the relationship between instruments and objects of knowledge, laboratory preparations as a special class of epistemic objects, and the note-taking and write-up techniques used in research labs. He takes up topics ranging from the French “historical epistemologists” Gaston Bachelard and Georges Canguilhem to the liquid scintillation counter, a radioactivity measuring device that became a crucial tool for molecular biology and biomedicine in the 1960s and 1970s. Throughout An Epistemology of the Concrete, Rheinberger shows how assemblages—historical conjunctures—set the conditions for the emergence of epistemic novelty, and he conveys the fascination of scientific things: those organisms, spaces, apparatuses, and techniques that are transformed by research and that transform research in turn.

Dem Paradigma der verkörperten Kognition zufolge bilden die Bewegungen eines Körpers die Voraussetzung dafür, dass sich intelligentes Verhalten entwickeln kann. Auch Affekte und weitere somatische Dimensionen bestärken die kognitionswissenschaftliche Grundannahme, dass Intelligenz verkörpert ist. Neben diesem Begriff des ,embodiment'' existieren jedoch zahlreiche andere Bedeutungen von ,Verkörperung''. So kann mit diesem Begriff gemeint sein, eine Idee oder Eigenschaft zu personifizieren oder ein Abstraktum zu konkretisieren, wie etwa die Fleischwerdung Gottes, das Spielen einer Rolle oder das Tragen einer Maske. Die Beiträge dieses Bandes diskutieren den Begriff der Verkörperung daher interdisziplinär. Sie reichen von der Neurophysiologie über die Epistemologie bis zur Kunstgeschichte und zu den Literatur- und Theaterwissenschaften.

Keine ausführliche Beschreibung für "Objekte - Differenzen - Konjunkturen" verfügbar.

Nie zuvor in seiner Geschichte war der Mensch von einer solch großen Anzahl von Dingen umgeben wie heute. Der Sachbesitz des Einzelnen in der Konsumgesellschaft übersteigt jedes zuvor bekannte Maß. Dank innovativer Technologien verfügen Menschen über immer neue Objekte mit zuvor ungeahnten Fähigkeiten. Obgleich Medien, Werbung und auch die Kulturwissenschaften nicht müde werden, die Ordnung der Dinge, ihre Funktion und nicht zuletzt ihre Rolle als Prestigeobjekte anzupreisen und zu interpretieren, erscheint die Welt der Dinge mehr und mehr als Herausforderung. Im alltäglichen Umgang erweisen sich Dinge als immer komplexer, jeder verstehende Zugang zu ihrer sozialen Rolle ist widersprüchlich, und ihre Beherrschung verlangt dem Individuum wie auch der Gesellschaft außerordentliche Anstrengungen ab. Was machen die Dinge mit den Menschen?Beiträge aus Ethnologie, Philosophie und Wissenschaftsgeschichte sowie Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte befassen sich in diesem Band mit irritierenden Beobachtungen aus der Welt des Materiellen und nutzen dabei das Konzept vom Eigensinn der Dinge. Damit möchte der Band die bislang bekannten Zugänge zu materieller Kultur ergänzen und für ein erweitertes Verständnis der Welt des Materiellen eintreten. Eigensinn stellt dabei die grundlegende Metapher dar, die einen neuen, differenzierten Blick zugleich auf Dinge als einzelne, als Sachensembles und nicht zuletzt auf die conditio humana gestattet.

Wenn das 19. Jahrhundert in der Philosophie der Wissenschaften den Aufstieg des Positivismus erlebte, so begann das 20. Jahrhundert mit einer Krise des positivistischen Denkens, ohne dass zunächst eine Lösung oder gar Alternative in Sicht gewesen wäre. Erst allmählich entwickelte sich im Laufe des 20. Jahrhunderts ein komplexes, sozial- und denkhistorisch motiviertes Nachdenken über Wissenschaft, das in seinem Kern darin bestand, die Wissenschaftsphilosophie zu historisieren. Es entwickelten sich Formen einer historischen Epistemologie. Diese Bewegung muss in den breiteren Kontext der Dynamik der Wissenschaften und der sozialen und kulturellen Entwicklungen des 20. Jahrhunderts gestellt werden. In dieser Einführung werden Positionen vorgestellt, die in diesen Historisierungsprozess eingegriffen und ihn gestaltet haben.

El autor nos presenta un viaje a través de los principales referentes y teorías que sustentan su propuesta metodológica y filosófica. De esta manera, Rheinberger demuestra la relevancia y la necesidad de incorporar herramientas filosóficas e históricas que permitan entender la ciencia más allá de sus componentes lógicos o sus componentes sociales. Para él la tarea de la epistemología histórica consiste justamente en analizar la ciencia como una actividad humana, compuesta de diversas complejidades técnicas y conceptuales, prácticas y medios, métodos y preguntas, que en su ensamblaje configuran "sistemas epistémicos y experimentales" con vida propia. Este enfoque no solo permite ver el conocimiento científico como algo dinámico y en constante transformación, sino que también permite situar el conocimiento en el espacio liminal de lo cierto y lo incierto, lo conocido y lo incognoscible, lo necesario y lo posible.

Iteraciones Los seis ensayos que componen este libro transitan en los márgenes del sentido de la búsqueda científica y en lo impredecible en los procesos de experimentación. A través de la epistemología histórica, su experiencia de laboratorio y su interpretación novedosa de la filosofía de Jacques Derrida, Rheinberger problematiza la creatividad en los contextos científicos, la legitimación de sus objetos y la presentación de sus resultados. Tras estas dimensiones, propias del quehacer científico, siempre situado y material, se deja entrever una inquietud: ¿es qué la lógica de la vida puede aparecer también en la dinámica de los sistemas experimentales? La búsqueda de la respuesta a esta interrogante nos llevará a deambular si no a repetirpara hacerla posible.Iteraciones es una oportunidad no solo para introducirse en la epistemología histórica, sino que también para conocer el pensamiento de una de sus eminencias contemporáneas. La obra, traducida por Nicolás Silva y Nicolás Trujillo, es el primer libro de Rheinberger en español, quien incluyó, para esta edición, un nuevo ensayo sobre el virtuosismo experimental.