Simon Schaffer

Simon Schaffer ( born January 1, 1955 in Southampton ) is a British historian of science. He teaches history of science ( history of science ), and philosophy of science at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University.

Life and work

Schaffer was born in Southampton, but lived as a child with his parents for several years in Australia. After attending the Varndean Grammar School for Boys (now Varndean College) in Brighton, he studied at Trinity College ( Cambridge ) and a Kennedy Scholarship to Harvard. He taught first at Imperial College London and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA ) before he moved to the University of Cambridge as a university teacher. Since 1985 he has been a Fellow at Darwin College ( Cambridge ). Schaffer was temporarily co-editor of The British Journal for the History of Science .. In addition to research and teaching at Cambridge, he is active as a presenter of science programs, such as 2004 on BBC Four in the four -part documentary Light Fantastic on the scientific study of light.

Together with Steven Shapin wrote Schaffer in 1985 published work Leviathan and the Air - Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life, for which the two historians of science have been awarded the 2005 Erasmus Prize. Schaffer and Shapin then draw after the dispute between Thomas Hobbes and Robert Boyle to their scientific methodology and the relationship between state power and science. The two historians take the position that Boyle by his scientific position to the air pump with the help of the Royal Society. Therefore Schaffer and Shapin have been associated with the Strong Programme sociology of science, perceives the production of "hard" scientific knowledge as a social construction and investigated accordingly. In the publication of Leviathan and the Air -Pump following scientific controversy following criticisms have been formulated:

  • The views of authors is limited to England; the conditions in continental Europe in the 17th century would not be considered by them
  • Shapin and Schaffer many conclusions are inaccurate and based on an outdated understanding of Boyle's Research
  • The passages about Hobbes were crossed by serious errors and mistakes, key quotes were not correctly

In 2013, Schaffer was the George Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society ( HSS) awarded.

Publications (selection)

  • Steven Shapin / Schaffer Simon: Leviathan and the Air - Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 1985. ISBN 978-0-691-15020-8 ( Reprint)
  • Co-editor of: The brokered world. Go- betweens and global intelligence 1770 - 1820th Science History Publications, Sagamore Beach, MA 2009 ISBN 978-0-88135-374-7.

In German language:

  • OK Computer. Pp. 393-429 in: Michael Hagner (eds.): Views of the History of Science. S. Fischer, Frankfurt / M., 2001. ISBN 978-3-596-15261-2
  • The range of experimental sciences: Models, micro stories, microcosms. In: Historical Anthropology: culture, society, everyday. Böhlau, Cologne 2005, Vol 13, H.3, pp. 343-366. ISSN 0942-8704
  • Heavenly Powers. In: Image Worlds of Knowledge. Kunsthistorisches yearbook picture for criticism. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin, 2007. Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 40-49. ISSN 1611-2512
Summer school Sociology of scientific knowledge John L. Heilbron Isaac Newton Integrated Authority File
731283
de