Description
The publications of the journal concern the following:
Particular importance is placed on:
ISSN: 2451-3202
eISSN: 2543-702X
MNiSW points: 100
UIC ID: 200176
DOI: 10.4467/2543702XSHS
Editorial team
Affiliation
Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences
Publication date: 11.09.2024
Editor-in-Chief & Editorial Secretary: Michał Kokowski
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 11-19
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.001.19574The article outlines the eleventh phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previously Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science).Information is provided on the following: the journal’s evaluation by the ICI Master Journal List 2022 (released at the end of 2023), the evaluation by the CWTS Journal Indicators 2023 (5 June 2024), the evaluation by the SCImago Journal Rankings 2023 (based on the data from Scopus released in April 2024), the evaluation by Scopus 2023 (released on 5 June 2024), the evaluation by the PN IHN PAN 2023 (released on 5 October 2023), and the evaluation by Web of Science.
Additionally, the number of foreign authors and reviewers of the current volume of the journal is quoted.
Pierre Curie, Andrzej Ziółkowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 23-67
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.002.19575In this work, the classical concept of symmetry limited to geometric objects (figures and solids), which originated from ancient Greece, has been extended to allow for symmetry studies in other types of objects.
By introducing the concepts of limiting point groups and kinematic elements characteristic for a studied object, it was determined what types of symmetries are exhibited by an electric field and a magnetic field. It was established that in order for a phenomenon to occur, a characteristic symmetry of a medium must be consistent with the characteristic symmetry of the phenomenon occurring in it. It was also determined that the symmetry elements of the causes must be found in the symmetry of their effects.
Konrad Dydak Rycyk
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 71-129
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.003.19576De revolutionibus [orbium coelestium] by Nicolaus Copernicus was a groundbreaking work for 16th-century Europe. Copernicus’s cosmological thesis was in some opposition to Ptolemy’s thesis and therefore opinio communis, not without some error, called it the heliocentric theory. It seems that the cosmological thesis should not be understood only as a simple negation of the earlier theory and Copernicus’s good knowledge of Greek metaphysics and cosmology also played its part. So, what were the grounds upon which Copernicus’s philosophy was founded? Can these premises be found in the analyses of the Pythagoreans and Greek mathematicians Aristarchus and Eudoxus? Are such premises provided only by Plato and Aristotle? Is it possible to indicate other Greek sources of Copernicus’s theory? If so, do they really support the claim that the Copernican theory is in fact a forgotten ancient theory?
An attempt to answer these questions is as follows: after a brief presentation of the historical background of the appearance of Copernicus’s theory and its main early theses (Commentariolus), geocentric positions and views in the Middle Ages and their Greek sources will be presented. Next, going back in history, views and positions which underlie the non-geocentric cosmology will be presented, also those that were recalled and recorded by Copernicus in his treatises. Finally, there will be presented and analyzed – though probably unknown to Copernicus – philosophical and cosmological positions and views, which in Greek thinking, even at its beginnings, may constitute loci philosophici, the premises and sources of non-geocentric cosmology.
Ünsal Çimen
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 131-153
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.004.19577Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 155-228
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.005.19578Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 229-304
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.006.19579George Borski, Ivan Kolkov
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 305-357
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.007.19580Sylwia Konarska-Zimnicka
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 359-393
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.008.19581Milena Cygan
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 397-431
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.009.19582Anna Żuk
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 433-469
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.010.19583Lucyna Agnieszka Jankowiak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 471-505
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.011.19584Maria Stinia
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 507-526
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.012.19585Zenon Roskal, Jacek Rodzeń
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 529-548
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.013.19586Stanisław Domoradzki, Mykhailo Zarichnyi
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 551-571
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.014.19587Lino Bianco
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 575-607
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.015.19588Alan Heiblum Robles
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 609-624
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.016.19589Elena Tverytnykova, Olena Voitiuk
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 625-656
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.017.19590Slava Gerovitch
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 657-683
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.018.19591Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 687-694
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.019.19592Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 11-19
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.001.19574The article outlines the eleventh phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previously Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science).Information is provided on the following: the journal’s evaluation by the ICI Master Journal List 2022 (released at the end of 2023), the evaluation by the CWTS Journal Indicators 2023 (5 June 2024), the evaluation by the SCImago Journal Rankings 2023 (based on the data from Scopus released in April 2024), the evaluation by Scopus 2023 (released on 5 June 2024), the evaluation by the PN IHN PAN 2023 (released on 5 October 2023), and the evaluation by Web of Science.
Additionally, the number of foreign authors and reviewers of the current volume of the journal is quoted.
Pierre Curie, Andrzej Ziółkowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 23-67
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.002.19575In this work, the classical concept of symmetry limited to geometric objects (figures and solids), which originated from ancient Greece, has been extended to allow for symmetry studies in other types of objects.
By introducing the concepts of limiting point groups and kinematic elements characteristic for a studied object, it was determined what types of symmetries are exhibited by an electric field and a magnetic field. It was established that in order for a phenomenon to occur, a characteristic symmetry of a medium must be consistent with the characteristic symmetry of the phenomenon occurring in it. It was also determined that the symmetry elements of the causes must be found in the symmetry of their effects.
Konrad Dydak Rycyk
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 71-129
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.003.19576De revolutionibus [orbium coelestium] by Nicolaus Copernicus was a groundbreaking work for 16th-century Europe. Copernicus’s cosmological thesis was in some opposition to Ptolemy’s thesis and therefore opinio communis, not without some error, called it the heliocentric theory. It seems that the cosmological thesis should not be understood only as a simple negation of the earlier theory and Copernicus’s good knowledge of Greek metaphysics and cosmology also played its part. So, what were the grounds upon which Copernicus’s philosophy was founded? Can these premises be found in the analyses of the Pythagoreans and Greek mathematicians Aristarchus and Eudoxus? Are such premises provided only by Plato and Aristotle? Is it possible to indicate other Greek sources of Copernicus’s theory? If so, do they really support the claim that the Copernican theory is in fact a forgotten ancient theory?
An attempt to answer these questions is as follows: after a brief presentation of the historical background of the appearance of Copernicus’s theory and its main early theses (Commentariolus), geocentric positions and views in the Middle Ages and their Greek sources will be presented. Next, going back in history, views and positions which underlie the non-geocentric cosmology will be presented, also those that were recalled and recorded by Copernicus in his treatises. Finally, there will be presented and analyzed – though probably unknown to Copernicus – philosophical and cosmological positions and views, which in Greek thinking, even at its beginnings, may constitute loci philosophici, the premises and sources of non-geocentric cosmology.
Ünsal Çimen
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 131-153
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.004.19577Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 155-228
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.005.19578Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 229-304
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.006.19579George Borski, Ivan Kolkov
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 305-357
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.007.19580Sylwia Konarska-Zimnicka
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 359-393
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.008.19581Milena Cygan
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 397-431
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.009.19582Anna Żuk
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 433-469
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.010.19583Lucyna Agnieszka Jankowiak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 471-505
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.011.19584Maria Stinia
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 507-526
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.012.19585Zenon Roskal, Jacek Rodzeń
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 529-548
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.013.19586Stanisław Domoradzki, Mykhailo Zarichnyi
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 551-571
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.014.19587Lino Bianco
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 575-607
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.015.19588Alan Heiblum Robles
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 609-624
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.016.19589Elena Tverytnykova, Olena Voitiuk
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 625-656
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.017.19590Slava Gerovitch
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 657-683
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.018.19591Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 23 (2024), 2024, pp. 687-694
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.24.019.19592Publication date: 05.10.2023
Editor-in-Chief: Michał Kokowski
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 13-19
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.001.17692The article outlines the tenth phase of the development of the journal “Studia Historiae Scientiarum” (previously “Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU” / “Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science”).
Information is provided on the following matters: the journal’s evaluation by the “ICI Master Journal List 2021” (released at the end of 2022), the evaluation by the CWTS Journal Indicators 2022 (5 June 2023), the evaluation by the SCImago Journal Rankings 2022 (based on the data from Scopus released on April 2023), and the evaluation by Scopus 2022 (released on 5 June 2023).
Additionally, the number of foreign authors and reviewers of the current volume of the journal is quoted.
Pierre Curie, Andrzej Ziółkowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 23-67
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.002.17693In the work, the classical concept of symmetry limited to geometric objects (figures, solids), which originated from ancient Greece, has been extended to allow for symmetry studies in other types of objects. By introducing concepts of limit point groups and kinematic elements, which characterize a studied object, it was determined what types of symmetries an electric field and a magnetic field exhibit. It was established that, in order for a phenomenon to occur, a characteristic symmetry of a medium must be consistent with the characteristic symmetry of the phenomenon occurring in it. It was also determined that elements of symmetry of causes must be reflected in the symmetry of the induced effects.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 71-147
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.003.17694The article is an extension of the plenary lecture delivered on February 16, 2023 in the Hall of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences on the occasion of Nicolaus Copernicus’s 550th birth anniversary and the 150th anniversary of the first public meeting of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow.
An answer to the key question: “Why are we still interested in Nicolaus Copernicus?” is formulated. It concerns the multidimensional space of issues, including: man, society, culture (science, theology and religion, fine arts), ideas, concepts, time – space. And all of the above is discussed in changing historical contexts.
This subject is approached from the perspective of the methodology of historical sciences and the history of science, history, history and philosophy of science, history of ideas, scientific cosmology and general cultural cosmology, history of art and culture, history of theology and religion, history of memory, political and geopolitical history, sociology and cultural studies: the cultural role of great heroes / geniuses and collective work in culture, as well as the role of occasional celebrations and the figure of Copernicus as an “advertising brand”.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 149-238
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.004.17695The article is a case study on the views of the famous T.S. Kuhn about the so-called Copernican revolution. Generally, Kuhn is presented as a very successful historian and philosopher of science: an author of world bestsellers. The division among his supporters, i.e. about so-called left-wing and right-wing Kuhnians, is recalled, and the fact that Kuhn himself vehemently dissociated from a large proportion of his adherents. It is also noted here, that in the last 30 years, in addition to abundant hagiographic literature on T. S. Kuhn, there have also been a few critical studies of Kuhn’s achievements.
The rest of the article presents the author’s critical analysis of Kuhn’s views on the so-called Copernican Revolution, which formed the basis of Kuhn’s scheme of scientific development presented in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962); i.e. the world’s most famous monograph in social sciences and humanities so far.
The criticism encompasses a genesis, content and reception of Kuhn’s views and the development of his interpretations. The analysis is carried out by the means of methodology of historical sciences and a scientific method, which the author describes as the hypothetico-deductive method of correspondence thinking.
The criticism is based on the author’s current publications (developed here further on), which were sadly unnoticed by the researchers, although presented in the world center for the Copernican research, and are available on the Internet freely.
This fact leads the author to the assumption that international Kuhnian research is underdeveloped seriously and that strong prejudices – barriers may exist in scientific circles, such as, e.g., primacy of number of citations (and other bibliometric indicators) over content analysis, the Matthew effect, the effect of alleged and actual scientific centers and peripheries, some mental remnants of the Cold War, as well as underdevelopment of scientific communication.
Adam Grobler
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 239-258
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.005.17696Kuhn’s radical meaning variance thesis implies that scientists, who work in different paradigms cannot understand each other. This, however, seems incredible. The air of paradox can be dispersed once the role of presuppositions in constituting a paradigm is acknowledged. Presuppositions function in the way of the Wittgensteinian ungrounded hinges and often are only implicitly assumed. In the face of recalcitrant puzzles some presuppositions can be made explicit and revised. The mechanism of possible revisions of presuppositions can be accounted for in terms of Hintikka’s interrogative model of scientific inquiry with some amendments.
The model includes three possible reactions to an anomaly: (i) a conservative offer of an auxiliary hypothesis within the current paradigm, (ii) a reinterpretation of puzzling experimental results and non-revolutionary enrichment of the current paradigm with a novel hypothesis, and (iii) a revision of presuppositions that amounts to a full-fledged scientific revolution. The choice depends on the success or failure of more conservative alternatives and the scope of application of the theory under investigation. In the proposed approach, incommensurability does not hinder communication between the proponents of different paradigms. In addition, some other controversial points in Kuhn’s views are explained, like Kuhn’s losses, reproaching conservative attitudes towards anomalies, or the admissibility or inadmissibility of the coexistence of rival paradigms. Last but not least, a link between a paradigm shift and the strive for truth is established.
Anna Martin-Michalska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 259-289
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.006.17697In his most seminal work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas S. Kuhn advances a notion that science is embedded in historically contingent constellations of practices and ideas. In this view, history is part and parcel of science. Science develops by transforming that, which it emerges from – a theme later picked up by Polish philosopher of science, Stefan Amsterdamski. Kuhn also noticed important parallels between psychological and historical development. These insights have led him to the conclusion that what scientists do and what the science does are two different things. Scientific development is discontinuous in the sense that it cannot be measured by any external standard. Science is therefore its own judge. This paper identifies critical shortcomings of Kuhn’s theory of psychological development, which most affect his vision of scientific development. Subsequently, the problem of development is recast in terms of dynamic system theory or embodied cognition. The ensuing insights are organized into a cyclical model, with two main trajectories: one creative, the other generative. It is argued that the cyclical approach permits to overcome the dualisms, which plagued Kuhn’s original account (engagement versus criticism, creativity versus rule-following, etc.) and to further develop Amsterdamski’s idea that absent universal norms or standards, criticism and rationality are nonetheless possible.
Veronika Girininkaitė, Andreas Kleinert, Roman Sznajder
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 293-299
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.007.17698In this note we publish a short letter from Leonhard Euler’s son, Johann Albrecht Euler, the Secretary of the Imperial Academy in St. Petersburg, to Marcin Poczobutt-Odlanicki, the Vilnius astronomer. The fate of this letter seemed unknown, but we know its content now. The main news in this correspondence was the discovery of a comet by the astronomer Anders Johan Lexell.
Piotr Köhler
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 301-341
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.008.17699Periodization is used to divide a given branch of science into shorter, relatively homogeneous periods. In the first part of the present work, several previous periodizations of the history of botany in Poland are analyzed. The periodization by Stanisław Bonifacy Jundziłł (1761–1847), a clergyman, botanist, and later a botany professor at the University of Vilna (Vilnius), was based on political events, such as the beginnings of the reign of kings, as well as events related to the organization of science in Poland. Franciszek (Franz) Herbich (1791–1865), a military doctor and botanist, proposed two eras in the history of botany in Galicia (part of Poland under Austrian rule). He based the demarcation of these epochs on the activity of Willibald Besser (1784–1842), an eminent botanist working in Galicia. Josef Armin Knapp (1843–1899), a member of the Physiographic Commission of the Scientific Society of Kraków, distinguished five periods on the basis of events in the history of botany in Poland. Bolesław Hryniewiecki (1875–1963), professor of systematics and phytogeography at the University of Warsaw as well as a keen historian of botany, was the author of several periodizations. In the periodization proposal of 1927, he distinguished five periods, in the proposal of 1933 – six periods, and in the proposal of 1948 – only three ones. His proposals were based mainly on political events. Władysław Szafer (1886–1970), one of the most outstanding Polish botanists of his time, co-author of the project of nature protection in the world, who was interested in the history of botany, published his own attempt at periodization. He divided the history of botany in Poland into 10 periods, which were not distinguished on the basis of a uniform criterion. Zdzisław Kosiek (1920–1997), a historian of agriculture and long-time director of the Main Library of the Agricultural University in Kraków, divided the history of botany in Poland into five periods on the basis of political events. All the above proposals were based on criteria mostly unrelated to the history of the plant science in Poland, like the reign of kings, political events abroad, political events in Poland, or foreign events in science.
The basis of the present proposal for the periodization of the history of botany in Poland is an analysis of the biographies of 1,773 botanists and amateur botanists who were active in Poland in the past. (These biographies were prepared for the “Biographical Dictionary of Polish Botanists” (in press).) In this way, within botany one could distinguish specialties in which these botanists operated, and the periods in which these specialties were dominant among botanists. The result was a demarcation of periods in which botanists tended to cultivate a given branch (specialty) of botany. The periodization covers the period from the mid-14th century, when the first Polish work containing information about plants was written, to 2022, when the last botanist included in the study died.
This periodization proposal divides the history of botany in Poland into six phases: 1 – from around the mid-14th century to the last quarter of the 16th century (medicinal botany), 2 – until the last quarter of the 18th century (the oldest publications on the flora), 3 – until around the middle of the 19th century (In that period a significant part of the botanical output was the floristic subject matter.), 4 – until the end of the 19th century (the beginning of modern botanical research), 5 – covered the first two quarters of the 20th century (This phase was characterized by extremely increased activity in all fields of botany.) The 6th period covers the last 50 years of the 20th century and the first 22 years of the 21st century.
Due to legal regulations on the protection of personal data, it was not possible to analyze the biographies of living botanists and the accessible data could not be compared with corresponding data from previous phases. For this reason the analysis concerning this period is considerably limited.
Joanna Nowak, Katarzyna Wrzesińska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 343-377
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.009.17700In the nineteenth century, the Polish reflection on race and derivative terms was strongly influenced by the Western thought. New achievements and terminology in the field of natural sciences were adopted. Gradually, there was a change of look at peoples, their origin and diversity. In the Enlightenment, while hierarchizing humankind, its biological variety was emphasized. The Romanticism focused on human culture and spirituality. The Positivism, in turn, based on the achievements of natural sciences, saw the basis for evaluation of human groups in biological criteria. The state of contemporary ideas and knowledge favoured the formulation of various racial theories, which also had their own political context. The analysis of Polish sources made it possible to show the specificity of the domestic view in this field. It was often critical, but also approving the division of humankind into lower and higher races. This resulted from the adoption of a Eurocentric point of view. Historiosophy, seeking factors determining a historical role of a given race, also contributed to the search for differences between the white nations of Europe.
Roman Murawski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 379-396
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.010.17701The Lvov-Warsaw School in Philosophy – as the very name suggests – was connected mainly with two academic centers: universities in Lvov and Warsaw. However, it had a broader impact. The members of this school were active also at other universities, in particular in Cracow, Vilnius and Poznań. The aim of the paper is to present and analyze the connections of Lvov-Warsaw School with the university in Poznań.
Dmytro Zhurylo, Volodymyr Levchenko
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 397-432
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.011.17702The article presents results of research on the origin and development of scientific schools in the field of metallurgy in Eastern Europe at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, associated with the scientific and pedagogical activities of the famous scientist Professor Mikhail Karlovich Ziegler in the higher technical educational institutions of Warsaw (Warsaw Polytechnic Institute of Emperor Nicholas II), Kharkiv (Kharkov Technological Institute of Emperor Alexander III), St. Petersburg (Petrograd Polytechnic Institute) and Moscow (Moscow Mining Academy).
The main facts of the biography of this scientist and educator are given. The stages of formation of M.K. Ziegler as a personality and a scientist against the backdrop of occurring historical processes are shown. The Soviet period of his activity was considered separately.
The scientific achievements of Professor Ziegler in the field of steel metallurgy, in particular, in determining the strength of steels depending on the conditions of their crystallization, studying the diffusion of impurities in steels, which became the foundation for the development of continuous casting technology, i.e.one of the most important world inventions of the 20th century, are systematized and analyzed.
His organizational and educating contribution for the training of scientific and engineering personnel for the metallurgical industry is also estimated.
The article includes interesting forgotten and little-known facts from the history of metallurgical science and the training of the higher engineering and technical personnel in educational institutions located on the territory of modern Ukraine and Poland.
Mateusz Hübner
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 433-471
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.012.17703In 1928, the National Culture Fund was established in Poland. It was a public institution, established at the instigation of the respected educational and scientific activist Stanisław Michalski, and supported by Józef Piłsudski and the President of the Republic of Poland, Ignacy Mościcki.
The article presents specific portraits: the analyses of foreign institutions, supporting scientific and cultural creativity, which were published in the yearbook “Nauka Polska”. The article shows the similarities and differences between the Polish Fund and the foreign institutions in terms of organisation and practice.
Jerzy B. Parusel, Alina Stachurska-Swakoń
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 473-507
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.013.17704The paper presents the history of botanical research on Babia Góra, one of the most valuable wilderness areas in Poland.
The first published information about the local plants can be found in the writings by Jan Długosz (15th century), as well as in studies by Marcin from Urzędów (16th century) and Syreniusz (17th century). In the nineteenth century, especially in its second half, studies providing data of scientific value on the local vascular plants, spore plants, and fungi (including lichens) have been published.
Among the famous people, exploring the nature of Babia Góra at that time, were Stanisław Staszic, Feliks Berdau, Willibald Besser, Pál Kitaibel, Eugeniusz Janota, Antoni Rehman, Josef August Schultes, Albrecht von Sydow, and others. However, it is Hugo Zapałowicz, who is considered to be a discoverer of Babia Góra for science. In 1880, he published the first extensive monograph devoted to the vegetation of Babia Góra.
With the establishment of a nature reserves there in the 1920s, and the natural park (in the second half of the 20th century), the research on flora of this mountain massif became extensive and systematic.
The authors of the first monographs on the vegetation of Babia Góra in the 20th century were Edward Ralski and Jan Walas.
Stanisław Domoradzki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 509-540
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.014.17705In the article, we present operation of the Commission for the History of Mathematics appointed by the Main Board of the Polish Mathematical Society. From 1997 to 2000, the Committee was continuously chaired by Dr. Zofia Pawlikowska-Brożek, PhD in mathematics at the Jagiellonian University in the field of History of Mathematics, a student of an outstanding mathematician and respected teacher, Professor Dr hab. Zdzisław Opial (1930–1974).
Based on the documents, that the author received from the Chair of the Commission, we present how the activities of the Commission contributed to initiation of research on the history of mathematics, and to e creation of a professional community of historians of mathematics in Poland.
The history of mathematics has been a discipline well known in Kraków since the times of Ludwik A. Birkenmajer (1855–1929). His activities were successfully continued by Z. Opial. The issues of Kraków center for history of mathematics were presented by Domoradzki 2020; and Kokowski 2020, among others.
An important inspiration for the activities of the Committee were initiatives undertaken by the Department of History of Science, Education, and Technology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in agreement with the Committee of the History of Science and Technology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in which the Chairwoman of the Committee actively participated.
The materials presented in the work cover also the period before the establishment of the Commission for the History of Mathematics.
Marcin Krasnodębski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 543-583
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.015.17706Sanfte Chemie, or soft chemistry, is a scientific and philosophical concept developed in the 1980s under the auspices of the German Green Party (Die Grünen). Its purpose was to thoroughly reconstruct not only the chemical industry but also chemistry as a science in the spirit of environmentalism. Soft chemistry followers wanted to forge a new scientific method and criticized what they called a Baconian-Cartesian paradigm in the philosophy of science. Even though the sanfte Chemie project ceased to be endorsed by the Green Party in the 1990s because of its radicalism, the history of epistemological foundations, on which the soft chemistry was built, gives us a privileged insight into a vision of chemical sciences as advocated by early proponents of sustainability and pioneers of environmental movements.
The article analyses sources of sanfte Chemie, highlighting plurality and complexity of scientific, philosophical, political and ideological traditions that served as its basis. The study of the eco-critical narratives on empirical sciences allows us to better understand subsequent political choices concerning science, industry and the environment in Germany. In particular, the article shows that the tradition on which sanfte Chemie was built, gives it the advantage over later concepts, such as green chemistry, that lack philosophical depth.
The purpose of the article is to question the relation between the philosophy of science and the practice of science and ponder whether different chemistry is possible at all.
Vito Balorda
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 587-610
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.016.17707In this paper, I address Max Delbrück’s conceptual and experimental importance for molecular biology (henceforth MB) origins. In particular, his complementarity approach and its anti-reductive implications on the (epistemic) reductionism debate in MB.
Regarding Delbrück’s conceptual and experimental importance, I examine his influence on the development of MB by exploring a shift of his interests from physics to biology. Particularly, I outline his central role in “The Phage Group”, the informal group of scientists examining the origin of hereditary life using bacteriophages as their experimental model of choice. Delbrück and “The Phage Group” greatly influenced the development of MB, which culminated with the shared 1969 Nobel Prize for the discoveries regarding replication mechanism and genetic structure of viruses.
Moreover, I examine Delbrück’s complementarity approach towards biological explanations. The complementarity in biology assumes that “biological phenomena might require the employment of descriptions that are mutually exclusive yet jointly necessary for understanding life processes” (McKaughan 2011, p. 11). I explore Delbrück’s complementarity approach, in particular the debate between the reductive and anti-reductive interpretations of it. I argue for the latter interpretation by suggesting that Delbrück advanced an anti-reductive view towards biological explanations by advocating for independent status of explanations of various biological disciplines. Furthermore, I address the complementarity approach in the light of the anti-reductive interpretation in the recent developments in MB, particularly, the potentiality of finding the complementarity approach in systems biology, epigenetics, and boundary selection.
Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 611-626
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.017.17708The Petri dish is, without a doubt, a very basic, yet important and popular tool in microbiological and other biomedical experiments. It serves primarily as a support or structural platform for placing, growing or testing biological specimens, whether these be microbiological, animal, plant or human.
Given its size, usually about 10 cm in diameter, the Petri dish is an ideal platform for cellular and tissue cultures.
Despite the commonality of Petri dishes, quite surprisingly, there is a pervasive error throughout the biomedical literature, namely its misspelling as “petri” dish. This is not a trivial issue since this dish is named after a scientist, Julius Richard Petri (1852–1921), so the upper-case “P” should not be represented as a lower-case “p”.
It is important to alert students and seasoned biomedical researchers, as well as the wider public, who might use this term, about the need to use the term Petri accurately, in order to respect its historical foundation.
To garner some appreciation of the extent of this error in the biomedical literature, a 2022 search on PubMed for either “Petri dish” or “petri dish” revealed 50 search results, 24 (or 48%) of which were of the latter, erroneous form in titles or abstracts. This suggests that the indicated error, which is in need of correction, may be widely pervasive in the biomedical literature.
Dorota Kozłowska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 629-670
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.019.17710The article is a result of the work started in 2022 and aimed at creating “The List of Polish historical journals, rated by the Pracownia Naukoznawstwa IHN PAN (Science Studies and Science-of-Science Divion of the Institute for History of Science, Polish Academy of Sciences)”. The list contains an integrated and transparent technico-bibliometric evaluation of journals.
The article presents the results of the review of 216 Polish journals in the field of history and archival science, in terms of their technical and bibliometric achievements, as evaluated by the Pracownia Naukoznawstwa IHN PAN (2021) on a scale of 0–200 points.
The results were compared with the ministerial scores according to the Regulation of the Minister of Education and Science of December 21, 2021 and July 17, 2023.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 629-670
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.018.17709The article presents: a) updating the rules for evaluating journals in the evaluation model developed in the Pracownia Naukoznawstwa IHN PAN (Science Studies and Science-of-Science Unit of the Institute for History of Science, Polish Academy of Sciences), b) scoring journals in the history of science according to the lists of journals of the MNiSW (2017), MEiN (2021), MEiN (2023), PN IHN PAN (2022) and PN IHN PAN (2023), c) comparison of the scoring of journals in history and history of science in the lists of journals: ministerial and PN IHN PAN, as well as Scopus, DOAJ, Index Copernicus International, PKP Preservation Network and Keepers Register.
The conclusion of the article is an open appeal to the Minister of Education and Science to award, in the next update of the ministerial list of journals, 200 points to the journal “Studia Historiae Scientiarum” and 140 to the journal “Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki”, because these journals, devoted to the history of science, are not inferior in terms of achievements to Polish historical journals, which have already obtained 200 and 140 points by the decision of the Minister of Education and Science of July 17, 2023.
Zsolt András Udvarvölgyi
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 761-791
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.020.17711All travellers and explorers have always had the desire and the ambition to discover, for different reasons and motivations, remote and unknown lands. Hungarian travellers and explorers are no exception here. Eminent Hungarian Orientalists, archaeologists, geographers, as well as anthropologists, geologists, zoologists and botanists, and other brave and adventurous scientists, have become justly recognised in recent centuries, even worldwide, for their oeuvres and their scientific achievements.
After 1945, travel opportunities in socialist Hungary became more limited, and Hungarian scientists and researchers could embark on their expeditions only with great difficulty, overcoming many obstacles and with scarce financial resources.
In this study, I introduce five such brave and determined Hungarian travellers: Dénes Balázs: geographer and karst researcher, János Balogh: biologist, ecologist and professor, Steve Bezuk: engineer and extreme sportsman, who lived in the United States, Ödön Jakabos: Transylvanian writer and “Székely pilgrim”, and finally, Tibor Székely: travel writer, museologist and Esperantist from Vojvodina.
They all – through their individual scientific achievements, discoveries, perseverance and human attitude – have become worthy heirs of the outstanding Hungarian explorers and travellers of the past centuries.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 795-808
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.021.17712The activity of the PAU Commission on the History of Science in the academic year 2022/2023 was discussed.
Lists of scientific meetings, conferences, scientific sessions and seminars as well as new publications were presented.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 13-19
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.001.17692The article outlines the tenth phase of the development of the journal “Studia Historiae Scientiarum” (previously “Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU” / “Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science”).
Information is provided on the following matters: the journal’s evaluation by the “ICI Master Journal List 2021” (released at the end of 2022), the evaluation by the CWTS Journal Indicators 2022 (5 June 2023), the evaluation by the SCImago Journal Rankings 2022 (based on the data from Scopus released on April 2023), and the evaluation by Scopus 2022 (released on 5 June 2023).
Additionally, the number of foreign authors and reviewers of the current volume of the journal is quoted.
Pierre Curie, Andrzej Ziółkowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 23-67
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.002.17693In the work, the classical concept of symmetry limited to geometric objects (figures, solids), which originated from ancient Greece, has been extended to allow for symmetry studies in other types of objects. By introducing concepts of limit point groups and kinematic elements, which characterize a studied object, it was determined what types of symmetries an electric field and a magnetic field exhibit. It was established that, in order for a phenomenon to occur, a characteristic symmetry of a medium must be consistent with the characteristic symmetry of the phenomenon occurring in it. It was also determined that elements of symmetry of causes must be reflected in the symmetry of the induced effects.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 71-147
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.003.17694The article is an extension of the plenary lecture delivered on February 16, 2023 in the Hall of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences on the occasion of Nicolaus Copernicus’s 550th birth anniversary and the 150th anniversary of the first public meeting of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow.
An answer to the key question: “Why are we still interested in Nicolaus Copernicus?” is formulated. It concerns the multidimensional space of issues, including: man, society, culture (science, theology and religion, fine arts), ideas, concepts, time – space. And all of the above is discussed in changing historical contexts.
This subject is approached from the perspective of the methodology of historical sciences and the history of science, history, history and philosophy of science, history of ideas, scientific cosmology and general cultural cosmology, history of art and culture, history of theology and religion, history of memory, political and geopolitical history, sociology and cultural studies: the cultural role of great heroes / geniuses and collective work in culture, as well as the role of occasional celebrations and the figure of Copernicus as an “advertising brand”.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 149-238
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.004.17695The article is a case study on the views of the famous T.S. Kuhn about the so-called Copernican revolution. Generally, Kuhn is presented as a very successful historian and philosopher of science: an author of world bestsellers. The division among his supporters, i.e. about so-called left-wing and right-wing Kuhnians, is recalled, and the fact that Kuhn himself vehemently dissociated from a large proportion of his adherents. It is also noted here, that in the last 30 years, in addition to abundant hagiographic literature on T. S. Kuhn, there have also been a few critical studies of Kuhn’s achievements.
The rest of the article presents the author’s critical analysis of Kuhn’s views on the so-called Copernican Revolution, which formed the basis of Kuhn’s scheme of scientific development presented in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962); i.e. the world’s most famous monograph in social sciences and humanities so far.
The criticism encompasses a genesis, content and reception of Kuhn’s views and the development of his interpretations. The analysis is carried out by the means of methodology of historical sciences and a scientific method, which the author describes as the hypothetico-deductive method of correspondence thinking.
The criticism is based on the author’s current publications (developed here further on), which were sadly unnoticed by the researchers, although presented in the world center for the Copernican research, and are available on the Internet freely.
This fact leads the author to the assumption that international Kuhnian research is underdeveloped seriously and that strong prejudices – barriers may exist in scientific circles, such as, e.g., primacy of number of citations (and other bibliometric indicators) over content analysis, the Matthew effect, the effect of alleged and actual scientific centers and peripheries, some mental remnants of the Cold War, as well as underdevelopment of scientific communication.
Adam Grobler
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 239-258
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.005.17696Kuhn’s radical meaning variance thesis implies that scientists, who work in different paradigms cannot understand each other. This, however, seems incredible. The air of paradox can be dispersed once the role of presuppositions in constituting a paradigm is acknowledged. Presuppositions function in the way of the Wittgensteinian ungrounded hinges and often are only implicitly assumed. In the face of recalcitrant puzzles some presuppositions can be made explicit and revised. The mechanism of possible revisions of presuppositions can be accounted for in terms of Hintikka’s interrogative model of scientific inquiry with some amendments.
The model includes three possible reactions to an anomaly: (i) a conservative offer of an auxiliary hypothesis within the current paradigm, (ii) a reinterpretation of puzzling experimental results and non-revolutionary enrichment of the current paradigm with a novel hypothesis, and (iii) a revision of presuppositions that amounts to a full-fledged scientific revolution. The choice depends on the success or failure of more conservative alternatives and the scope of application of the theory under investigation. In the proposed approach, incommensurability does not hinder communication between the proponents of different paradigms. In addition, some other controversial points in Kuhn’s views are explained, like Kuhn’s losses, reproaching conservative attitudes towards anomalies, or the admissibility or inadmissibility of the coexistence of rival paradigms. Last but not least, a link between a paradigm shift and the strive for truth is established.
Anna Martin-Michalska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 259-289
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.006.17697In his most seminal work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas S. Kuhn advances a notion that science is embedded in historically contingent constellations of practices and ideas. In this view, history is part and parcel of science. Science develops by transforming that, which it emerges from – a theme later picked up by Polish philosopher of science, Stefan Amsterdamski. Kuhn also noticed important parallels between psychological and historical development. These insights have led him to the conclusion that what scientists do and what the science does are two different things. Scientific development is discontinuous in the sense that it cannot be measured by any external standard. Science is therefore its own judge. This paper identifies critical shortcomings of Kuhn’s theory of psychological development, which most affect his vision of scientific development. Subsequently, the problem of development is recast in terms of dynamic system theory or embodied cognition. The ensuing insights are organized into a cyclical model, with two main trajectories: one creative, the other generative. It is argued that the cyclical approach permits to overcome the dualisms, which plagued Kuhn’s original account (engagement versus criticism, creativity versus rule-following, etc.) and to further develop Amsterdamski’s idea that absent universal norms or standards, criticism and rationality are nonetheless possible.
Veronika Girininkaitė, Andreas Kleinert, Roman Sznajder
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 293-299
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.007.17698In this note we publish a short letter from Leonhard Euler’s son, Johann Albrecht Euler, the Secretary of the Imperial Academy in St. Petersburg, to Marcin Poczobutt-Odlanicki, the Vilnius astronomer. The fate of this letter seemed unknown, but we know its content now. The main news in this correspondence was the discovery of a comet by the astronomer Anders Johan Lexell.
Piotr Köhler
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 301-341
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.008.17699Periodization is used to divide a given branch of science into shorter, relatively homogeneous periods. In the first part of the present work, several previous periodizations of the history of botany in Poland are analyzed. The periodization by Stanisław Bonifacy Jundziłł (1761–1847), a clergyman, botanist, and later a botany professor at the University of Vilna (Vilnius), was based on political events, such as the beginnings of the reign of kings, as well as events related to the organization of science in Poland. Franciszek (Franz) Herbich (1791–1865), a military doctor and botanist, proposed two eras in the history of botany in Galicia (part of Poland under Austrian rule). He based the demarcation of these epochs on the activity of Willibald Besser (1784–1842), an eminent botanist working in Galicia. Josef Armin Knapp (1843–1899), a member of the Physiographic Commission of the Scientific Society of Kraków, distinguished five periods on the basis of events in the history of botany in Poland. Bolesław Hryniewiecki (1875–1963), professor of systematics and phytogeography at the University of Warsaw as well as a keen historian of botany, was the author of several periodizations. In the periodization proposal of 1927, he distinguished five periods, in the proposal of 1933 – six periods, and in the proposal of 1948 – only three ones. His proposals were based mainly on political events. Władysław Szafer (1886–1970), one of the most outstanding Polish botanists of his time, co-author of the project of nature protection in the world, who was interested in the history of botany, published his own attempt at periodization. He divided the history of botany in Poland into 10 periods, which were not distinguished on the basis of a uniform criterion. Zdzisław Kosiek (1920–1997), a historian of agriculture and long-time director of the Main Library of the Agricultural University in Kraków, divided the history of botany in Poland into five periods on the basis of political events. All the above proposals were based on criteria mostly unrelated to the history of the plant science in Poland, like the reign of kings, political events abroad, political events in Poland, or foreign events in science.
The basis of the present proposal for the periodization of the history of botany in Poland is an analysis of the biographies of 1,773 botanists and amateur botanists who were active in Poland in the past. (These biographies were prepared for the “Biographical Dictionary of Polish Botanists” (in press).) In this way, within botany one could distinguish specialties in which these botanists operated, and the periods in which these specialties were dominant among botanists. The result was a demarcation of periods in which botanists tended to cultivate a given branch (specialty) of botany. The periodization covers the period from the mid-14th century, when the first Polish work containing information about plants was written, to 2022, when the last botanist included in the study died.
This periodization proposal divides the history of botany in Poland into six phases: 1 – from around the mid-14th century to the last quarter of the 16th century (medicinal botany), 2 – until the last quarter of the 18th century (the oldest publications on the flora), 3 – until around the middle of the 19th century (In that period a significant part of the botanical output was the floristic subject matter.), 4 – until the end of the 19th century (the beginning of modern botanical research), 5 – covered the first two quarters of the 20th century (This phase was characterized by extremely increased activity in all fields of botany.) The 6th period covers the last 50 years of the 20th century and the first 22 years of the 21st century.
Due to legal regulations on the protection of personal data, it was not possible to analyze the biographies of living botanists and the accessible data could not be compared with corresponding data from previous phases. For this reason the analysis concerning this period is considerably limited.
Joanna Nowak, Katarzyna Wrzesińska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 343-377
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.009.17700In the nineteenth century, the Polish reflection on race and derivative terms was strongly influenced by the Western thought. New achievements and terminology in the field of natural sciences were adopted. Gradually, there was a change of look at peoples, their origin and diversity. In the Enlightenment, while hierarchizing humankind, its biological variety was emphasized. The Romanticism focused on human culture and spirituality. The Positivism, in turn, based on the achievements of natural sciences, saw the basis for evaluation of human groups in biological criteria. The state of contemporary ideas and knowledge favoured the formulation of various racial theories, which also had their own political context. The analysis of Polish sources made it possible to show the specificity of the domestic view in this field. It was often critical, but also approving the division of humankind into lower and higher races. This resulted from the adoption of a Eurocentric point of view. Historiosophy, seeking factors determining a historical role of a given race, also contributed to the search for differences between the white nations of Europe.
Roman Murawski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 379-396
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.010.17701The Lvov-Warsaw School in Philosophy – as the very name suggests – was connected mainly with two academic centers: universities in Lvov and Warsaw. However, it had a broader impact. The members of this school were active also at other universities, in particular in Cracow, Vilnius and Poznań. The aim of the paper is to present and analyze the connections of Lvov-Warsaw School with the university in Poznań.
Dmytro Zhurylo, Volodymyr Levchenko
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 397-432
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.011.17702The article presents results of research on the origin and development of scientific schools in the field of metallurgy in Eastern Europe at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, associated with the scientific and pedagogical activities of the famous scientist Professor Mikhail Karlovich Ziegler in the higher technical educational institutions of Warsaw (Warsaw Polytechnic Institute of Emperor Nicholas II), Kharkiv (Kharkov Technological Institute of Emperor Alexander III), St. Petersburg (Petrograd Polytechnic Institute) and Moscow (Moscow Mining Academy).
The main facts of the biography of this scientist and educator are given. The stages of formation of M.K. Ziegler as a personality and a scientist against the backdrop of occurring historical processes are shown. The Soviet period of his activity was considered separately.
The scientific achievements of Professor Ziegler in the field of steel metallurgy, in particular, in determining the strength of steels depending on the conditions of their crystallization, studying the diffusion of impurities in steels, which became the foundation for the development of continuous casting technology, i.e.one of the most important world inventions of the 20th century, are systematized and analyzed.
His organizational and educating contribution for the training of scientific and engineering personnel for the metallurgical industry is also estimated.
The article includes interesting forgotten and little-known facts from the history of metallurgical science and the training of the higher engineering and technical personnel in educational institutions located on the territory of modern Ukraine and Poland.
Mateusz Hübner
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 433-471
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.012.17703In 1928, the National Culture Fund was established in Poland. It was a public institution, established at the instigation of the respected educational and scientific activist Stanisław Michalski, and supported by Józef Piłsudski and the President of the Republic of Poland, Ignacy Mościcki.
The article presents specific portraits: the analyses of foreign institutions, supporting scientific and cultural creativity, which were published in the yearbook “Nauka Polska”. The article shows the similarities and differences between the Polish Fund and the foreign institutions in terms of organisation and practice.
Jerzy B. Parusel, Alina Stachurska-Swakoń
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 473-507
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.013.17704The paper presents the history of botanical research on Babia Góra, one of the most valuable wilderness areas in Poland.
The first published information about the local plants can be found in the writings by Jan Długosz (15th century), as well as in studies by Marcin from Urzędów (16th century) and Syreniusz (17th century). In the nineteenth century, especially in its second half, studies providing data of scientific value on the local vascular plants, spore plants, and fungi (including lichens) have been published.
Among the famous people, exploring the nature of Babia Góra at that time, were Stanisław Staszic, Feliks Berdau, Willibald Besser, Pál Kitaibel, Eugeniusz Janota, Antoni Rehman, Josef August Schultes, Albrecht von Sydow, and others. However, it is Hugo Zapałowicz, who is considered to be a discoverer of Babia Góra for science. In 1880, he published the first extensive monograph devoted to the vegetation of Babia Góra.
With the establishment of a nature reserves there in the 1920s, and the natural park (in the second half of the 20th century), the research on flora of this mountain massif became extensive and systematic.
The authors of the first monographs on the vegetation of Babia Góra in the 20th century were Edward Ralski and Jan Walas.
Stanisław Domoradzki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 509-540
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.014.17705In the article, we present operation of the Commission for the History of Mathematics appointed by the Main Board of the Polish Mathematical Society. From 1997 to 2000, the Committee was continuously chaired by Dr. Zofia Pawlikowska-Brożek, PhD in mathematics at the Jagiellonian University in the field of History of Mathematics, a student of an outstanding mathematician and respected teacher, Professor Dr hab. Zdzisław Opial (1930–1974).
Based on the documents, that the author received from the Chair of the Commission, we present how the activities of the Commission contributed to initiation of research on the history of mathematics, and to e creation of a professional community of historians of mathematics in Poland.
The history of mathematics has been a discipline well known in Kraków since the times of Ludwik A. Birkenmajer (1855–1929). His activities were successfully continued by Z. Opial. The issues of Kraków center for history of mathematics were presented by Domoradzki 2020; and Kokowski 2020, among others.
An important inspiration for the activities of the Committee were initiatives undertaken by the Department of History of Science, Education, and Technology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in agreement with the Committee of the History of Science and Technology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in which the Chairwoman of the Committee actively participated.
The materials presented in the work cover also the period before the establishment of the Commission for the History of Mathematics.
Marcin Krasnodębski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 543-583
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.015.17706Sanfte Chemie, or soft chemistry, is a scientific and philosophical concept developed in the 1980s under the auspices of the German Green Party (Die Grünen). Its purpose was to thoroughly reconstruct not only the chemical industry but also chemistry as a science in the spirit of environmentalism. Soft chemistry followers wanted to forge a new scientific method and criticized what they called a Baconian-Cartesian paradigm in the philosophy of science. Even though the sanfte Chemie project ceased to be endorsed by the Green Party in the 1990s because of its radicalism, the history of epistemological foundations, on which the soft chemistry was built, gives us a privileged insight into a vision of chemical sciences as advocated by early proponents of sustainability and pioneers of environmental movements.
The article analyses sources of sanfte Chemie, highlighting plurality and complexity of scientific, philosophical, political and ideological traditions that served as its basis. The study of the eco-critical narratives on empirical sciences allows us to better understand subsequent political choices concerning science, industry and the environment in Germany. In particular, the article shows that the tradition on which sanfte Chemie was built, gives it the advantage over later concepts, such as green chemistry, that lack philosophical depth.
The purpose of the article is to question the relation between the philosophy of science and the practice of science and ponder whether different chemistry is possible at all.
Vito Balorda
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 587-610
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.016.17707In this paper, I address Max Delbrück’s conceptual and experimental importance for molecular biology (henceforth MB) origins. In particular, his complementarity approach and its anti-reductive implications on the (epistemic) reductionism debate in MB.
Regarding Delbrück’s conceptual and experimental importance, I examine his influence on the development of MB by exploring a shift of his interests from physics to biology. Particularly, I outline his central role in “The Phage Group”, the informal group of scientists examining the origin of hereditary life using bacteriophages as their experimental model of choice. Delbrück and “The Phage Group” greatly influenced the development of MB, which culminated with the shared 1969 Nobel Prize for the discoveries regarding replication mechanism and genetic structure of viruses.
Moreover, I examine Delbrück’s complementarity approach towards biological explanations. The complementarity in biology assumes that “biological phenomena might require the employment of descriptions that are mutually exclusive yet jointly necessary for understanding life processes” (McKaughan 2011, p. 11). I explore Delbrück’s complementarity approach, in particular the debate between the reductive and anti-reductive interpretations of it. I argue for the latter interpretation by suggesting that Delbrück advanced an anti-reductive view towards biological explanations by advocating for independent status of explanations of various biological disciplines. Furthermore, I address the complementarity approach in the light of the anti-reductive interpretation in the recent developments in MB, particularly, the potentiality of finding the complementarity approach in systems biology, epigenetics, and boundary selection.
Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 611-626
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.017.17708The Petri dish is, without a doubt, a very basic, yet important and popular tool in microbiological and other biomedical experiments. It serves primarily as a support or structural platform for placing, growing or testing biological specimens, whether these be microbiological, animal, plant or human.
Given its size, usually about 10 cm in diameter, the Petri dish is an ideal platform for cellular and tissue cultures.
Despite the commonality of Petri dishes, quite surprisingly, there is a pervasive error throughout the biomedical literature, namely its misspelling as “petri” dish. This is not a trivial issue since this dish is named after a scientist, Julius Richard Petri (1852–1921), so the upper-case “P” should not be represented as a lower-case “p”.
It is important to alert students and seasoned biomedical researchers, as well as the wider public, who might use this term, about the need to use the term Petri accurately, in order to respect its historical foundation.
To garner some appreciation of the extent of this error in the biomedical literature, a 2022 search on PubMed for either “Petri dish” or “petri dish” revealed 50 search results, 24 (or 48%) of which were of the latter, erroneous form in titles or abstracts. This suggests that the indicated error, which is in need of correction, may be widely pervasive in the biomedical literature.
Dorota Kozłowska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 629-670
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.019.17710The article is a result of the work started in 2022 and aimed at creating “The List of Polish historical journals, rated by the Pracownia Naukoznawstwa IHN PAN (Science Studies and Science-of-Science Divion of the Institute for History of Science, Polish Academy of Sciences)”. The list contains an integrated and transparent technico-bibliometric evaluation of journals.
The article presents the results of the review of 216 Polish journals in the field of history and archival science, in terms of their technical and bibliometric achievements, as evaluated by the Pracownia Naukoznawstwa IHN PAN (2021) on a scale of 0–200 points.
The results were compared with the ministerial scores according to the Regulation of the Minister of Education and Science of December 21, 2021 and July 17, 2023.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 629-670
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.018.17709The article presents: a) updating the rules for evaluating journals in the evaluation model developed in the Pracownia Naukoznawstwa IHN PAN (Science Studies and Science-of-Science Unit of the Institute for History of Science, Polish Academy of Sciences), b) scoring journals in the history of science according to the lists of journals of the MNiSW (2017), MEiN (2021), MEiN (2023), PN IHN PAN (2022) and PN IHN PAN (2023), c) comparison of the scoring of journals in history and history of science in the lists of journals: ministerial and PN IHN PAN, as well as Scopus, DOAJ, Index Copernicus International, PKP Preservation Network and Keepers Register.
The conclusion of the article is an open appeal to the Minister of Education and Science to award, in the next update of the ministerial list of journals, 200 points to the journal “Studia Historiae Scientiarum” and 140 to the journal “Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki”, because these journals, devoted to the history of science, are not inferior in terms of achievements to Polish historical journals, which have already obtained 200 and 140 points by the decision of the Minister of Education and Science of July 17, 2023.
Zsolt András Udvarvölgyi
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 761-791
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.020.17711All travellers and explorers have always had the desire and the ambition to discover, for different reasons and motivations, remote and unknown lands. Hungarian travellers and explorers are no exception here. Eminent Hungarian Orientalists, archaeologists, geographers, as well as anthropologists, geologists, zoologists and botanists, and other brave and adventurous scientists, have become justly recognised in recent centuries, even worldwide, for their oeuvres and their scientific achievements.
After 1945, travel opportunities in socialist Hungary became more limited, and Hungarian scientists and researchers could embark on their expeditions only with great difficulty, overcoming many obstacles and with scarce financial resources.
In this study, I introduce five such brave and determined Hungarian travellers: Dénes Balázs: geographer and karst researcher, János Balogh: biologist, ecologist and professor, Steve Bezuk: engineer and extreme sportsman, who lived in the United States, Ödön Jakabos: Transylvanian writer and “Székely pilgrim”, and finally, Tibor Székely: travel writer, museologist and Esperantist from Vojvodina.
They all – through their individual scientific achievements, discoveries, perseverance and human attitude – have become worthy heirs of the outstanding Hungarian explorers and travellers of the past centuries.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 22 (2023), 2023, pp. 795-808
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.021.17712The activity of the PAU Commission on the History of Science in the academic year 2022/2023 was discussed.
Lists of scientific meetings, conferences, scientific sessions and seminars as well as new publications were presented.
Publication date: 26.08.2022
Editor-in-Chief: Michał Kokowski
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 13-22
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.001.15967Evolutionary Transformation of the Journal. Part 9
The article outlines the ninth phase of the development of the journal “Studia Historiae Scientiarum” (previous name “Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU” / “Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science”).
Two basic ways of developing scientific journals have been distinguished: as a purely scientific enterprise or a purely business enterprise – the journal “Studia Historiae Scientiarum” follows the former model.
Information is provided on the following matters: the journal’s evaluation by the “ICI Master Journal List 2020” (released at the end of 2021), the evaluation by the Ministry of Education and Science of Poland (released on December 1 / 21, 2021), the evaluation by Scopus (released on 5 May 2022), and the evaluation by the SCImago Journal Rankings 2021 (based on the data from Scopus released on April 2022).
Additionally, the number of foreign authors and reviewers of the current volume of the journal is quoted.
From volume 21 (2022), the journal “Studia Historiae Scientiarum” has implemented additional organizational solutions: a CC BY license for the texts of articles (retaining the possibility of other licenses for illustrations), the CrossMark service and the publishing option, the so-called FirstView Articles.
Paul Wlodkowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 25-58
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.002.15968The interregnum between the death of Galileo and the publication of Newton’s Principia produced great advances in military science and technology. Particularly noteworthy are Kazimierz Siemienowicz’s contributions to artillery and to the field of rocketry. The dominating nature of these weapon systems remain as relevant today as it did in 1650 with the publication of his opus, The Great Art of Artillery. Rocket technology defines power relations, whether fired indiscriminately across a national border or positioned menacingly in a silo as an intercontinental ballistic missile. Siemienowicz’s designs, namely his multi-stage rockets with delta-wing stabilizers and ejection nozzles, became instruments of state power. The standardization of the caliber scale, the writing of the science of artillery, the optimization of gunpowder quality, and the pioneering work in rocketry, which became his legacy, qualify him as principal in the culmination of the military revolution.
Roman Sznajder
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 59-133
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.003.15969The Danzig Academic Gymnasium (1558–1817) was one of the first Protestant schools at the college level in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It became one of the most famous educational institutions in Europe of the 16–18th centuries. For almost 260 years, it attracted one of the best professors and students of the era. We concentrate on the achievements in science, the role of the City Council Library in the academic life in and outside of the Gymnasium, and highlight the activities of the Danzig Naturalist Society. In this survey, we feature important representatives of the scientific disciplines present in the Gymnasium, both faculty and their students, as well as Gdańsk scientists in general. We outline the lasting impact of the Danzig Academic Gymnasium on the intellectual life in Gdańsk, the Pomerania region, and some intellectual circles in Europe.
Katarzyna Wrzesińska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 135-180
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.004.15970The aim of the article is to illustrate the discussions in Poland on the ancestry of humanity, which were inspired by Charles Darwin and his followers. The theory of evolution has changed the way of thinking about humans, who were previously treated as the ‘crown of creation’. The core of this text is the analysis of the reception of Darwin’s theses through the prism of the disputes over human’s lineage, and thus the development of science in the nineteenth-century Poland. Those issues were reflected in Polish journals in science and popular science during the partitions. The breakthrough in thinking about humanity consisted in departing from the creationist concept recognizing the will of the Creator in the creation of the world, and in questioning the dogma of the permanence of species. Under the influence of Darwin’s theory, and not without controversy, a conclusion was drawn about the crucial role of natural factors in the creation of human world and its diversity. The most controversial thesis was the acknowledgement of humans’ kinship with the ape. It aroused opposition in conservative spheres. Darwin himself did not introduce such a direct lineage. However, his followers were often tempted to put forward often controversial concepts, which were also reflected in Polish journalism through the reception of western science.
It should be noted that popular science magazines were an important source of information from the world of science and had a significant impact on the perception of the theory of evolution by the mass audience. They often simplified the information about Darwin’s theory and presented the stage of the research in a competent way. Recognized Polish scholars were among authors of these journals. As a result, all the different information sources greatly contributed to popularizing Darwin’s theory in the Polish society.
Słownik terminologii lekarskiej polskiej z 1881 roku jako przedmiot badań historyka języka polskiego
Lucyna Agnieszka Jankowiak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 181-216
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.005.15971The 19th century was a groundbreaking period in the history of Polish medical terminology. It was then that the most important dictionary, Słownik terminologii lekarskiej polskiej [Dictionary of Polish Medical Terminology], was published in Kraków in 1881 as a result of numerous discussions, mainly within the medical community. Although its terminology represents the Kraków school, the influence of other Polish scientific centers is also evident, because at the final stage of preparing the lexicon the Kraków dictionary authors consulted with medical doctors from Warsaw, Poznań and Lviv. The material in this translation dictionary is diverse and often crosses the boundaries of medicine of the time. It is a rich source for a Polish language historian to study not only the state of Polish medical terminology of the 19th century, e.g. the number and origin of terms, or the terminology which was then arranged and supplemented in an organized and deliberate manner, but also its characteristic phenomena, e.g. synonymy and polysemy, against the background of other periods in the history of Polish medical terminology. The aim of the article is not only to report on the state of historical linguistic research to date, but also to show the opportunities that this research offers for next researchers of the Polish language
Paweł Polak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 217-235
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.006.15972The Polish philosophy of mathematics in the 19th century had its origins in the Romantic period under the influence of the then-predominant idealist philosophies. The decline of Romantic philosophy precipitated changes in general philosophy, but what is less well known is how it triggered changes in the philosophy of mathematics. In this paper, we discuss how the Polish philosophy of mathematics evolved from the metaphysical approach that had been formed during the Romantic era to the more modern positivistic paradigm. These evolutionary changes are attributed to the philosophers Henryk Struve, Antoni Molicki and Julian Ochorowicz, and mathematicians Karol Hertz and Samuel Dickstein. We also show how implicit ideas (i.e., those not declared openly) from the area between the philosophy of science and general philosophy played a crucial role in the paradigm shift in the Polish philosophy of mathematics.
Jan Woleński
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 237-257
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.007.15973The foundations of mathematics cover mathematical as well as philosophical problems. At the turn of the 20th century logicism, formalism and intuitionism, main foundational schools were developed. A natural problem arose, namely of how much the foundations of mathematics influence the real practice of mathematicians. Although mathematics was and still is declared to be independent of philosophy, various foundational controversies concerned some mathematical axioms, e.g. the axiom of choice, or methods of proof (particularly, non-constructive ones) and sometimes qualified them as admissible (or not) in mathematical practice, relatively to their philosophical (and foundational) content. Polish Mathematical School was established in the years 1915–1920. Its research program was outlined by Zygmunt Janiszewski (the Janiszewski program) and suggested that Polish mathematicians should concentrate on special branches of studies, including set theory, topology and mathematical logic. In this way, the foundations of mathematics became a legitimate part of mathematics. In particular, the foundational investigations should be conducted independently of philosophical assumptions and apply all mathematically accepted methods, finitary or not, and the same concerns other branches of mathematics. This scientific ideology contributed essentially to the remarkable development of logic, set theory and topology in Poland.
Michalina Petelska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 259-280
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.008.15974Until now, academic literature has not considered Polish-Canadian relations in the context of the history of science. This paper presents a preliminary research into the matter. The study was conducted on the basis of Roczniki (Annals) of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the most important Polish scientific institutions. The analysis of the source material showed that the first contacts were established in the 1880s. In the following years, the Academy further developed the exchange of scientific publications with Canadian universities, museums and scientific societies.
Piotr Petelenz
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 281-314
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.009.15975This article discusses the advent of theoretical chemistry in Poland and the biography of its founding father, professor Kazimierz Gumiński. The presentation follows chronological order of the discoveries that gave rise to the onset of quantum chemistry, and the political history of that time, namely World War II and the Stalinist period. These general circumstances indirectly triggered the foundation of the Chair of Theoretical Chemistry at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków on September 1, 1952, which is viewed as the beginning of Polish theoretical chemistry.
Most information herein is based on Gumiński’s report concerning the first ten years of the institution’s activity; the report is appended as an annex. The original and demanding training Gumiński imposed on his disciples is described from the author’s personal experience.
Zenta Broka-Lāce
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 317-356
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.010.15976This article examines the history of archaeology in Latvia during the Soviet occupation (1940–1941; 1944–1991), trying to understand the consequences brought in the field of archaeology by the single-party led experiment of communism. The research is based on archival studies and uses the historical method, source criticism and historiography. Author explains the nature of the prescribed theoretical and methodological guidelines as well as actual implications of the ‘communist way’ in archaeology. The article challenges the common belief that archaeology and prehistory were ideologically freer than other branches of history during the Soviet era.
Andrij Rovenchak, Olha Rovenchak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 357-395
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.011.15977We present a detailed biographical account and analysis of works of Juda Kreisler (1904–1940s?), a theoretical physicist from Lviv. He was born in Tlumach (Ukrainian: Тлумач, Polish: Tłumacz, Yiddish: טאלמיטש ), nowadays a town in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast in the western part of Ukraine. In 1923, Juda Kreisler finished a gymnasium in Stanislaviv and entered the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Lviv (Wydział Filozoficzny Uniwersytetu Jana Kazimierza [UJK] we Lwowie) in order to study physics. In 1932, he was promoted to the doctoral degree in physics under the supervision of Professor Stanisław Loria. For a short period in the 1930s, Juda Kreisler worked at the Department for Theoretical Physics of the University of Lviv, and returned to the University in 1940, after the Soviets had reorganized it upon taking over Lviv in September 1939. His fate remains unknown: he is listed among murdered by Nazis Jewish employees of the University of Lviv in 1941–43.
Dr. Kreisler authored four scientific papers and four abstracts of conference presentations delivered at the Congresses of Polish Physicists in 1932–36. There is, however, another field, where he was extremely prolific in the late 1930s. We have discovered 122 of his popular articles in “Chwila” (English: “Moment”), a local daily newspaper published by the Jewish community in Lviv during 1919–39. These articles covered various subjects, that can be tentatively divided into the following major topics: chronicles and personalia; history of science; discoveries, new studies and inventions; the applied value of science (for medicine and economy in particular); interconnection between science and war; organization of scientific life; Hitler’s Germany and the problem of so-called ‘Aryan science’. While various branches of physics formed the largest part within disciplines reflected in Juda Kreisler’s articles, he also discussed biology, chemistry, meteorology, and geology. The latter field is closely related to his professional career at Lviv’s Geophysical Institute of “Pionier”, a joint-stock company for the exploration and exploitation of bituminous materials, where he spent nine months in 1936.
Elena Tverytnykova, Maryna Gutnyk
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 397-420
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.012.15978The article discusses the scientific and pedagogical activity of the outstanding Ukrainian radiophysicist Abram Slutskin in the context of the development of world radiophysical research. It is substantiated that the theoretical works of the scientist defined a new direction of research in Ukraine, namely the radar, and were important for the development of ultrahigh frequency physics. Innovative research initiated by Abram Slutskin found application in new defense technologies, military equipment, and special devices for medicine, biology, navigation, communications, household television and the radio industry. The article proves that Abram Slutskin had priority in launching research in the field of biophysics in Ukraine. The research on the use of ultrahigh frequencies for treatment of oncological patients carried out by scientists were unique for that time. Abram Slutskin᾽s graduate students became well-known specialists, who further developed the scientist’s ideas by initiating innovative areas of research and creating new institutions. We have grounds to consider Abram Slutskin as one of the founders of the Ukrainian scientific radio-physical school.
Vitalii Telvak, Viktoria Telvak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 423-432
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.013.15979The article discusses the first four volumes of the Encyclopaedia of Shevchenko Scientific Society. It traces the genesis of the idea of this publication in Ukrainian science of the 20th and early 21st century. The article also clarifies the concepts and methodological principles of the encyclopaedia and outlines its structure and content. We conclude that the Encyclopaedia … is a highly informative publication dedicated to one institution with a unique nature and scope.
Jan Surman, Daria Petushkova
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 435-483
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.014.15980Natalia Otrishchenko
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 485-514
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.015.15981The article outlines the development of a new network assembled by the chair of urban planning at the Lviv Polytechnic institute after the collapse of the USSR. It focuses on the actions of individual people who contributed to institutional changes and used various resources to create and maintain a set of connections.
The tradition of urban planning education in Lviv begins with a Chair of Urban Planning created in 1913 at Lviv Polytechnic. However, after WWII and the incorporation of the city into the Soviet state, Lviv Polytechnic went through radical changes. Urban planning was restored as an architectural sub-specialization only in 1966, while a separate department of architecture was organized only in 1971.
After perestroika and the disintegration of the Soviet Union (1985‒1991), the Chair of Urban Planning relatively quickly reoriented its activities from Moscow’s to Kraków’s, Wrocław’s, Vienna’s or Berlin’s perspective. This was primarily due to personal contacts, which step by step became institutionalized, and due to the “imaginary continuity” between contemporary urban planners and the pre-war Lviv architectural school.
Professors who left the city right after WWII gained symbolic importance and helped to establish a common ground between the milieu of Lviv Polytechnic and Polish technical schools in the 1990s. During the time of social and political changes, looking into the past became a quite successful strategy, which helped the institution to gain symbolic capital and survive. The history of Lviv Polytechnic, stripped from all potential conflicts and sharp divisions, helped to build new connections after the old ones no longer provided stable positions. Knowing foreign languages became one of the basic means or resources that people needed to feel connected and to participate in scientific exchanges.
The sources of the article include oral history interviews with academics in the field of architecture, memoirs, and other published materials related to the history of the Chair of Urban Planning at Lviv Polytechnic.
Karen Kastenhofer
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 515-552
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.016.15982In 1999, four editorials in the journal Biological Chemistry commemorate how, since the 1980s, Vienna has transformed from a “[peripheral] outpost near the Iron Curtain” to a “central hub” for life science research.
A closer look at these texts reveals the explicit and implicit role of drawing maps for and within science, depicting centers, peripheries and ‒ in this case ‒ geopolitically real and allegorical “iron curtains”.
Based on this observation and the issues it raises, I re-examine the pertinent empirical material covering relevant times, places, (sub-) disciplines and institutions, as well as the period after 2000. I deal with “molecularization” in biology, (sub)disciplinary differentiation, internationalization, as well as changes in public-private relations and a pair of complementary concepts of innovation and tradition. Thus, I retrace the establishment of a techno-epistemic culture in a local, disciplinary context.
I conclude that guiding principles such as excellence and internationality are understood and implemented in academia in locally and historically bounded ways, and I argue that a critical re-examination of empirical material can substantially enrich our approach to such topics.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 555-610
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.017.15983The article comments on the famous paper by Boris Hessen “The Social and Economic Roots of Newton’s Principia” presented at the Second International Congress on the History of Science and Technology in London in 1931.
The comments are made in the light of considerations on the methodology of the historiography of science, including the author’s ideas of research hermeneutics and the research hermeneutics of the historiography of science, the biography of Boris Hessen, the history of scientific historiography, the history of science and the history of science-of-science.
The article synthetically presents Hessen’s research hermeneutics and points to its fundamental disadvantages. It describes the reception of Hessen’s paper in the West: both the more widely known positive reception (of Bernalists and their successors, including supporters of Marxist studies of science and the social history of science), and the much less known negative reception (members of the (British) Society for Freedom in Science, members of the Harvard group of J. B. Conant of General Education in Science).
The article also presents the changing fate of the reception of Hessen’s thoughts in the USSR and Russia in the years 1930–2020.
Additionally, it indicates various historiographic myths related to “Boris Hessen”, including the myth that the Polish science-of-science (Polish: naukoznawstwo) emerged later or at the same time as Russian science-of-science (Russian: науковедение, naukovedenie).
The defectiveness of Hessen’s research hermeneutics on the one hand, and on the other hand the reception of his views in the West and in the USSR and Russia from the 1930s to the 2020s, including the various historiographic myths related to Hessen, show how paradoxical the history of the historiography of science can be, and demonstrate the need to cultivate the skills of critical thinking among researchers interpreting science (i.e. historians of science, philosophers of science, sociologists of scientific knowledge, etc.).
Dorota Kozłowska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 613-666
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.018.15984The article presents the results of the research on the technical and bibliometric achievements of Polish journals in the field of history and archives, the discipline of history, and compared them with the scores on the official list of scientific journals and reviewed materials from international conferences of the Polish Ministry of Education and Science published on December 21, 2021.
The aim of such research is to perform an technical and bibliometric assessment of historical journals that will be both integrated and transparent, and to create a new list of historical journals prepared by the Science-of-Science and Science Studies Research Unit of the Institute for the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
All the rules of the New List will be clearly defined and will allow editorial offices / scientific institutions to set scores independently. It will also aim to improve the editorial and reviewing process, and to create a transparent website containing all necessary data for both authors and readers.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 667-700
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.019.15985The article describes the types of journals from the history of science, the criterion for selecting journals from the history of science, the transparent evaluation criteria of scientific journals adopted in the “List of journals of the Unit for Science of Science and Science Studies at the Institute for History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences” (2022) and the scorings of journals from the history of science on the Lists of journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland (January 25, 2017), the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Poland (December 21, 2021) and the Unit for Science of Science and Science Studies at the Institute for History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences (2022).
Marcin Krasnodębski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 703-737
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.020.15986Solvay’s Centre de Recherches d’Aubervilliers (CRA) is one of the oldest active private-sector research centers in industrial chemistry in France. During the seventy years of its existence it collaborated with some of the most significant French and European chemical companies. Established in 1953, the center’s research and development organization around huge discipline-oriented laboratories proved itself remarkably resilient. Not merely reflecting the R&D policy of the company that owned it at a given moment, the evolution of the center’s research organization followed its own particular path. The research priorities in any given moment were always a place of encounter between top-down requirements of the company’s directorship, and bottom-up thematic trajectories. The CRA’s organizational history gives us unique insights into broader tendencies in chemical research in the second half of the 20th century, such as specialization of laboratories, introduction of market-driven research as well as decentralization and multiplication of hierarchies. The case study can be of interest to historians of science, due to the fact that the history of private research centers remains largely understudied, and to science policy scholars who want to understand the interconnectedness of factors that influence the organization of R&D structures in an institution.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 741-752
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.021.15987The activity of the PAU Commission on the History of Science in 2021/2022 was discussed.
It presents: a report on the elections of the Board of the Commission and the members of the Commission for the 2021–2024 term of office; the composition of the Board of the Commission and the list of members of the Commission; lists of: scientific meetings, conferences, scientific sessions and seminars as well as new publications.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 13-22
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.001.15967Evolutionary Transformation of the Journal. Part 9
The article outlines the ninth phase of the development of the journal “Studia Historiae Scientiarum” (previous name “Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU” / “Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science”).
Two basic ways of developing scientific journals have been distinguished: as a purely scientific enterprise or a purely business enterprise – the journal “Studia Historiae Scientiarum” follows the former model.
Information is provided on the following matters: the journal’s evaluation by the “ICI Master Journal List 2020” (released at the end of 2021), the evaluation by the Ministry of Education and Science of Poland (released on December 1 / 21, 2021), the evaluation by Scopus (released on 5 May 2022), and the evaluation by the SCImago Journal Rankings 2021 (based on the data from Scopus released on April 2022).
Additionally, the number of foreign authors and reviewers of the current volume of the journal is quoted.
From volume 21 (2022), the journal “Studia Historiae Scientiarum” has implemented additional organizational solutions: a CC BY license for the texts of articles (retaining the possibility of other licenses for illustrations), the CrossMark service and the publishing option, the so-called FirstView Articles.
Paul Wlodkowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 25-58
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.002.15968The interregnum between the death of Galileo and the publication of Newton’s Principia produced great advances in military science and technology. Particularly noteworthy are Kazimierz Siemienowicz’s contributions to artillery and to the field of rocketry. The dominating nature of these weapon systems remain as relevant today as it did in 1650 with the publication of his opus, The Great Art of Artillery. Rocket technology defines power relations, whether fired indiscriminately across a national border or positioned menacingly in a silo as an intercontinental ballistic missile. Siemienowicz’s designs, namely his multi-stage rockets with delta-wing stabilizers and ejection nozzles, became instruments of state power. The standardization of the caliber scale, the writing of the science of artillery, the optimization of gunpowder quality, and the pioneering work in rocketry, which became his legacy, qualify him as principal in the culmination of the military revolution.
Roman Sznajder
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 59-133
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.003.15969The Danzig Academic Gymnasium (1558–1817) was one of the first Protestant schools at the college level in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It became one of the most famous educational institutions in Europe of the 16–18th centuries. For almost 260 years, it attracted one of the best professors and students of the era. We concentrate on the achievements in science, the role of the City Council Library in the academic life in and outside of the Gymnasium, and highlight the activities of the Danzig Naturalist Society. In this survey, we feature important representatives of the scientific disciplines present in the Gymnasium, both faculty and their students, as well as Gdańsk scientists in general. We outline the lasting impact of the Danzig Academic Gymnasium on the intellectual life in Gdańsk, the Pomerania region, and some intellectual circles in Europe.
Katarzyna Wrzesińska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 135-180
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.004.15970The aim of the article is to illustrate the discussions in Poland on the ancestry of humanity, which were inspired by Charles Darwin and his followers. The theory of evolution has changed the way of thinking about humans, who were previously treated as the ‘crown of creation’. The core of this text is the analysis of the reception of Darwin’s theses through the prism of the disputes over human’s lineage, and thus the development of science in the nineteenth-century Poland. Those issues were reflected in Polish journals in science and popular science during the partitions. The breakthrough in thinking about humanity consisted in departing from the creationist concept recognizing the will of the Creator in the creation of the world, and in questioning the dogma of the permanence of species. Under the influence of Darwin’s theory, and not without controversy, a conclusion was drawn about the crucial role of natural factors in the creation of human world and its diversity. The most controversial thesis was the acknowledgement of humans’ kinship with the ape. It aroused opposition in conservative spheres. Darwin himself did not introduce such a direct lineage. However, his followers were often tempted to put forward often controversial concepts, which were also reflected in Polish journalism through the reception of western science.
It should be noted that popular science magazines were an important source of information from the world of science and had a significant impact on the perception of the theory of evolution by the mass audience. They often simplified the information about Darwin’s theory and presented the stage of the research in a competent way. Recognized Polish scholars were among authors of these journals. As a result, all the different information sources greatly contributed to popularizing Darwin’s theory in the Polish society.
Słownik terminologii lekarskiej polskiej z 1881 roku jako przedmiot badań historyka języka polskiego
Lucyna Agnieszka Jankowiak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 181-216
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.005.15971The 19th century was a groundbreaking period in the history of Polish medical terminology. It was then that the most important dictionary, Słownik terminologii lekarskiej polskiej [Dictionary of Polish Medical Terminology], was published in Kraków in 1881 as a result of numerous discussions, mainly within the medical community. Although its terminology represents the Kraków school, the influence of other Polish scientific centers is also evident, because at the final stage of preparing the lexicon the Kraków dictionary authors consulted with medical doctors from Warsaw, Poznań and Lviv. The material in this translation dictionary is diverse and often crosses the boundaries of medicine of the time. It is a rich source for a Polish language historian to study not only the state of Polish medical terminology of the 19th century, e.g. the number and origin of terms, or the terminology which was then arranged and supplemented in an organized and deliberate manner, but also its characteristic phenomena, e.g. synonymy and polysemy, against the background of other periods in the history of Polish medical terminology. The aim of the article is not only to report on the state of historical linguistic research to date, but also to show the opportunities that this research offers for next researchers of the Polish language
Paweł Polak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 217-235
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.006.15972The Polish philosophy of mathematics in the 19th century had its origins in the Romantic period under the influence of the then-predominant idealist philosophies. The decline of Romantic philosophy precipitated changes in general philosophy, but what is less well known is how it triggered changes in the philosophy of mathematics. In this paper, we discuss how the Polish philosophy of mathematics evolved from the metaphysical approach that had been formed during the Romantic era to the more modern positivistic paradigm. These evolutionary changes are attributed to the philosophers Henryk Struve, Antoni Molicki and Julian Ochorowicz, and mathematicians Karol Hertz and Samuel Dickstein. We also show how implicit ideas (i.e., those not declared openly) from the area between the philosophy of science and general philosophy played a crucial role in the paradigm shift in the Polish philosophy of mathematics.
Jan Woleński
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 237-257
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.007.15973The foundations of mathematics cover mathematical as well as philosophical problems. At the turn of the 20th century logicism, formalism and intuitionism, main foundational schools were developed. A natural problem arose, namely of how much the foundations of mathematics influence the real practice of mathematicians. Although mathematics was and still is declared to be independent of philosophy, various foundational controversies concerned some mathematical axioms, e.g. the axiom of choice, or methods of proof (particularly, non-constructive ones) and sometimes qualified them as admissible (or not) in mathematical practice, relatively to their philosophical (and foundational) content. Polish Mathematical School was established in the years 1915–1920. Its research program was outlined by Zygmunt Janiszewski (the Janiszewski program) and suggested that Polish mathematicians should concentrate on special branches of studies, including set theory, topology and mathematical logic. In this way, the foundations of mathematics became a legitimate part of mathematics. In particular, the foundational investigations should be conducted independently of philosophical assumptions and apply all mathematically accepted methods, finitary or not, and the same concerns other branches of mathematics. This scientific ideology contributed essentially to the remarkable development of logic, set theory and topology in Poland.
Michalina Petelska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 259-280
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.008.15974Until now, academic literature has not considered Polish-Canadian relations in the context of the history of science. This paper presents a preliminary research into the matter. The study was conducted on the basis of Roczniki (Annals) of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the most important Polish scientific institutions. The analysis of the source material showed that the first contacts were established in the 1880s. In the following years, the Academy further developed the exchange of scientific publications with Canadian universities, museums and scientific societies.
Piotr Petelenz
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 281-314
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.009.15975This article discusses the advent of theoretical chemistry in Poland and the biography of its founding father, professor Kazimierz Gumiński. The presentation follows chronological order of the discoveries that gave rise to the onset of quantum chemistry, and the political history of that time, namely World War II and the Stalinist period. These general circumstances indirectly triggered the foundation of the Chair of Theoretical Chemistry at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków on September 1, 1952, which is viewed as the beginning of Polish theoretical chemistry.
Most information herein is based on Gumiński’s report concerning the first ten years of the institution’s activity; the report is appended as an annex. The original and demanding training Gumiński imposed on his disciples is described from the author’s personal experience.
Zenta Broka-Lāce
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 317-356
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.010.15976This article examines the history of archaeology in Latvia during the Soviet occupation (1940–1941; 1944–1991), trying to understand the consequences brought in the field of archaeology by the single-party led experiment of communism. The research is based on archival studies and uses the historical method, source criticism and historiography. Author explains the nature of the prescribed theoretical and methodological guidelines as well as actual implications of the ‘communist way’ in archaeology. The article challenges the common belief that archaeology and prehistory were ideologically freer than other branches of history during the Soviet era.
Andrij Rovenchak, Olha Rovenchak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 357-395
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.011.15977We present a detailed biographical account and analysis of works of Juda Kreisler (1904–1940s?), a theoretical physicist from Lviv. He was born in Tlumach (Ukrainian: Тлумач, Polish: Tłumacz, Yiddish: טאלמיטש ), nowadays a town in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast in the western part of Ukraine. In 1923, Juda Kreisler finished a gymnasium in Stanislaviv and entered the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Lviv (Wydział Filozoficzny Uniwersytetu Jana Kazimierza [UJK] we Lwowie) in order to study physics. In 1932, he was promoted to the doctoral degree in physics under the supervision of Professor Stanisław Loria. For a short period in the 1930s, Juda Kreisler worked at the Department for Theoretical Physics of the University of Lviv, and returned to the University in 1940, after the Soviets had reorganized it upon taking over Lviv in September 1939. His fate remains unknown: he is listed among murdered by Nazis Jewish employees of the University of Lviv in 1941–43.
Dr. Kreisler authored four scientific papers and four abstracts of conference presentations delivered at the Congresses of Polish Physicists in 1932–36. There is, however, another field, where he was extremely prolific in the late 1930s. We have discovered 122 of his popular articles in “Chwila” (English: “Moment”), a local daily newspaper published by the Jewish community in Lviv during 1919–39. These articles covered various subjects, that can be tentatively divided into the following major topics: chronicles and personalia; history of science; discoveries, new studies and inventions; the applied value of science (for medicine and economy in particular); interconnection between science and war; organization of scientific life; Hitler’s Germany and the problem of so-called ‘Aryan science’. While various branches of physics formed the largest part within disciplines reflected in Juda Kreisler’s articles, he also discussed biology, chemistry, meteorology, and geology. The latter field is closely related to his professional career at Lviv’s Geophysical Institute of “Pionier”, a joint-stock company for the exploration and exploitation of bituminous materials, where he spent nine months in 1936.
Elena Tverytnykova, Maryna Gutnyk
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 397-420
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.012.15978The article discusses the scientific and pedagogical activity of the outstanding Ukrainian radiophysicist Abram Slutskin in the context of the development of world radiophysical research. It is substantiated that the theoretical works of the scientist defined a new direction of research in Ukraine, namely the radar, and were important for the development of ultrahigh frequency physics. Innovative research initiated by Abram Slutskin found application in new defense technologies, military equipment, and special devices for medicine, biology, navigation, communications, household television and the radio industry. The article proves that Abram Slutskin had priority in launching research in the field of biophysics in Ukraine. The research on the use of ultrahigh frequencies for treatment of oncological patients carried out by scientists were unique for that time. Abram Slutskin᾽s graduate students became well-known specialists, who further developed the scientist’s ideas by initiating innovative areas of research and creating new institutions. We have grounds to consider Abram Slutskin as one of the founders of the Ukrainian scientific radio-physical school.
Vitalii Telvak, Viktoria Telvak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 423-432
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.013.15979The article discusses the first four volumes of the Encyclopaedia of Shevchenko Scientific Society. It traces the genesis of the idea of this publication in Ukrainian science of the 20th and early 21st century. The article also clarifies the concepts and methodological principles of the encyclopaedia and outlines its structure and content. We conclude that the Encyclopaedia … is a highly informative publication dedicated to one institution with a unique nature and scope.
Jan Surman, Daria Petushkova
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 435-483
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.014.15980Natalia Otrishchenko
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 485-514
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.015.15981The article outlines the development of a new network assembled by the chair of urban planning at the Lviv Polytechnic institute after the collapse of the USSR. It focuses on the actions of individual people who contributed to institutional changes and used various resources to create and maintain a set of connections.
The tradition of urban planning education in Lviv begins with a Chair of Urban Planning created in 1913 at Lviv Polytechnic. However, after WWII and the incorporation of the city into the Soviet state, Lviv Polytechnic went through radical changes. Urban planning was restored as an architectural sub-specialization only in 1966, while a separate department of architecture was organized only in 1971.
After perestroika and the disintegration of the Soviet Union (1985‒1991), the Chair of Urban Planning relatively quickly reoriented its activities from Moscow’s to Kraków’s, Wrocław’s, Vienna’s or Berlin’s perspective. This was primarily due to personal contacts, which step by step became institutionalized, and due to the “imaginary continuity” between contemporary urban planners and the pre-war Lviv architectural school.
Professors who left the city right after WWII gained symbolic importance and helped to establish a common ground between the milieu of Lviv Polytechnic and Polish technical schools in the 1990s. During the time of social and political changes, looking into the past became a quite successful strategy, which helped the institution to gain symbolic capital and survive. The history of Lviv Polytechnic, stripped from all potential conflicts and sharp divisions, helped to build new connections after the old ones no longer provided stable positions. Knowing foreign languages became one of the basic means or resources that people needed to feel connected and to participate in scientific exchanges.
The sources of the article include oral history interviews with academics in the field of architecture, memoirs, and other published materials related to the history of the Chair of Urban Planning at Lviv Polytechnic.
Karen Kastenhofer
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 515-552
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.016.15982In 1999, four editorials in the journal Biological Chemistry commemorate how, since the 1980s, Vienna has transformed from a “[peripheral] outpost near the Iron Curtain” to a “central hub” for life science research.
A closer look at these texts reveals the explicit and implicit role of drawing maps for and within science, depicting centers, peripheries and ‒ in this case ‒ geopolitically real and allegorical “iron curtains”.
Based on this observation and the issues it raises, I re-examine the pertinent empirical material covering relevant times, places, (sub-) disciplines and institutions, as well as the period after 2000. I deal with “molecularization” in biology, (sub)disciplinary differentiation, internationalization, as well as changes in public-private relations and a pair of complementary concepts of innovation and tradition. Thus, I retrace the establishment of a techno-epistemic culture in a local, disciplinary context.
I conclude that guiding principles such as excellence and internationality are understood and implemented in academia in locally and historically bounded ways, and I argue that a critical re-examination of empirical material can substantially enrich our approach to such topics.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 555-610
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.017.15983The article comments on the famous paper by Boris Hessen “The Social and Economic Roots of Newton’s Principia” presented at the Second International Congress on the History of Science and Technology in London in 1931.
The comments are made in the light of considerations on the methodology of the historiography of science, including the author’s ideas of research hermeneutics and the research hermeneutics of the historiography of science, the biography of Boris Hessen, the history of scientific historiography, the history of science and the history of science-of-science.
The article synthetically presents Hessen’s research hermeneutics and points to its fundamental disadvantages. It describes the reception of Hessen’s paper in the West: both the more widely known positive reception (of Bernalists and their successors, including supporters of Marxist studies of science and the social history of science), and the much less known negative reception (members of the (British) Society for Freedom in Science, members of the Harvard group of J. B. Conant of General Education in Science).
The article also presents the changing fate of the reception of Hessen’s thoughts in the USSR and Russia in the years 1930–2020.
Additionally, it indicates various historiographic myths related to “Boris Hessen”, including the myth that the Polish science-of-science (Polish: naukoznawstwo) emerged later or at the same time as Russian science-of-science (Russian: науковедение, naukovedenie).
The defectiveness of Hessen’s research hermeneutics on the one hand, and on the other hand the reception of his views in the West and in the USSR and Russia from the 1930s to the 2020s, including the various historiographic myths related to Hessen, show how paradoxical the history of the historiography of science can be, and demonstrate the need to cultivate the skills of critical thinking among researchers interpreting science (i.e. historians of science, philosophers of science, sociologists of scientific knowledge, etc.).
Dorota Kozłowska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 613-666
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.018.15984The article presents the results of the research on the technical and bibliometric achievements of Polish journals in the field of history and archives, the discipline of history, and compared them with the scores on the official list of scientific journals and reviewed materials from international conferences of the Polish Ministry of Education and Science published on December 21, 2021.
The aim of such research is to perform an technical and bibliometric assessment of historical journals that will be both integrated and transparent, and to create a new list of historical journals prepared by the Science-of-Science and Science Studies Research Unit of the Institute for the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
All the rules of the New List will be clearly defined and will allow editorial offices / scientific institutions to set scores independently. It will also aim to improve the editorial and reviewing process, and to create a transparent website containing all necessary data for both authors and readers.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 667-700
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.019.15985The article describes the types of journals from the history of science, the criterion for selecting journals from the history of science, the transparent evaluation criteria of scientific journals adopted in the “List of journals of the Unit for Science of Science and Science Studies at the Institute for History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences” (2022) and the scorings of journals from the history of science on the Lists of journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland (January 25, 2017), the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Poland (December 21, 2021) and the Unit for Science of Science and Science Studies at the Institute for History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences (2022).
Marcin Krasnodębski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 703-737
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.020.15986Solvay’s Centre de Recherches d’Aubervilliers (CRA) is one of the oldest active private-sector research centers in industrial chemistry in France. During the seventy years of its existence it collaborated with some of the most significant French and European chemical companies. Established in 1953, the center’s research and development organization around huge discipline-oriented laboratories proved itself remarkably resilient. Not merely reflecting the R&D policy of the company that owned it at a given moment, the evolution of the center’s research organization followed its own particular path. The research priorities in any given moment were always a place of encounter between top-down requirements of the company’s directorship, and bottom-up thematic trajectories. The CRA’s organizational history gives us unique insights into broader tendencies in chemical research in the second half of the 20th century, such as specialization of laboratories, introduction of market-driven research as well as decentralization and multiplication of hierarchies. The case study can be of interest to historians of science, due to the fact that the history of private research centers remains largely understudied, and to science policy scholars who want to understand the interconnectedness of factors that influence the organization of R&D structures in an institution.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 21 (2022), 2022, pp. 741-752
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.021.15987The activity of the PAU Commission on the History of Science in 2021/2022 was discussed.
It presents: a report on the elections of the Board of the Commission and the members of the Commission for the 2021–2024 term of office; the composition of the Board of the Commission and the list of members of the Commission; lists of: scientific meetings, conferences, scientific sessions and seminars as well as new publications.
Publication date: 12.09.2021
Editor-in-Chief: Magdalena Sztandara
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 13-20
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.001.14032 BYThe article outlines the eighth phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science).
Information is provided on the following matters: the journal’s evaluation by the “ICI Master Journal List 2019” (released at the end of 2020), by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Polish Republic (released on February 9 / 18, 2021), by Scopus (released on 6 April 2021), and by the SCImago Journal Rankings 2020 (released on May 17, 2021; unfortunately, the journal data in Scimago website are inconsistent with the Scopus data, e.g. most of the 2020 volume’s citable texts that are indexed in Scopus have been omitted).
Additionally, the number of foreign authors and reviewers of the current volume of the journal is quoted.
From volume 21 (2022), the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum will implement additional organizational solutions: a CC BY license for the texts of articles (retaining the possibility of other licenses for illustrations), the CrossMark service and the publishing option, the so-called FirstView Articles.
Article available under CC BY license.
License text: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 21-28
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.002.14033The article outlines the eighth phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science).
Information is provided on the following matters: the journal’s evaluation by the “ICI Master Journal List 2019” (released at the end of 2020), by the Ministry of Education and Science of Poland (released on February 9 / 18, 2021), by Scopus (released on 6 April 2021), and by the SCImago Journal Rankings 2020 (released on May 17, 2021; unfortunately, the journal data in Scimago website are inconsistent with the Scopus data, e.g. most of the 2020 volume’s citable texts that are indexed in Scopus have been omitted).
Additionally, the number of foreign authors and reviewers of the current volume of the journal is quoted. From volume 21 (2022), the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum will implement additional organizational solutions: a CC BY license for the texts of articles (retaining the possibility of other licenses for illustrations), the CrossMark service and the publishing option, the so-called FirstView Articles.
Article available under CC BY license.
License text: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
Katarzyna Wrzesińska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 31-59
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.003.14034The article describes the debate of Polish scholars about the purposes and scope of research in the field of anthropology. A number of factors had an impact on the course of this debate and its diverse conclusions. The second half of the 19th century marks an initial period of the development of this branch of study. First anthropologists were physicians from profession and that is why the emphasis was put on the significance of research concerning the physical aspect of humans and the division of humans into different races. At the same time, a need to combine biology with culture and social life of humans arose. This approach was to be supported with the use of sciences considered as auxiliary to physical anthropology such as history, ethnography, ethnology, sociology, linguistics, and archeology. The reception of the Western science did not offer readymade patterns. In fact, in the West, a number of established scholarly attitudes existed simultaneously, and were shaped by independent specific national traditions. Moreover, the split of human sciences into separate disciplines had not been completed yet. Accordingly, synonymic terms such as anthropology, ethnology, and ethnography were still in use interchangeably in Poland.
Polish scholarly writings as well as works popularizing science – both are sources of material in this article – played a significant role in elaborating a way to understand the emerging human sciences. The problem of anthropology was thus introduced and a wider circle of readers became interested in it. Without independent Polish studies and without the reception of foreign research during the period of partitions in Poland, human sciences would not have developed after 1918 in the sovereign Polish Republic.
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Joanna Nowak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 61-86
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.004.14035The article analyses the earliest period of the shaping modern human sciences, studies on human nature, the origins of humans, and physical and cultural diversity of humans in Poland.
This process, including several separate stages, began under the influence of the ideas spread by the European Enlightenment and reflected the development of natural sciences that brought a deeper interest in humans, seen from a new perspective, free from religious determinism.
Pioneering searches for a secular approach combined creationism and biblical tradition with a rational attitude based on achievements in natural history, linguistics, philosophy, history, and biblical critique.
In the next stage, natural history constituted a distinct science with a precise scope of research that included, except mineralogy and botany, also zoology as well as human sciences perceived from a biological perspective. First definitions of anthropology described it as a science only emerging from natural history, with the aim to study both physical and moral aspects of humans.
After 1831, human sciences experienced a different situation in various Polish research centers that finally ceased to exist, including Vilnius University, the leader in research in natural history. Under the influence of Romantic ideas, a view was propagated that mental ties were superior to physical ones, spiritual ties to blood kinship, culture was more important than biology.
The emphasis in the study of humans was no longer on natural history, as in the late 18th century and the early 19th century, but on issues connected with mind and culture. The growth of both natural science and the humanities led to the establishment of new directions and areas of research that earlier were covered by natural history and history. Authors came to believe that study of humans requires a combination of various methods and cooperation of scholars representing numerous specialized sciences, however with their specific features preserved. This pioneering period lasted until the early 1860s when anthropology became an academic discipline on the Polish lands (translated by Jacek Serwański).
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License text: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
Mariusz Chrostek
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 87-166
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.005.14036The aim of the article is to show the exceptional merits of Polish Lviv-affiliated literary scholars in the study of Romanticism against the background of the achievements of scholars from other Polish universities. The analyzed problem covers the period until 1939, as this was when the Polish university in Lviv ceased to function. Interest in native Romanticism, especially in the three poet-prophets: Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński, was central to the work of positivist, Young-Poland and interwar-period philologists. The comparison of the achievements of Lviv with the “rest of Poland” includes monographs by the greatest authors along with their evaluation, dissertations and articles, as well as the methodology used in the research. During the Partitions of Poland (that is, until 1918), Polish studies experts from Lviv competed mainly with those from Kraków (Jagiellonian University) and several others from Warsaw. Most of the monographs on the three poet-prophets were written in Kraków, but it was in Lviv where Juliusz Kleiner wrote the best of them (on Krasiński). Kraków philologists would rely on an outdated methodology (they assessed literature on the basis of the ideological views of writers, without interpreting the works themselves). Meanwhile in Lviv, it was the text of the literary works and its artistic value that were mainly explored. Before 1914, Juliusz Kleiner developed a modern methodology (a literary work in the center of interest) and formulated the concept of the period of Romanticism that was later adopted by other scholars. Kleiner’s views became the basis for research into interwar literature.
In the Second Polish Republic (1919–1939), there were six active universities: in Lviv, Kraków, Warsaw, Vilnius, Lublin, and Poznań. At that time, the field of Polish studies in Lviv was at its zenith, owing largely to the further outstanding achievements of Juliusz Kleiner, which were considered the best in Poland and timeless. They include, among others: two extensive monographs on Słowacki and Mickiewicz, the excellently compiled Complete Works of Juliusz Słowacki (most volumes), or the history of Polish literature released in Polish and German. In addition, Lviv was the place of work for Eugeniusz Kucharski, prominent expert on Aleksander Fredro in Poland, as well as for Konstanty Wojciechowski and Zygmunt Szweykowski, both eminent specialists in Polish novels. The city was also the place where the Adam Mickiewicz Literary Society was active since 1886 (it branched out into other cities after 1919) and the place of publication of Pamiętnik Literacki, the most distinguished literary research journal. Compared to other cities, Lviv gathered the largest group of scholars who studied Polish Romanticism and who devoted the greatest number of publications to it.
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Alicja Rafalska-Łasocha
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 167-190
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.006.14037The chemist Tadeusz Estreicher was a student of professor Karol Olszewski. He was mainly involved in cryogenics, but his activities also covered many other fields of science, culture and art. He also devoted his time to social activities, especially during his stay and work at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.
After regaining independence by his motherland, professor Tadeusz Estreicher returned to the country and began organizational and scientific work. He was associated with the Faculty of Philosophy (Department of Chemistry), the Pharmaceutical Department of the Jagiellonian University and the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków.
In 1939 he was arrested during the Sonderaktion Krakau and stayed in the Sachsenhausen camp. After returning to Kraków, he took part in secret university teaching, and after the war he returned to work in the Collegium Chemicum of the Jagiellonian University.
When he passed away, John Read wrote in an obituary in Nature: “This remarkable man of science might well have taken for his motto: Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto.”
The aim of the paper is to remind the achievements of Tadeusz Estreicher and supplement his biography with new threads concerning his interests in art and contacts with the artistic community of Kraków.
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Piotr Köhler
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 191-212
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.007.14038Władysław Szafer (1886–1970) was one of the notable Polish botanists of the first half of the 20th c., palaeobotany being one of his main fields of interest, cultivated for over 60 years. Initially, he studied Quaternary floras and later on he expanded his interests to the Tertiary (Neogene) floras at the end of the 1930s. He published at least 80 different books and papers on palaeobotany, many of which still having scientific, not only historical, value. His organizational, teaching and editing activities in the field of palaeobotany were also remarkable, and influenced strongly the science in Poland. He contributed to the fast development of this field of knowledge in Poland, both in terms of research and in terms of staff number. 50 years after his death, we summarize the results of Władysław Szafer’s activity in palaeobotany.
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Łukasz Mścisławski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 213-235
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.008.14039The aim of this paper is to present less known facts of Czesław Białobrzeski’s life from the period before he left Kiev in 1919 and his familiar works from that period. Particular emphasis is placed on biographical details, some aspects of the creation of his most famous work, and his popularization activities and philosophical interests, especially regarding science and the influence of French conventionalism.
It turns out that in works such as “Reality in terms of natural science” or “The Principle of Relativity and some of its applications”, Białobrzeski appears to be a naturalist very well versed in philosophical topics related to sciences. The story behind Białobrzeski’s most famous work, “Sur l’équilibre thermodynamique d’une sphère gazeuse libre” which emerges from his correspondence with Władysław Natanson, is also interesting.
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Vitalii Telvak, Vasyl Pedych, Viktoria Telvak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 239-261
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.009.14040This article deals with the genesis and functioning of the Lviv Historical School of M. Hrushevsky. The plans to create a historical school of Ukrainian character at the University of Lviv were made by the initiators of the department of World History – specializing in with the history of the Western Europe – i.e.O. Barvinsky, V. Antonovych, and O. Koninsky, as well as by M. Hrushevsky.
The school had a two-stage structure of formation and functioning: the historical seminar of the University of Lviv and the section for the history of philosophy of the Scientific Society of Shevchenko. It made it possible to gather creative young people on the first stage at the University of Lviv, and introduce them to the scientific work and to prepare and train the new employees on the second stage in the section for the history of philosophy of the Scientific Society of Shevchenko.
The composition of the school were elaborated relying on the firstly determined criteria (taking part in the scientific seminar, the work in the sections and commissions of the Scientific Society Shevchenko, scholar maturity etc). It was determined that the Lviv school counted 20 young historians, among whom one was a woman.
The Ukrainian Galician Center of Hrushevsky was characterized as a common school of the leadership type, whose didactic tasks were accompanied by the simultaneous creation of the new Ukrainian historical ideology.
It was concluded that the Lviv Historical School was undoubtedly the most important humanistic phenomenon in the Ukrainian science, both in terms of effectiveness and the temporal range of influence. Its appearance marked the entry of Ukrainian science into a new level of professionalization.
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Oleh Strelko
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 263-283
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.010.14041The article is devoted to the historical analysis of development and improvement of electrotechnical equipment that was developed and applied in the USSR to conduct works on welding and related technologies in space in the period from the 60s to the 90s of the last century and to assess the contribution of Ukrainian scientists in this field.
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Mikhail B. Konashev
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 285-315
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.011.14042The translation of Ch. Darwin’s main and most well-known book, On the Origin of Species, had great significance for the reception and development of his evolution theory in Russia and later in the USSR, and for many reasons. The history of the book’s publication in Russian in tsarist Russia and in the Soviet Union is analyzed in detail.
The first Russian translation of On the Origin of Species was made by Sergey A. Rachinsky in 1864. Till 1917 On the Origin of Species had been published more than ten times, including the publication in Darwin’s collected works. The edition of 1907– –1909 with Timiryazev as editor had the best quality of translation and scientific editing. This translation was used in all subsequent Soviet and post-Soviet editions. During Soviet time, On the Origin of Species was published seven times in total, and three times as a part of Darwin’s collected works.
From 1940 to 1987, as a result of the domination of Lysenkoism in Soviet biology, On the Origin of Species was not published in the USSR.
During the post-Soviet period, the book was published only two times, and it happened already in the 21st century. The small number of editions of Darwin’s main book in post-Soviet time is one of the consequences of the discredit of the evolutionary theory in mass media and by the Russian Orthodox Church as well as the rise of neo-Lysenkoism.
The general circulation of nine pre-revolutionary editions of On the Origin of Species was about 30,000–35,000 copies. Only four editions which had been released in the USSR from 1926 to 1937 had the total circulation in 79,200 copies. Two post-Soviet editions published in 2001 and in 2003 had already a circulation of only 1,000 copies. Subsequent editions in each period of Russian history was thus some kind of an answer to the scientific, political and social requirements of the Russian society and the Russian state.
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Sergeĭ S. Demidov
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 317-335
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.012.14043Nikolai Nikolaevich Luzin’s life (1883–1950) and work of this outstanding Russian mathematician, member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and foreign member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, coincides with a very difficult period in Russian history: two World Wars, the 1917 revolution in Russia, the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, the civil war of 1917–1922, and finally, the construction of a new type of state, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This included collectivization in the agriculture and industrialization of the industry, accompanied by the mass terror that without exception affected all the strata of the Soviet society. Against the background of these dramatic events took place the proces of formation and flourishing of Luzin the scientist, the creator of one of the leading mathematical schools of the 20th century, the Moscow school of function theory, which became one of the cornerstones in the foundation of the Soviet mathematical school. Luzin’s work could be divided into two periods: the first one comprises the problems regarding the metric theory of functions, culminating in his famous dissertation Integral and Trigonometric Series (1915), and the second one that is mainly devoted to the development of problems arising from the theory of analytic sets. The underlying idea of Luzin’s research was the problem of the structure of the arithmetic continuum, which became the super task of his work.
The destiny favored the master: the complex turns of history in which he was involved did not prevent, and sometimes even favored the successful development of his research. And even the catastrophe that broke out over him in 1936 – “the case of Academician Luzin” – ended successfully for him.
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George Borski, Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 339-438
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.013.14044A methodology of historical or higher criticism and of stylometry/stylochronometry known from Biblical and literary studies is applied to the examination of Nicolaus Copernicus’s writings. In particular, his early work Commentariolus is compared at the level of the Latin language with his later ones (Meditata, Letter against Werner and De revolutionibus) as well as the texts of some other authors. A number of striking stylistic dissimilarities between these works have been identified and interpreted in the light of stylometry/stylochronometry, historical criticism and the history of Copernican research. The conducted research allowed to draw some plausible conclusions about the Sitz im Leben (historical context), the dating of Commentariolus and related matters.
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Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 439-507
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.014.14045The article describes the context and content of the November 1925 correspondence – so far overlooked by historians of physics – between Władysław (Ladislas) Natanson and Alfred Landé on Planck’s law and Bose statistics, and the effects of this interaction.
The article publishes for the first time the transcription of two original letters in German and their translations into English.
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Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 509-567
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.015.14046
The article describes the context and content of the correspondence from November 1925, so far overlooked by physics historians, on the Planck law and the Bose statistics between Władysław (Ladislas) Natanson and Alfred Landé and the effects of this interaction.
The article publishes for the first time the translations from German into Polish of two letters from Natanson and Landé.
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Radosław Tarkowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 569-599
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.016.14047Polish naturalists: Konstanty Jelski (1837–1896), Jan Sztolcman (1854–1928) and Jan Kalinowski (1857–1941) were active in Peru in the second half of the 19th and earliest of 20th century. Jelski stayed in Peru in the years 1869–1879, Sztolcman twice in the years 1875–1881 and 1882–1884, and Kalinowski arrived in 1889 and stayed in Peru until his death.
Their stay was aimed at collecting rich, little-known fauna, mainly birds. The work of these naturalists was sponsored by the Branicki family. The collected fauna specimens were sent to the Zoological Cabinet in Warsaw managed by W. Taczanowski and to the private Branicki Museum (the Frascati Palace). The materials collected by the Polish naturalists have enriched the collections of many scientific institutions in Poland, including foreign ones. The fauna specimens were the basis for the description of many new species unknown to science.
The names of Polish naturalists are known to specialists in neotropical fauna and flora to this day. They often appear in the names of new species described on the basis of the specimens they discovered.
The collections sent from Peru made the Zoological Cabinet in Warsaw a center of research on neotropical avifauna at the world level, and the collection was consulted by specialists from all over Europe. The birds from Peru were the basis for W. Taczanowski’s monograph Ornithologie du Pérou.
The collections and observations of Jelski and Sztolcman made a significant contribution to the preparation of the work El Peru by A. Raimondi. Sztolcman published a two-volume work: Peru. Wspomnienia z podróży z mapą, an important contribution of Poland to the knowledge of Peru. The birds and mammals collected by Kalinowski in Peru enriched the collections of museums in Lima, Washington, London and Warsaw.
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Alicja Zemanek, Bogdan Zemanek, Tomasz Głuszak, Marcin Nobis
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 601-625
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.017.14048Józef Warszewicz (1812–1866) – traveler and naturalist, the main horticulturist (inspector) of the Botanic Garden of theJagiellonian University in Kraków, was one of the first plant collectors in the tropical regions of Central and South America. From his travels (1844–1850, 1850–1853) he sent and brought to Europe hundreds of previously unknown plants, primarily orchids, in addition to representatives of other families.
One of the collected species was Warszewiczia coccinea (red warszewiczia in English, warszewiczia czerwona in Polish), described by Johann F. Klotzsch and named after the collector. It is a small tree or shrub with large, red inflorescences, growing wild in the American tropics and often cultivated as an ornamental. It plays a significant role in the culture of the island country of Trinidad and Tobago in the Little Antilles archipelago, where it is considered a “national plant”.
The aim of this article is to highlight one of the chapters in the history of systematics (taxonomy) relating to Józef Warszewicz and the plants described on the basis of his collections, especially red warszewiczia.
Many of the so-called “Warszewicz species” have survived in the taxonomy to this day. His unique collection is stored in the Herbarium of the Jagiellonian University – Herbarium Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis – KRA. There are specimens important to the science – lectotypes (model representations) of the species Warszewiczia pulcherrima (= W. coccinea).
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Aleksei Pleshkov, Jan Surman
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 629-650
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.018.14049Academic reviewing, one of the communal academic practices, is a vital genre, in which epistemic virtues have been cultivated. In our article, we discuss reviews as a form of institutionalized critique, which historians could use to trace the changing epistemic virtues within humanities. We propose to use them analogously to Lorraine Daston’s and Peter Galison’s treatment of atlases in their seminal work Objectivity as a marker of changing epistemic virtues in natural sciences and medicine.
Based on Aristotle’s virtue theory and its neo-Aristotelian interpretation in the second half of the 20th century, as well as on its most recent applications in the field of history and philosophy of science, we propose a general conceptual framework for analyzing reviews in their historical dimension. Besides, we contend that the analysis of reviews should be carried out taking into account their historical context of social, political, cultural and media-environment. Otherwise, one may risks presupposing the existence of an autonomous, disconnected community of scholars.
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Christiaan Engberts
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 651-679
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.019.14050Book reviews serve multiple functions. They are not only used to assess the merit of individual books but also contribute to the creation and maintenance of scholarly communities.
This paper draws on nineteenth-century book reviews to outline three of their features that contributed to the selfdefinition of such communities: the assessment of books, the assessment of authors, and the use of positive and negative politeness strategies to address individual authors as well as a broader audience.
The analysis will be based on the book reviews of the German Semitist Theodor Nöldeke and the experimental psychologist Wilhelm Wundt in the Literarisches Centralblatt in the eighteenseventies. In their book reviews they both criticized and praised their peers, which turned review journals like the Centralblatt in arenas for polemic debate as well as meeting places for likeminded scholars.
To be more precise, book reviews were used to communicate standards of scholarly excellence, expectations of the character and skills of scholars, and the acknowledgement of the value of the continued existence of aims and interests shared among a large group of academically educated and employed scholars. By contributing to the establishment and maintenance of scholarly peer groups with shared values, book reviews also reinforced the dividing line between academic researchers and lay contributors to their fields.
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Alexander Stoeger
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 681-709
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.020.14051Scientific book reviews were an important genre in late-18thcentury German journals. The mostly anonymous reviewers regarded themselves as voices of the scientific community, judging the quality of new publications for its benefit.
However, as this paper shows, some reviewers aspired to more than judging the books’ content. The reviewers of Christian Heinrich Pfaff ’s, Alexander von Humboldt’s, and Johann Wilhelm Ritter’s monographs on galvanism, published between 1796 and 1805, used the language of epistemic virtues and vices to present their readership with their ideal scientific persona meant to support the development of the empirical sciences.
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Aleksei Lokhmatov
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 711-753
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.021.14052Adam Schaff was at the front of the ideological campaign organized in post-war Poland during the wave of Stalinization. By attempting to adapt the Soviet “model” of public discussion to Polish academia, Schaff wanted to teach the representatives of the Lvov-Warsaw School of logic how to lead a scholarly debate. Schaff ’s group consisted of young scholars from the Instytut Kształcenia Kadr Naukowych [Institute for Education of Scientific Staff] and with critical reviews on the works of Polish logicians they tried to force their opponents to change the basic principles of their academic practice under the new circumstances. Nevertheless, Schaff ’s project failed since, unlike Soviet scholars, the participants in the discussion referred to different academic virtues that made the adaptation of the Soviet model of public discussion impossible.
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Richard L. Kremer, Ad Maas
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 755-785
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.022.14053This paper examines the role of book reviews in the discipline of the history of science by comparing their appearance in two periodicals, Isis, the flagship journal of the discipline that was founded in 1913, and the Journal for the History of Astronomy, founded in 1970 to serve a newly emerging, specialized subfield within the broader discipline.
Our analysis of the reviews published in selected slices of time finds differing norms and reviewing practices within the two journals. Despite important changes during the past century in the conceptualization of the history of science and its research methods, reviewing practices in Isis remained remarkably consistent over time, with reviewers generally defending a fixed set of norms for “good” scholarship. More change appears in reviews of the Journal for the History of Astronomy, as its audience shifted from a mix of the laity, working astronomers, and historians to a specialized group of professional historians of astronomy. Scholarly norms, reflected in the reviews, shifted with these changes in readership.
We conclude that book reviews offer rich sources for analyzing the evolution of scholarly disciplines and norms.
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Csaba Fazekas
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 789-820
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.023.14054This paper presents a heated debate about plagiarism that unfolded between historiographers of the Catholic Church in the press in Hungary in 1841. It was only one special event with few participants, but this case offers an opportunity to study the development of the approach of historical science to plagiarism and the conditions of historiography in East-Central Europe, with special regard to church history, and contrasts these with the conditions in West European countries.
To interpret the plagiarism debate, the “court model” will be applied because the writings of the accused author, the victim, and the witnesses remind us of the participants in a court trial, where for the court to pass the sentence mitigating and aggravating circumstances can be put forward, and there is also countercharging; and the committed act is also considered from the point of view of intellectual property rights, as well as from a moral and scientific standpoint.
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Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 821-858
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.024.14055The article concerns the key problems of Polish ministerial lists of scientific journals, which are shown on the example of journals from the history and history of science, the idea of a new list according to the Unit for the Science of Science at the Institute for the History of Science (Polish Academy of Sciences) and the appreciation of the editorial and review activity in the Polish system of evaluation of scientific achievements.
The fundamental flaw in the procedure for creating the lists of scientific journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland (December 18, 2019) and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Poland (February 9, 2021 / February 18, 2021) is the lack of reference to the achievements of the science of science, although it was established in Poland in 1916–1939 and has been fruitfully developed in the world ever since.
The bibliometric achievements of the 12 highest-scoring Polish journals from history, which received 100 points in the “List of journals of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Poland” (February 9, 2021 / February 18, 2021) were compared with the bibliometric achievements of the highest-scoring Polish journals from the sub-disciplines “history of science” or “history and philosophy of science”. Although they received only 40 points, they did not have fewer bibliometric achievements than Polish historical journals rated at 100 points.
A comparison of bibliometric achievements of 18 Polish history journals indexed in Scopus showed that in 2019 and 2020, the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum had the highest values of these indicators.
On this basis, it is justified to claim that in the case of Polish journals in the discipline of “history” and sub-disciplines “history of science” and “history and philosophy of science”, the ministerial list of journals was built on the basis of non-objective and non-transparent rules. Such a critical remark also applies to the previous lists of journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland, including the list of December 18, 2019.
It is therefore necessary to: a) thoroughly improve the scores of Polish journals in the sub-disciplines “history of science” and “history and philosophy of science” in the short term, because maintaining such verdicts will lead to an unjustified depreciation of scientific achievements in the field of these sub-disciplines during the evaluation of Polish academic units, and b) develop a new Polish model for evaluating journals in the long term.
Bearing in mind the achievements of the integrated science of science, in particular the method of correspondence thinking and the idea of scientific (r)evolution by Michał Kokowski, praxeological research in the spirit of Tadeusz Kotarbiński, scientific communication and the trend named the responsible metrics, a new model of journal evaluation is presented.
The idea of objective measures of journal’s achievements and the costs of publishing in it are described: the journal’s achievement measure (JAM)©, the journal’s cost-effectiveness measure (JCEM)© and the normalized journal’s cost-effectiveness measure (NJCEM)©.
This is followed by a presentation of Rules for the creation of lists of scientific journals according to the Unit for the Science of Science at the Institute for the History of Science (Polish Academy of Sciences)©.
It is postulated that relevant appreciation of editorial and review activity in the Polish system of evaluation of scientific achievements should be introduced by modifying the current regulation on the evaluation of scientific achievements.
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Jafar Taheri
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 861-891
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.025.14056This article aims to provide a historical overview of the impact of architecture and decorative arts on health and health preservation in Muslim societies during the medieval era.
Based on primary medical sources, this article provides a historical interpretation of the theoretical origin of the ignored link between medicine and architecture (and decorative arts).
Our findings indicate that some empirical results concerning the effects and aspects of built environments (architectural spaces) on health and treatment–both physical and mental– have been considered in the medical sources.
Practical instructions of these sources introduced two theoretical achievements: 1) an introduction to the historical knowledge of environmental health and design of healthy places, and 2) a comparative analogy of the built environment and human nature (organism), which became a theoretical basis for the relationship between natural sciences, architecture, and the decorative arts in the middle ages.
Considerations of the study show the extent to which architects and artisans, based on the teachings and instructions of physicians, dealt with the structural and content adaptation models of architecture and decorative arts to human organism and nature.
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Martina Bečvářová, Stanisław Domoradzki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 895-937
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.026.14057In the article, we will show the main important results of the international research project The impact of WWI on the formation and transformation of the scientific life of the mathematical community. It was supported by the Czech Science Foundation for the years 2018–2020 and brought together ten scientists from five countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, USA, and Ukraine) and used the collaboration with historians of mathematics and mathematicians from many other European countries. We will discuss our motivation for the creation of the project, our methodological and professional preparations which profited from the international composition of the team and its longtime collaborations, profound specializations and experiences of the team members, and their deep and long-term studies of many archival sources and basic published works. We will present our choice of the general research trends, our definition of the scientific questions, and our determination of the main topics of our studies. We will describe our most important results (books, articles, visiting lectures, presentations at national and international conferences, seminars and book fairs, exhibitions, popularizations of the results between students, teachers, mathematicians, historians of sciences, and people who love mathematics and its history). We will analyze the new benefit that the project created for the future, for example, good platforms for future international research and cooperation, the discovery of many new interesting research questions, problems, and plans.
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Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 939-945
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.027.14058The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020/2021. It presents the lists of: scientific meetings, conferences, symposia, seminars, new members and new publications.
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Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 947-953
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.028.14059Report on the activities of the PAU Commission on the History of Science in 2020/2021
The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020/2021. It presents the lists of: scientific meetings, conferences, symposia, seminars, new members and new publications.
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Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 13-20
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.001.14032 BYThe article outlines the eighth phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science).
Information is provided on the following matters: the journal’s evaluation by the “ICI Master Journal List 2019” (released at the end of 2020), by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Polish Republic (released on February 9 / 18, 2021), by Scopus (released on 6 April 2021), and by the SCImago Journal Rankings 2020 (released on May 17, 2021; unfortunately, the journal data in Scimago website are inconsistent with the Scopus data, e.g. most of the 2020 volume’s citable texts that are indexed in Scopus have been omitted).
Additionally, the number of foreign authors and reviewers of the current volume of the journal is quoted.
From volume 21 (2022), the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum will implement additional organizational solutions: a CC BY license for the texts of articles (retaining the possibility of other licenses for illustrations), the CrossMark service and the publishing option, the so-called FirstView Articles.
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Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 21-28
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.002.14033The article outlines the eighth phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science).
Information is provided on the following matters: the journal’s evaluation by the “ICI Master Journal List 2019” (released at the end of 2020), by the Ministry of Education and Science of Poland (released on February 9 / 18, 2021), by Scopus (released on 6 April 2021), and by the SCImago Journal Rankings 2020 (released on May 17, 2021; unfortunately, the journal data in Scimago website are inconsistent with the Scopus data, e.g. most of the 2020 volume’s citable texts that are indexed in Scopus have been omitted).
Additionally, the number of foreign authors and reviewers of the current volume of the journal is quoted. From volume 21 (2022), the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum will implement additional organizational solutions: a CC BY license for the texts of articles (retaining the possibility of other licenses for illustrations), the CrossMark service and the publishing option, the so-called FirstView Articles.
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Katarzyna Wrzesińska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 31-59
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.003.14034The article describes the debate of Polish scholars about the purposes and scope of research in the field of anthropology. A number of factors had an impact on the course of this debate and its diverse conclusions. The second half of the 19th century marks an initial period of the development of this branch of study. First anthropologists were physicians from profession and that is why the emphasis was put on the significance of research concerning the physical aspect of humans and the division of humans into different races. At the same time, a need to combine biology with culture and social life of humans arose. This approach was to be supported with the use of sciences considered as auxiliary to physical anthropology such as history, ethnography, ethnology, sociology, linguistics, and archeology. The reception of the Western science did not offer readymade patterns. In fact, in the West, a number of established scholarly attitudes existed simultaneously, and were shaped by independent specific national traditions. Moreover, the split of human sciences into separate disciplines had not been completed yet. Accordingly, synonymic terms such as anthropology, ethnology, and ethnography were still in use interchangeably in Poland.
Polish scholarly writings as well as works popularizing science – both are sources of material in this article – played a significant role in elaborating a way to understand the emerging human sciences. The problem of anthropology was thus introduced and a wider circle of readers became interested in it. Without independent Polish studies and without the reception of foreign research during the period of partitions in Poland, human sciences would not have developed after 1918 in the sovereign Polish Republic.
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Joanna Nowak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 61-86
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.004.14035The article analyses the earliest period of the shaping modern human sciences, studies on human nature, the origins of humans, and physical and cultural diversity of humans in Poland.
This process, including several separate stages, began under the influence of the ideas spread by the European Enlightenment and reflected the development of natural sciences that brought a deeper interest in humans, seen from a new perspective, free from religious determinism.
Pioneering searches for a secular approach combined creationism and biblical tradition with a rational attitude based on achievements in natural history, linguistics, philosophy, history, and biblical critique.
In the next stage, natural history constituted a distinct science with a precise scope of research that included, except mineralogy and botany, also zoology as well as human sciences perceived from a biological perspective. First definitions of anthropology described it as a science only emerging from natural history, with the aim to study both physical and moral aspects of humans.
After 1831, human sciences experienced a different situation in various Polish research centers that finally ceased to exist, including Vilnius University, the leader in research in natural history. Under the influence of Romantic ideas, a view was propagated that mental ties were superior to physical ones, spiritual ties to blood kinship, culture was more important than biology.
The emphasis in the study of humans was no longer on natural history, as in the late 18th century and the early 19th century, but on issues connected with mind and culture. The growth of both natural science and the humanities led to the establishment of new directions and areas of research that earlier were covered by natural history and history. Authors came to believe that study of humans requires a combination of various methods and cooperation of scholars representing numerous specialized sciences, however with their specific features preserved. This pioneering period lasted until the early 1860s when anthropology became an academic discipline on the Polish lands (translated by Jacek Serwański).
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Mariusz Chrostek
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 87-166
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.005.14036The aim of the article is to show the exceptional merits of Polish Lviv-affiliated literary scholars in the study of Romanticism against the background of the achievements of scholars from other Polish universities. The analyzed problem covers the period until 1939, as this was when the Polish university in Lviv ceased to function. Interest in native Romanticism, especially in the three poet-prophets: Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński, was central to the work of positivist, Young-Poland and interwar-period philologists. The comparison of the achievements of Lviv with the “rest of Poland” includes monographs by the greatest authors along with their evaluation, dissertations and articles, as well as the methodology used in the research. During the Partitions of Poland (that is, until 1918), Polish studies experts from Lviv competed mainly with those from Kraków (Jagiellonian University) and several others from Warsaw. Most of the monographs on the three poet-prophets were written in Kraków, but it was in Lviv where Juliusz Kleiner wrote the best of them (on Krasiński). Kraków philologists would rely on an outdated methodology (they assessed literature on the basis of the ideological views of writers, without interpreting the works themselves). Meanwhile in Lviv, it was the text of the literary works and its artistic value that were mainly explored. Before 1914, Juliusz Kleiner developed a modern methodology (a literary work in the center of interest) and formulated the concept of the period of Romanticism that was later adopted by other scholars. Kleiner’s views became the basis for research into interwar literature.
In the Second Polish Republic (1919–1939), there were six active universities: in Lviv, Kraków, Warsaw, Vilnius, Lublin, and Poznań. At that time, the field of Polish studies in Lviv was at its zenith, owing largely to the further outstanding achievements of Juliusz Kleiner, which were considered the best in Poland and timeless. They include, among others: two extensive monographs on Słowacki and Mickiewicz, the excellently compiled Complete Works of Juliusz Słowacki (most volumes), or the history of Polish literature released in Polish and German. In addition, Lviv was the place of work for Eugeniusz Kucharski, prominent expert on Aleksander Fredro in Poland, as well as for Konstanty Wojciechowski and Zygmunt Szweykowski, both eminent specialists in Polish novels. The city was also the place where the Adam Mickiewicz Literary Society was active since 1886 (it branched out into other cities after 1919) and the place of publication of Pamiętnik Literacki, the most distinguished literary research journal. Compared to other cities, Lviv gathered the largest group of scholars who studied Polish Romanticism and who devoted the greatest number of publications to it.
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Alicja Rafalska-Łasocha
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 167-190
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.006.14037The chemist Tadeusz Estreicher was a student of professor Karol Olszewski. He was mainly involved in cryogenics, but his activities also covered many other fields of science, culture and art. He also devoted his time to social activities, especially during his stay and work at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.
After regaining independence by his motherland, professor Tadeusz Estreicher returned to the country and began organizational and scientific work. He was associated with the Faculty of Philosophy (Department of Chemistry), the Pharmaceutical Department of the Jagiellonian University and the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków.
In 1939 he was arrested during the Sonderaktion Krakau and stayed in the Sachsenhausen camp. After returning to Kraków, he took part in secret university teaching, and after the war he returned to work in the Collegium Chemicum of the Jagiellonian University.
When he passed away, John Read wrote in an obituary in Nature: “This remarkable man of science might well have taken for his motto: Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto.”
The aim of the paper is to remind the achievements of Tadeusz Estreicher and supplement his biography with new threads concerning his interests in art and contacts with the artistic community of Kraków.
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Piotr Köhler
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 191-212
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.007.14038Władysław Szafer (1886–1970) was one of the notable Polish botanists of the first half of the 20th c., palaeobotany being one of his main fields of interest, cultivated for over 60 years. Initially, he studied Quaternary floras and later on he expanded his interests to the Tertiary (Neogene) floras at the end of the 1930s. He published at least 80 different books and papers on palaeobotany, many of which still having scientific, not only historical, value. His organizational, teaching and editing activities in the field of palaeobotany were also remarkable, and influenced strongly the science in Poland. He contributed to the fast development of this field of knowledge in Poland, both in terms of research and in terms of staff number. 50 years after his death, we summarize the results of Władysław Szafer’s activity in palaeobotany.
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Łukasz Mścisławski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 213-235
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.008.14039The aim of this paper is to present less known facts of Czesław Białobrzeski’s life from the period before he left Kiev in 1919 and his familiar works from that period. Particular emphasis is placed on biographical details, some aspects of the creation of his most famous work, and his popularization activities and philosophical interests, especially regarding science and the influence of French conventionalism.
It turns out that in works such as “Reality in terms of natural science” or “The Principle of Relativity and some of its applications”, Białobrzeski appears to be a naturalist very well versed in philosophical topics related to sciences. The story behind Białobrzeski’s most famous work, “Sur l’équilibre thermodynamique d’une sphère gazeuse libre” which emerges from his correspondence with Władysław Natanson, is also interesting.
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Vitalii Telvak, Vasyl Pedych, Viktoria Telvak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 239-261
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.009.14040This article deals with the genesis and functioning of the Lviv Historical School of M. Hrushevsky. The plans to create a historical school of Ukrainian character at the University of Lviv were made by the initiators of the department of World History – specializing in with the history of the Western Europe – i.e.O. Barvinsky, V. Antonovych, and O. Koninsky, as well as by M. Hrushevsky.
The school had a two-stage structure of formation and functioning: the historical seminar of the University of Lviv and the section for the history of philosophy of the Scientific Society of Shevchenko. It made it possible to gather creative young people on the first stage at the University of Lviv, and introduce them to the scientific work and to prepare and train the new employees on the second stage in the section for the history of philosophy of the Scientific Society of Shevchenko.
The composition of the school were elaborated relying on the firstly determined criteria (taking part in the scientific seminar, the work in the sections and commissions of the Scientific Society Shevchenko, scholar maturity etc). It was determined that the Lviv school counted 20 young historians, among whom one was a woman.
The Ukrainian Galician Center of Hrushevsky was characterized as a common school of the leadership type, whose didactic tasks were accompanied by the simultaneous creation of the new Ukrainian historical ideology.
It was concluded that the Lviv Historical School was undoubtedly the most important humanistic phenomenon in the Ukrainian science, both in terms of effectiveness and the temporal range of influence. Its appearance marked the entry of Ukrainian science into a new level of professionalization.
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Oleh Strelko
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 263-283
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.010.14041The article is devoted to the historical analysis of development and improvement of electrotechnical equipment that was developed and applied in the USSR to conduct works on welding and related technologies in space in the period from the 60s to the 90s of the last century and to assess the contribution of Ukrainian scientists in this field.
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Mikhail B. Konashev
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 285-315
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.011.14042The translation of Ch. Darwin’s main and most well-known book, On the Origin of Species, had great significance for the reception and development of his evolution theory in Russia and later in the USSR, and for many reasons. The history of the book’s publication in Russian in tsarist Russia and in the Soviet Union is analyzed in detail.
The first Russian translation of On the Origin of Species was made by Sergey A. Rachinsky in 1864. Till 1917 On the Origin of Species had been published more than ten times, including the publication in Darwin’s collected works. The edition of 1907– –1909 with Timiryazev as editor had the best quality of translation and scientific editing. This translation was used in all subsequent Soviet and post-Soviet editions. During Soviet time, On the Origin of Species was published seven times in total, and three times as a part of Darwin’s collected works.
From 1940 to 1987, as a result of the domination of Lysenkoism in Soviet biology, On the Origin of Species was not published in the USSR.
During the post-Soviet period, the book was published only two times, and it happened already in the 21st century. The small number of editions of Darwin’s main book in post-Soviet time is one of the consequences of the discredit of the evolutionary theory in mass media and by the Russian Orthodox Church as well as the rise of neo-Lysenkoism.
The general circulation of nine pre-revolutionary editions of On the Origin of Species was about 30,000–35,000 copies. Only four editions which had been released in the USSR from 1926 to 1937 had the total circulation in 79,200 copies. Two post-Soviet editions published in 2001 and in 2003 had already a circulation of only 1,000 copies. Subsequent editions in each period of Russian history was thus some kind of an answer to the scientific, political and social requirements of the Russian society and the Russian state.
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Sergeĭ S. Demidov
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 317-335
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.012.14043Nikolai Nikolaevich Luzin’s life (1883–1950) and work of this outstanding Russian mathematician, member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and foreign member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, coincides with a very difficult period in Russian history: two World Wars, the 1917 revolution in Russia, the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, the civil war of 1917–1922, and finally, the construction of a new type of state, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This included collectivization in the agriculture and industrialization of the industry, accompanied by the mass terror that without exception affected all the strata of the Soviet society. Against the background of these dramatic events took place the proces of formation and flourishing of Luzin the scientist, the creator of one of the leading mathematical schools of the 20th century, the Moscow school of function theory, which became one of the cornerstones in the foundation of the Soviet mathematical school. Luzin’s work could be divided into two periods: the first one comprises the problems regarding the metric theory of functions, culminating in his famous dissertation Integral and Trigonometric Series (1915), and the second one that is mainly devoted to the development of problems arising from the theory of analytic sets. The underlying idea of Luzin’s research was the problem of the structure of the arithmetic continuum, which became the super task of his work.
The destiny favored the master: the complex turns of history in which he was involved did not prevent, and sometimes even favored the successful development of his research. And even the catastrophe that broke out over him in 1936 – “the case of Academician Luzin” – ended successfully for him.
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George Borski, Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 339-438
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.013.14044A methodology of historical or higher criticism and of stylometry/stylochronometry known from Biblical and literary studies is applied to the examination of Nicolaus Copernicus’s writings. In particular, his early work Commentariolus is compared at the level of the Latin language with his later ones (Meditata, Letter against Werner and De revolutionibus) as well as the texts of some other authors. A number of striking stylistic dissimilarities between these works have been identified and interpreted in the light of stylometry/stylochronometry, historical criticism and the history of Copernican research. The conducted research allowed to draw some plausible conclusions about the Sitz im Leben (historical context), the dating of Commentariolus and related matters.
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Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 439-507
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.014.14045The article describes the context and content of the November 1925 correspondence – so far overlooked by historians of physics – between Władysław (Ladislas) Natanson and Alfred Landé on Planck’s law and Bose statistics, and the effects of this interaction.
The article publishes for the first time the transcription of two original letters in German and their translations into English.
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Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 509-567
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.015.14046
The article describes the context and content of the correspondence from November 1925, so far overlooked by physics historians, on the Planck law and the Bose statistics between Władysław (Ladislas) Natanson and Alfred Landé and the effects of this interaction.
The article publishes for the first time the translations from German into Polish of two letters from Natanson and Landé.
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Radosław Tarkowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 569-599
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.016.14047Polish naturalists: Konstanty Jelski (1837–1896), Jan Sztolcman (1854–1928) and Jan Kalinowski (1857–1941) were active in Peru in the second half of the 19th and earliest of 20th century. Jelski stayed in Peru in the years 1869–1879, Sztolcman twice in the years 1875–1881 and 1882–1884, and Kalinowski arrived in 1889 and stayed in Peru until his death.
Their stay was aimed at collecting rich, little-known fauna, mainly birds. The work of these naturalists was sponsored by the Branicki family. The collected fauna specimens were sent to the Zoological Cabinet in Warsaw managed by W. Taczanowski and to the private Branicki Museum (the Frascati Palace). The materials collected by the Polish naturalists have enriched the collections of many scientific institutions in Poland, including foreign ones. The fauna specimens were the basis for the description of many new species unknown to science.
The names of Polish naturalists are known to specialists in neotropical fauna and flora to this day. They often appear in the names of new species described on the basis of the specimens they discovered.
The collections sent from Peru made the Zoological Cabinet in Warsaw a center of research on neotropical avifauna at the world level, and the collection was consulted by specialists from all over Europe. The birds from Peru were the basis for W. Taczanowski’s monograph Ornithologie du Pérou.
The collections and observations of Jelski and Sztolcman made a significant contribution to the preparation of the work El Peru by A. Raimondi. Sztolcman published a two-volume work: Peru. Wspomnienia z podróży z mapą, an important contribution of Poland to the knowledge of Peru. The birds and mammals collected by Kalinowski in Peru enriched the collections of museums in Lima, Washington, London and Warsaw.
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Alicja Zemanek, Bogdan Zemanek, Tomasz Głuszak, Marcin Nobis
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 601-625
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.017.14048Józef Warszewicz (1812–1866) – traveler and naturalist, the main horticulturist (inspector) of the Botanic Garden of theJagiellonian University in Kraków, was one of the first plant collectors in the tropical regions of Central and South America. From his travels (1844–1850, 1850–1853) he sent and brought to Europe hundreds of previously unknown plants, primarily orchids, in addition to representatives of other families.
One of the collected species was Warszewiczia coccinea (red warszewiczia in English, warszewiczia czerwona in Polish), described by Johann F. Klotzsch and named after the collector. It is a small tree or shrub with large, red inflorescences, growing wild in the American tropics and often cultivated as an ornamental. It plays a significant role in the culture of the island country of Trinidad and Tobago in the Little Antilles archipelago, where it is considered a “national plant”.
The aim of this article is to highlight one of the chapters in the history of systematics (taxonomy) relating to Józef Warszewicz and the plants described on the basis of his collections, especially red warszewiczia.
Many of the so-called “Warszewicz species” have survived in the taxonomy to this day. His unique collection is stored in the Herbarium of the Jagiellonian University – Herbarium Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis – KRA. There are specimens important to the science – lectotypes (model representations) of the species Warszewiczia pulcherrima (= W. coccinea).
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Aleksei Pleshkov, Jan Surman
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 629-650
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.018.14049Academic reviewing, one of the communal academic practices, is a vital genre, in which epistemic virtues have been cultivated. In our article, we discuss reviews as a form of institutionalized critique, which historians could use to trace the changing epistemic virtues within humanities. We propose to use them analogously to Lorraine Daston’s and Peter Galison’s treatment of atlases in their seminal work Objectivity as a marker of changing epistemic virtues in natural sciences and medicine.
Based on Aristotle’s virtue theory and its neo-Aristotelian interpretation in the second half of the 20th century, as well as on its most recent applications in the field of history and philosophy of science, we propose a general conceptual framework for analyzing reviews in their historical dimension. Besides, we contend that the analysis of reviews should be carried out taking into account their historical context of social, political, cultural and media-environment. Otherwise, one may risks presupposing the existence of an autonomous, disconnected community of scholars.
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Christiaan Engberts
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 651-679
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.019.14050Book reviews serve multiple functions. They are not only used to assess the merit of individual books but also contribute to the creation and maintenance of scholarly communities.
This paper draws on nineteenth-century book reviews to outline three of their features that contributed to the selfdefinition of such communities: the assessment of books, the assessment of authors, and the use of positive and negative politeness strategies to address individual authors as well as a broader audience.
The analysis will be based on the book reviews of the German Semitist Theodor Nöldeke and the experimental psychologist Wilhelm Wundt in the Literarisches Centralblatt in the eighteenseventies. In their book reviews they both criticized and praised their peers, which turned review journals like the Centralblatt in arenas for polemic debate as well as meeting places for likeminded scholars.
To be more precise, book reviews were used to communicate standards of scholarly excellence, expectations of the character and skills of scholars, and the acknowledgement of the value of the continued existence of aims and interests shared among a large group of academically educated and employed scholars. By contributing to the establishment and maintenance of scholarly peer groups with shared values, book reviews also reinforced the dividing line between academic researchers and lay contributors to their fields.
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Alexander Stoeger
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 681-709
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.020.14051Scientific book reviews were an important genre in late-18thcentury German journals. The mostly anonymous reviewers regarded themselves as voices of the scientific community, judging the quality of new publications for its benefit.
However, as this paper shows, some reviewers aspired to more than judging the books’ content. The reviewers of Christian Heinrich Pfaff ’s, Alexander von Humboldt’s, and Johann Wilhelm Ritter’s monographs on galvanism, published between 1796 and 1805, used the language of epistemic virtues and vices to present their readership with their ideal scientific persona meant to support the development of the empirical sciences.
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Aleksei Lokhmatov
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 711-753
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.021.14052Adam Schaff was at the front of the ideological campaign organized in post-war Poland during the wave of Stalinization. By attempting to adapt the Soviet “model” of public discussion to Polish academia, Schaff wanted to teach the representatives of the Lvov-Warsaw School of logic how to lead a scholarly debate. Schaff ’s group consisted of young scholars from the Instytut Kształcenia Kadr Naukowych [Institute for Education of Scientific Staff] and with critical reviews on the works of Polish logicians they tried to force their opponents to change the basic principles of their academic practice under the new circumstances. Nevertheless, Schaff ’s project failed since, unlike Soviet scholars, the participants in the discussion referred to different academic virtues that made the adaptation of the Soviet model of public discussion impossible.
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Richard L. Kremer, Ad Maas
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 755-785
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.022.14053This paper examines the role of book reviews in the discipline of the history of science by comparing their appearance in two periodicals, Isis, the flagship journal of the discipline that was founded in 1913, and the Journal for the History of Astronomy, founded in 1970 to serve a newly emerging, specialized subfield within the broader discipline.
Our analysis of the reviews published in selected slices of time finds differing norms and reviewing practices within the two journals. Despite important changes during the past century in the conceptualization of the history of science and its research methods, reviewing practices in Isis remained remarkably consistent over time, with reviewers generally defending a fixed set of norms for “good” scholarship. More change appears in reviews of the Journal for the History of Astronomy, as its audience shifted from a mix of the laity, working astronomers, and historians to a specialized group of professional historians of astronomy. Scholarly norms, reflected in the reviews, shifted with these changes in readership.
We conclude that book reviews offer rich sources for analyzing the evolution of scholarly disciplines and norms.
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Csaba Fazekas
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 789-820
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.023.14054This paper presents a heated debate about plagiarism that unfolded between historiographers of the Catholic Church in the press in Hungary in 1841. It was only one special event with few participants, but this case offers an opportunity to study the development of the approach of historical science to plagiarism and the conditions of historiography in East-Central Europe, with special regard to church history, and contrasts these with the conditions in West European countries.
To interpret the plagiarism debate, the “court model” will be applied because the writings of the accused author, the victim, and the witnesses remind us of the participants in a court trial, where for the court to pass the sentence mitigating and aggravating circumstances can be put forward, and there is also countercharging; and the committed act is also considered from the point of view of intellectual property rights, as well as from a moral and scientific standpoint.
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Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 821-858
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.024.14055The article concerns the key problems of Polish ministerial lists of scientific journals, which are shown on the example of journals from the history and history of science, the idea of a new list according to the Unit for the Science of Science at the Institute for the History of Science (Polish Academy of Sciences) and the appreciation of the editorial and review activity in the Polish system of evaluation of scientific achievements.
The fundamental flaw in the procedure for creating the lists of scientific journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland (December 18, 2019) and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Poland (February 9, 2021 / February 18, 2021) is the lack of reference to the achievements of the science of science, although it was established in Poland in 1916–1939 and has been fruitfully developed in the world ever since.
The bibliometric achievements of the 12 highest-scoring Polish journals from history, which received 100 points in the “List of journals of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Poland” (February 9, 2021 / February 18, 2021) were compared with the bibliometric achievements of the highest-scoring Polish journals from the sub-disciplines “history of science” or “history and philosophy of science”. Although they received only 40 points, they did not have fewer bibliometric achievements than Polish historical journals rated at 100 points.
A comparison of bibliometric achievements of 18 Polish history journals indexed in Scopus showed that in 2019 and 2020, the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum had the highest values of these indicators.
On this basis, it is justified to claim that in the case of Polish journals in the discipline of “history” and sub-disciplines “history of science” and “history and philosophy of science”, the ministerial list of journals was built on the basis of non-objective and non-transparent rules. Such a critical remark also applies to the previous lists of journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland, including the list of December 18, 2019.
It is therefore necessary to: a) thoroughly improve the scores of Polish journals in the sub-disciplines “history of science” and “history and philosophy of science” in the short term, because maintaining such verdicts will lead to an unjustified depreciation of scientific achievements in the field of these sub-disciplines during the evaluation of Polish academic units, and b) develop a new Polish model for evaluating journals in the long term.
Bearing in mind the achievements of the integrated science of science, in particular the method of correspondence thinking and the idea of scientific (r)evolution by Michał Kokowski, praxeological research in the spirit of Tadeusz Kotarbiński, scientific communication and the trend named the responsible metrics, a new model of journal evaluation is presented.
The idea of objective measures of journal’s achievements and the costs of publishing in it are described: the journal’s achievement measure (JAM)©, the journal’s cost-effectiveness measure (JCEM)© and the normalized journal’s cost-effectiveness measure (NJCEM)©.
This is followed by a presentation of Rules for the creation of lists of scientific journals according to the Unit for the Science of Science at the Institute for the History of Science (Polish Academy of Sciences)©.
It is postulated that relevant appreciation of editorial and review activity in the Polish system of evaluation of scientific achievements should be introduced by modifying the current regulation on the evaluation of scientific achievements.
Article available under CC BY-NC-ND license.
License text: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/pl/legalcode
Jafar Taheri
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 861-891
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.025.14056This article aims to provide a historical overview of the impact of architecture and decorative arts on health and health preservation in Muslim societies during the medieval era.
Based on primary medical sources, this article provides a historical interpretation of the theoretical origin of the ignored link between medicine and architecture (and decorative arts).
Our findings indicate that some empirical results concerning the effects and aspects of built environments (architectural spaces) on health and treatment–both physical and mental– have been considered in the medical sources.
Practical instructions of these sources introduced two theoretical achievements: 1) an introduction to the historical knowledge of environmental health and design of healthy places, and 2) a comparative analogy of the built environment and human nature (organism), which became a theoretical basis for the relationship between natural sciences, architecture, and the decorative arts in the middle ages.
Considerations of the study show the extent to which architects and artisans, based on the teachings and instructions of physicians, dealt with the structural and content adaptation models of architecture and decorative arts to human organism and nature.
Article available under CC BY-NC-ND license.
License text: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/pl/legalcode
Martina Bečvářová, Stanisław Domoradzki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 895-937
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.026.14057In the article, we will show the main important results of the international research project The impact of WWI on the formation and transformation of the scientific life of the mathematical community. It was supported by the Czech Science Foundation for the years 2018–2020 and brought together ten scientists from five countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, USA, and Ukraine) and used the collaboration with historians of mathematics and mathematicians from many other European countries. We will discuss our motivation for the creation of the project, our methodological and professional preparations which profited from the international composition of the team and its longtime collaborations, profound specializations and experiences of the team members, and their deep and long-term studies of many archival sources and basic published works. We will present our choice of the general research trends, our definition of the scientific questions, and our determination of the main topics of our studies. We will describe our most important results (books, articles, visiting lectures, presentations at national and international conferences, seminars and book fairs, exhibitions, popularizations of the results between students, teachers, mathematicians, historians of sciences, and people who love mathematics and its history). We will analyze the new benefit that the project created for the future, for example, good platforms for future international research and cooperation, the discovery of many new interesting research questions, problems, and plans.
Article available under CC BY license.
License text: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 939-945
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.027.14058The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020/2021. It presents the lists of: scientific meetings, conferences, symposia, seminars, new members and new publications.
Article available under CC BY license.
License text: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 20 (2021), 2021, pp. 947-953
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.21.028.14059Report on the activities of the PAU Commission on the History of Science in 2020/2021
The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020/2021. It presents the lists of: scientific meetings, conferences, symposia, seminars, new members and new publications.
Article available under CC BY license.
License text: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
Publication date: 30.09.2020
Editor-in-Chief: Magdalena Sztandara
Stanisław Domoradzki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 1-1
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.020.12576In the article we present the report from the memorial session of prof. Andrzej Pelczar (1937–2010), organized online on June 2, 2020 by the Board of the Krakow Branch of the Polish Mathematical Society.
We familiarize the reader with the profile of A. Pelczar (1937–2010) and some of his achievements recalled during the session. We invoke also fragments of statements made by participants of the session.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 13-21
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.001.12557The article outlines the seventh phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science).
The information is provided on the following matters: the realization of the ministerial program “Support for scientific journals 2019–2020”, the evaluation of the journal in “ICI Master Journal List 2018” (published at the end of 2019), in Scimago Journal Ranks 2019 (published on 11 June 2020), in CWTS Journal Indicators (published on the beginning of June 2020) and in Scopus (published on 6 June 2020), a systemic obstacle in the further developing of the journal related to the journal’s underrated rating in the “List of journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Polish Republic 2019” (published on 31 July 2019 and 18 December 2020), the indexation of the journal in the Scopus database (from September 2019), the works on updating the journal’s website in OJS (3.1.2.), and the number of foreign authors and the number of reviewers of the current volume of the journal.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 23-31
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.002.12558The article outlines the seventh phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science).
The information is provided on the following matters: the realization of the ministerial program “Support for scientific journals 2019–2020”, the evaluation of the journal in “ICI Master Journal List 2018” (published at the end of 2019), in Scimago Journal Ranks 2019 (published on 11 June 2020), in CWTS Journal Indicators (published on the beginning of June 2020) and in Scopus (published on 6 June 2020), a systemic obstacle in the further developing of the journal related to the journal’s underrated rating in the “List of journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Polish Republic 2019” (published on 31 July 2019 and 18 December 2020), the indexation of the journal in the Scopus database (from September 2019), the works on updating the journal’s website in OJS (3.1.2.), and the number of foreign authors and the number of reviewers of the current volume of the journal.
Juozas Banionis
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 35-52
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.003.12559Samuel Dickstein founded the journal Wiadomości Matematyczne in Warszaw, of which he edited and published 47 volumes in the years 1897–1939. One of them (volume XXV, 1921) presented the scientific work (thesis) of the famous 19th century scholar and teacher – Ignacy Domeyko (1802–1889). It was written in 1822 to obtain a master’s degree in philosophy at University of Vilna (Wilno, now Vilnius). The original manuscript of I. Domeyko is has not been preserved.
This report reveals the circumstances and content of the master’s dissertation written by I. Domeyko.
Izabela Krzeptowska-Moszkowicz
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 53-74
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.004.12560The aim of this paper is to present one of the pioneers of Polish microbiology, Seweryn Józef Krzemieniewski, as a scholar with humanistic and interdisciplinary interests. His work covered primarily the history of botany and was an important contribution to the development of this discipline in the interwar period in Poland. Krzemieniewski is the author of works analyzing the research of Michał Boym, a missionary in China, as well as of an article presenting the history of botany in Lviv. He also prepared biographies of Polish botanists, but not all of them were published. Additionally, the scientist was involved for several years in intensive work in nature conservation, which makes it possible to include him in the group of leading activists in this field in Poland of that period.
Krzemieniewski’s belief in the fundamental importance of education for the development of conscious and environmentally sensitive society seems to be at the root of his humanistic activities, which is clearly visible in his published works. This idea is also reflected in his activities as a popularizer of natural science and a lecturer.
Rafał Zaczkowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 75-130
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.005.12561This article presents the scientific biography of Tadeusz Konrad Przypkowski (1905–1977), an outstanding expert in the field of gnomonics. This is the first such comprehensive study of this subject in literature. T.K. Przypkowski was a historian of art and science, and obtained his doctorate in 1929 based on the work of Jan Pfister, a 17th century sculptor, and he received a tenure in 1965 based on the work Scientific concept of magnetic declination in Poland. From an early age, he was interested in gnomonics, and would reconstruct and create new sundials, as well as restore antique ones. He conducted research, published articles in scientific and popular scientific journals. His passion for gnomonics made him an outstanding specialist known and appreciated at home and in the world. He was a consultant and a sundial maker many times. He participated in symposia and scientific conferences at which he delivered papers enthusiastically received by participants. To this day his works can be sees and admired in many cities in Poland and abroad.
Tomasz Skrzyński
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 131-165
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.006.12562Most of the proposals for reforms at the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, submitted in 1945–1950, concerned the adaptation of the Academy to further specialization in the world of science. Discussed in the article, the previously unknown, initiative of the eminent philosopher Roman Ingarden was of a different nature. The institute, he was designing, was to be the center of permanent scientific cooperation between scientists from natural and humanities sciences.
Using the archive sources and publications, the circumstances of this idea creation were also discussed. The reasons why this initiative was not implemented were also described.
Ingarden believed that research conducted as part of the Institute’s experimental labs should cover basic practical issues both for entire communities and individual people. They were to concern, i.a. the nature of man, his role in the world; separateness and kinship to other living beings. The philosopher also proposed testing new research methods at the Institute and training numerous scientists in their application.
In practice, the idea of establishing the Institute of Human Sciences of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences was contrary to the policy of the state authorities at that time.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 167-229
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.007.12563The article presents the character of Andrzej Pelczar (1937–2010): his genealogical pedigree, sketchy scientific biography, list of performed public functions, achievements in the history and philosophy of science against the achievements of the Kraków mathematical environment, and also it updates the information on the numerical state of the Kraków mathematical environment and Warsaw mathematical school.
Pauline Spychala
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 233-259
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.008.12564This article aims to trace the mobility of scholars and sciences between France and Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland in the 14th and 15th centuries, seen from the perspective of prosopography.
These exchanges were concentrated in only three oldest French universities of Montpellier, Orléans and Paris, albeit with significant variations, and in the newly-founded universities north of the Alps in the 14th century, namely those in Prague and Kraków.
Mobility was less important and intensive at the end of the Middle Ages because of the policy in favour of establishing national universities. The names of 143 scholars from Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, who were enrolled in the 14th and 15th centuries in French universities, have been found so far. Several of them played important roles in the history of science in these countries.
Nathaniel Parker Weston
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 261-285
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.009.12565This article uses the work of Anna Semper (1826–1909) to explore the possibilities for understanding women’s contributions to the development of science in Germany from the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. By examining the publications of her husband, the naturalist Carl Semper (1832–1893), as well as those of other scholars, traces of the ways that she produced scientific knowledge begin to emerge. Because the Sempers’ work took place in the context of the Philippines and Palau, two different Spanish colonies, and formed the basis of Carl’s professional career, this article also analyzes Anna’s role in the creation of an explicitly colonial science.
Anne Kluger
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 287-326
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.010.12566Despite the previous overview studies on Polish and East German archaeology and historiography after 1945, further analyses of the relationship between science and politics as well as of the inner-disciplinary processes and discourses in the “Cold War” period are still needed. This applies in particular to the research field of “Slavic archaeology”, the archaeological and historiographical research on the “Slavs” in prehistorical and early medieval times.
With regard to recent demands for an extended and more dynamic understanding of science and new methodological approaches in the history of science (and of archaeology as well), this paper focuses on two leading figures of “Slavic archaeology”, Witold Hensel (PPR) and Joachim Herrmann (GDR), as case studies to provide more insights into this discipline.
Analysing the course of Hensel’s and Herrmann’s careers and of their way to the “Slavs” as one of their main research interests, their administrative functions as institutional directors and the central narratives of their publications on the early “Slavs”, provides the opportunity to profoundly dissect the interrelations between scholarly work, politics, and ideology in this field of research.
The comparative approach also makes it possible to identify parallel tendencies in Eastern German and Polish “Slavic archaeology” as well as specific national conditions and developments.
On the example of Hensel and Herrmann, it becomes clear that the implemented biographical-comparative perspective is fruitful and can be used for further research in the history of science.
Jacek Rodzeń
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 329-374
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.011.12567The paper presents engineering interests of Isaac Newton, including some of his technical inventions. So far, this topic has not been studied in a broader manner and in more depth. This article discusses Newton’s youthful passions against the backdrop of the so-called mathematical magic literature. His two inventions, i.e. variants of the reflecting telescope and the marine octant are also discussed. Finally, an example is provided of the involvement of the author of Principia in a discussion around the steam engine and the ship powered by such engine designed by Denis Papin.
Danuta Ciesielska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 375-422
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.012.12568The main goal of the research project is an evaluation of the impact of studies and scientific visits of Polish scientists in the world mathematical centre, which was Georg-August Univeristy in Göttingen, on their careers.
The results presented in this report focuses on the scholarship holders of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków and the Jagiellonian University. A time-frame for the article are the dates of visit of the first and the last scholarship holders in Göttingen. A brief history of the Osławski’s Fund, Dr. Władysław Kretkowski’s and Kazimierz Klimowski’s Fund and the fellows – mathematicians: Leon Chwistek, Antoni Hoborski, Stanisław Kępiński, Stanisław Ruziewicz, Włodzimierz Stożek, Władysław Ślebodziński and Franciszek Włodarski are presented in the article. The archival documents cited in the article are presented in print for the first time.
An analysis of the reasons that urged young Polish scholars to choose Göttingen for their foreign studies is given. An evaluation of the impact of their studies in Göttingen on their future research areas was done.
An introduction to the article is a very brief history of mathematicians, mathematics and mathematical education in Georg-August University in Göttingen in the period 1885–1914.
Józef Spałek
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 423-441
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.013.12569The principal mathematical idea behind the statistical properties of black-body radiation (photons) was introduced already by L. Boltzmann (1877/2015) and used by M. Planck (1900; 1906) to derive the frequency distribution of radiation (Planck’s law) when its discrete (quantum) structure was additionally added to the reasoning.
The fundamental physical idea – the principle of indistinguishability of the quanta (photons) – had been somewhat hidden behind the formalism and evolved slowly.
Here the role of P. Debye (1910), H. Kamerlingh Onnes and P. Ehrenfest (1914) is briefly elaborated and the crucial role of W. Natanson (1911a; 1911b; 1913) is emphasized.
The reintroduction of this Natanson’s statistics by S. N. Bose (1924/2009) for light quanta (called photons since the late 1920s), and its subsequent generalization to material particles by A. Einstein (1924; 1925) is regarded as the most direct and transparent, but involves the concept of grand canonical ensemble of J. W. Gibbs (1902/1981), which in a way obscures the indistinguishability of the particles involved.
It was ingeniously reintroduced by P. A. M. Dirac (1926) via postulating (imposing) the transposition symmetry onto the many-particle wave function.
The above statements are discussed in this paper, including the recent idea of the author (Spałek 2020) of transformation (transmutation) – under specific conditions – of the indistinguishable particles into the corresponding to them distinguishable quantum particles.
The last remark may serve as a form of the author’s post scriptum to the indistinguishability principle.
Tomasz Pudłocki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 443-488
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.014.12570The article presents the first part of the correspondence of Eileen and Florian Znaniecki, which is located in the Archives of the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York. It shows many unknown threads from the life of Znaniecki family, especially Florian – one of the most outstanding Polish sociologist, a professor at the University of Poznań, who worked for many years in the United States of America.
The presented edition includes letters with Stefan Piotr Mierzwa, who used the name Stephen Peter Mizwa in English, and Edith Brahmall Cullis-Williams.
Mierzwa was the founder of the Kościuszko Foundation, a long-term executive director of the foundation, and finally its president. Thanks to his activities for the cultural and scientific rapprochement between Poland and America, he became, if not one of the most important figures in the life of American Polonia in the twentieth century, so certainly among the New York State Poles.
Cullis-Williams was the founder and president of the Polish Institute of Arts and Literature in New York City and a well known American polonophile in the American environment.
The archives of the Kościuszko Foundation have survived copies of Mierza’s letters written to Znaniecki.
Copies of Cullis-Williams letters have not been preserved in this collection, but even those sent to her by Eileen, presented in this edition, perfectly complement the picture of American relationships and social relations of the Znaniecki marriage emerging from other sources.
Chronologically, the letters cover the period 1923–1940 and show the beginnings of Znaniecki's cooperation with the Kosciuszko Foundation. What is more, the collection brings a little new light to Znaniecki’s presence in New York in 1931–1933 and the first months of the Poznań sociologist’s stay in the United States of America in 1940.
Stanisław Domoradzki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 489-504
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.015.12571The article familiarizes the readers with the stay of A. Pelczar (1937–2010) in France and his encounters with mathematicians working and staying in the prestigious Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in Bures-sur-Yvette (IHÉS) and Université Paris XI (Faculté des Sciences d’Orsay). The future founder of the Kraków school of dynamical systems had an opportunity to meet the following mathematicians, among others: M. Artin, A. Grothendieck, N. Kuiper, B. Malgrange, J. Mather, P. Deligne, R. Thom, Ch. Zeeman.
The article was written thanks to the memories of Jacek Bochnak, the companion of Pelczar in France, nowadays a renowned professor of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 507-541
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.016.12572The article presents facts about the hitherto pending “Complaint calling for a correction of the score given to the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum from 20 to 70 points” (of September 9, 2019 and of January 15, 2020) addressed to the Science Evaluation Commission of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Polish Government.
It analyzes publicly available information on the presence of Polish journals on ‘history’, ‘history of science’ and ‘history and philosophy of science’ in indexation databases or journal libraries and their bibliometric indicators. This information is compared with the scoring awarded in the ministerial evaluation of journals in 2019.
Since the ministerial scoring is not related to the actual achievements of the journal of the Commission on the History of Science, Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, urgent change in the scoring of this journal has been demanded.
Maciej Denkowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 545-560
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.017.12573We give an overview of the seventh volume of series IVA of the Birkhäuser edition of Leonhard Euler’s complete works and correspondence. This volume contains Euler’s correspondence in French with ten of his Swiss countrymen: Louis Bertrand, Charles Bonnet, Marc-Michel Bousquet, Jean de Castillon, Gabriel Cramer, Philibert Cramer, Gaspard Cuentz, Albrecht von Haller, Georges-Louis Lesage and Johan Caspar Wettstein. A letter of the German Johann Michael von Loën to Euler, mentioned in the Euler-Bertrand letter exchange is also included as well as the recently rediscovered first letter of Euler to Jean le Rond d’Alembert in supplement. The letters cover a large range of topics also outside Euler’s mathematical and physical interests giving a new insight into his non-scientific activities, and thus casting also a new light on this great scientist as a person.
Tomasz Pudłocki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 563-572
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.018.12574International Conference “The War That Never Ended. Postwar Continuity and New Challenges in the Aftermath of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, 1918–1923”, organized on 24–26 October 2019 in Krakow and Przemyśl, it was an excellent opportunity to discuss the phenomenon of key years 1918–1923 in the history of countries that arose from the ruins of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire. The truce in Compiegne (11.11.1918), as has been proven many times in historiography, had only symbolic significance for Central and Eastern and Southeastern Europe and did not bring decisive decisions for the region. This area became a place of numerous conflicts over borders, ethnic and social friction, resettlement of people, the involvement of intellectuals in politics or even violence aimed at physical elimination of entire groups and communities. It turns out that the new nation-states in this formation period strongly benefited from the imperial heritage of their predecessors, despite the declaration of paving new roads. The conference gathered almost 40 speakers from many European countries as well as from Canada and the United States of America.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 573-579
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.019.12575The article sketches the subject matter and the course of the first videoconference in the history of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences: “The Polish journals on the history and philosophy of science and the science of science: How to get to Scopus, WoS, ICI, DOAJ and ERIH+. Why is it worth doing?” (Krakow – Warsaw – Toruń, 16 April 2020, 10.00–15.00).
The conference was organized on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Commission on the History of Science at the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, and to mark the establishment of the Laboratory for the Science of Science at the Institute for the History of Science, Polish Academy of Sciences, currently the only one (!) unit for the science of science in Poland.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 603-607
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.021.12577The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019/2020. It presents the lists of scientific meetings, conferences, symposia, and new publications.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 609-612
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.022.12578The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019/2020. It presents the lists of scientific meetings, conferences, symposia, and new publications.
Stanisław Domoradzki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 1-1
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.020.12576In the article we present the report from the memorial session of prof. Andrzej Pelczar (1937–2010), organized online on June 2, 2020 by the Board of the Krakow Branch of the Polish Mathematical Society.
We familiarize the reader with the profile of A. Pelczar (1937–2010) and some of his achievements recalled during the session. We invoke also fragments of statements made by participants of the session.
Tomasz Pudłocki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 563-572
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.018.12574International Conference “The War That Never Ended. Postwar Continuity and New Challenges in the Aftermath of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, 1918–1923”, organized on 24–26 October 2019 in Krakow and Przemyśl, it was an excellent opportunity to discuss the phenomenon of key years 1918–1923 in the history of countries that arose from the ruins of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire. The truce in Compiegne (11.11.1918), as has been proven many times in historiography, had only symbolic significance for Central and Eastern and Southeastern Europe and did not bring decisive decisions for the region. This area became a place of numerous conflicts over borders, ethnic and social friction, resettlement of people, the involvement of intellectuals in politics or even violence aimed at physical elimination of entire groups and communities. It turns out that the new nation-states in this formation period strongly benefited from the imperial heritage of their predecessors, despite the declaration of paving new roads. The conference gathered almost 40 speakers from many European countries as well as from Canada and the United States of America.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 573-579
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.019.12575The article sketches the subject matter and the course of the first videoconference in the history of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences: “The Polish journals on the history and philosophy of science and the science of science: How to get to Scopus, WoS, ICI, DOAJ and ERIH+. Why is it worth doing?” (Krakow – Warsaw – Toruń, 16 April 2020, 10.00–15.00).
The conference was organized on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Commission on the History of Science at the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, and to mark the establishment of the Laboratory for the Science of Science at the Institute for the History of Science, Polish Academy of Sciences, currently the only one (!) unit for the science of science in Poland.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 603-607
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.021.12577The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019/2020. It presents the lists of scientific meetings, conferences, symposia, and new publications.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 609-612
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.022.12578The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019/2020. It presents the lists of scientific meetings, conferences, symposia, and new publications.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 13-21
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.001.12557The article outlines the seventh phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science).
The information is provided on the following matters: the realization of the ministerial program “Support for scientific journals 2019–2020”, the evaluation of the journal in “ICI Master Journal List 2018” (published at the end of 2019), in Scimago Journal Ranks 2019 (published on 11 June 2020), in CWTS Journal Indicators (published on the beginning of June 2020) and in Scopus (published on 6 June 2020), a systemic obstacle in the further developing of the journal related to the journal’s underrated rating in the “List of journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Polish Republic 2019” (published on 31 July 2019 and 18 December 2020), the indexation of the journal in the Scopus database (from September 2019), the works on updating the journal’s website in OJS (3.1.2.), and the number of foreign authors and the number of reviewers of the current volume of the journal.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 23-31
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.002.12558The article outlines the seventh phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science).
The information is provided on the following matters: the realization of the ministerial program “Support for scientific journals 2019–2020”, the evaluation of the journal in “ICI Master Journal List 2018” (published at the end of 2019), in Scimago Journal Ranks 2019 (published on 11 June 2020), in CWTS Journal Indicators (published on the beginning of June 2020) and in Scopus (published on 6 June 2020), a systemic obstacle in the further developing of the journal related to the journal’s underrated rating in the “List of journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Polish Republic 2019” (published on 31 July 2019 and 18 December 2020), the indexation of the journal in the Scopus database (from September 2019), the works on updating the journal’s website in OJS (3.1.2.), and the number of foreign authors and the number of reviewers of the current volume of the journal.
Juozas Banionis
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 35-52
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.003.12559Samuel Dickstein founded the journal Wiadomości Matematyczne in Warszaw, of which he edited and published 47 volumes in the years 1897–1939. One of them (volume XXV, 1921) presented the scientific work (thesis) of the famous 19th century scholar and teacher – Ignacy Domeyko (1802–1889). It was written in 1822 to obtain a master’s degree in philosophy at University of Vilna (Wilno, now Vilnius). The original manuscript of I. Domeyko is has not been preserved.
This report reveals the circumstances and content of the master’s dissertation written by I. Domeyko.
Izabela Krzeptowska-Moszkowicz
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 53-74
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.004.12560The aim of this paper is to present one of the pioneers of Polish microbiology, Seweryn Józef Krzemieniewski, as a scholar with humanistic and interdisciplinary interests. His work covered primarily the history of botany and was an important contribution to the development of this discipline in the interwar period in Poland. Krzemieniewski is the author of works analyzing the research of Michał Boym, a missionary in China, as well as of an article presenting the history of botany in Lviv. He also prepared biographies of Polish botanists, but not all of them were published. Additionally, the scientist was involved for several years in intensive work in nature conservation, which makes it possible to include him in the group of leading activists in this field in Poland of that period.
Krzemieniewski’s belief in the fundamental importance of education for the development of conscious and environmentally sensitive society seems to be at the root of his humanistic activities, which is clearly visible in his published works. This idea is also reflected in his activities as a popularizer of natural science and a lecturer.
Rafał Zaczkowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 75-130
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.005.12561This article presents the scientific biography of Tadeusz Konrad Przypkowski (1905–1977), an outstanding expert in the field of gnomonics. This is the first such comprehensive study of this subject in literature. T.K. Przypkowski was a historian of art and science, and obtained his doctorate in 1929 based on the work of Jan Pfister, a 17th century sculptor, and he received a tenure in 1965 based on the work Scientific concept of magnetic declination in Poland. From an early age, he was interested in gnomonics, and would reconstruct and create new sundials, as well as restore antique ones. He conducted research, published articles in scientific and popular scientific journals. His passion for gnomonics made him an outstanding specialist known and appreciated at home and in the world. He was a consultant and a sundial maker many times. He participated in symposia and scientific conferences at which he delivered papers enthusiastically received by participants. To this day his works can be sees and admired in many cities in Poland and abroad.
Tomasz Skrzyński
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 131-165
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.006.12562Most of the proposals for reforms at the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, submitted in 1945–1950, concerned the adaptation of the Academy to further specialization in the world of science. Discussed in the article, the previously unknown, initiative of the eminent philosopher Roman Ingarden was of a different nature. The institute, he was designing, was to be the center of permanent scientific cooperation between scientists from natural and humanities sciences.
Using the archive sources and publications, the circumstances of this idea creation were also discussed. The reasons why this initiative was not implemented were also described.
Ingarden believed that research conducted as part of the Institute’s experimental labs should cover basic practical issues both for entire communities and individual people. They were to concern, i.a. the nature of man, his role in the world; separateness and kinship to other living beings. The philosopher also proposed testing new research methods at the Institute and training numerous scientists in their application.
In practice, the idea of establishing the Institute of Human Sciences of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences was contrary to the policy of the state authorities at that time.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 167-229
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.007.12563The article presents the character of Andrzej Pelczar (1937–2010): his genealogical pedigree, sketchy scientific biography, list of performed public functions, achievements in the history and philosophy of science against the achievements of the Kraków mathematical environment, and also it updates the information on the numerical state of the Kraków mathematical environment and Warsaw mathematical school.
Pauline Spychala
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 233-259
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.008.12564This article aims to trace the mobility of scholars and sciences between France and Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland in the 14th and 15th centuries, seen from the perspective of prosopography.
These exchanges were concentrated in only three oldest French universities of Montpellier, Orléans and Paris, albeit with significant variations, and in the newly-founded universities north of the Alps in the 14th century, namely those in Prague and Kraków.
Mobility was less important and intensive at the end of the Middle Ages because of the policy in favour of establishing national universities. The names of 143 scholars from Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, who were enrolled in the 14th and 15th centuries in French universities, have been found so far. Several of them played important roles in the history of science in these countries.
Nathaniel Parker Weston
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 261-285
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.009.12565This article uses the work of Anna Semper (1826–1909) to explore the possibilities for understanding women’s contributions to the development of science in Germany from the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. By examining the publications of her husband, the naturalist Carl Semper (1832–1893), as well as those of other scholars, traces of the ways that she produced scientific knowledge begin to emerge. Because the Sempers’ work took place in the context of the Philippines and Palau, two different Spanish colonies, and formed the basis of Carl’s professional career, this article also analyzes Anna’s role in the creation of an explicitly colonial science.
Anne Kluger
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 287-326
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.010.12566Despite the previous overview studies on Polish and East German archaeology and historiography after 1945, further analyses of the relationship between science and politics as well as of the inner-disciplinary processes and discourses in the “Cold War” period are still needed. This applies in particular to the research field of “Slavic archaeology”, the archaeological and historiographical research on the “Slavs” in prehistorical and early medieval times.
With regard to recent demands for an extended and more dynamic understanding of science and new methodological approaches in the history of science (and of archaeology as well), this paper focuses on two leading figures of “Slavic archaeology”, Witold Hensel (PPR) and Joachim Herrmann (GDR), as case studies to provide more insights into this discipline.
Analysing the course of Hensel’s and Herrmann’s careers and of their way to the “Slavs” as one of their main research interests, their administrative functions as institutional directors and the central narratives of their publications on the early “Slavs”, provides the opportunity to profoundly dissect the interrelations between scholarly work, politics, and ideology in this field of research.
The comparative approach also makes it possible to identify parallel tendencies in Eastern German and Polish “Slavic archaeology” as well as specific national conditions and developments.
On the example of Hensel and Herrmann, it becomes clear that the implemented biographical-comparative perspective is fruitful and can be used for further research in the history of science.
Jacek Rodzeń
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 329-374
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.011.12567The paper presents engineering interests of Isaac Newton, including some of his technical inventions. So far, this topic has not been studied in a broader manner and in more depth. This article discusses Newton’s youthful passions against the backdrop of the so-called mathematical magic literature. His two inventions, i.e. variants of the reflecting telescope and the marine octant are also discussed. Finally, an example is provided of the involvement of the author of Principia in a discussion around the steam engine and the ship powered by such engine designed by Denis Papin.
Danuta Ciesielska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 375-422
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.012.12568The main goal of the research project is an evaluation of the impact of studies and scientific visits of Polish scientists in the world mathematical centre, which was Georg-August Univeristy in Göttingen, on their careers.
The results presented in this report focuses on the scholarship holders of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków and the Jagiellonian University. A time-frame for the article are the dates of visit of the first and the last scholarship holders in Göttingen. A brief history of the Osławski’s Fund, Dr. Władysław Kretkowski’s and Kazimierz Klimowski’s Fund and the fellows – mathematicians: Leon Chwistek, Antoni Hoborski, Stanisław Kępiński, Stanisław Ruziewicz, Włodzimierz Stożek, Władysław Ślebodziński and Franciszek Włodarski are presented in the article. The archival documents cited in the article are presented in print for the first time.
An analysis of the reasons that urged young Polish scholars to choose Göttingen for their foreign studies is given. An evaluation of the impact of their studies in Göttingen on their future research areas was done.
An introduction to the article is a very brief history of mathematicians, mathematics and mathematical education in Georg-August University in Göttingen in the period 1885–1914.
Józef Spałek
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 423-441
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.013.12569The principal mathematical idea behind the statistical properties of black-body radiation (photons) was introduced already by L. Boltzmann (1877/2015) and used by M. Planck (1900; 1906) to derive the frequency distribution of radiation (Planck’s law) when its discrete (quantum) structure was additionally added to the reasoning.
The fundamental physical idea – the principle of indistinguishability of the quanta (photons) – had been somewhat hidden behind the formalism and evolved slowly.
Here the role of P. Debye (1910), H. Kamerlingh Onnes and P. Ehrenfest (1914) is briefly elaborated and the crucial role of W. Natanson (1911a; 1911b; 1913) is emphasized.
The reintroduction of this Natanson’s statistics by S. N. Bose (1924/2009) for light quanta (called photons since the late 1920s), and its subsequent generalization to material particles by A. Einstein (1924; 1925) is regarded as the most direct and transparent, but involves the concept of grand canonical ensemble of J. W. Gibbs (1902/1981), which in a way obscures the indistinguishability of the particles involved.
It was ingeniously reintroduced by P. A. M. Dirac (1926) via postulating (imposing) the transposition symmetry onto the many-particle wave function.
The above statements are discussed in this paper, including the recent idea of the author (Spałek 2020) of transformation (transmutation) – under specific conditions – of the indistinguishable particles into the corresponding to them distinguishable quantum particles.
The last remark may serve as a form of the author’s post scriptum to the indistinguishability principle.
Tomasz Pudłocki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 443-488
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.014.12570The article presents the first part of the correspondence of Eileen and Florian Znaniecki, which is located in the Archives of the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York. It shows many unknown threads from the life of Znaniecki family, especially Florian – one of the most outstanding Polish sociologist, a professor at the University of Poznań, who worked for many years in the United States of America.
The presented edition includes letters with Stefan Piotr Mierzwa, who used the name Stephen Peter Mizwa in English, and Edith Brahmall Cullis-Williams.
Mierzwa was the founder of the Kościuszko Foundation, a long-term executive director of the foundation, and finally its president. Thanks to his activities for the cultural and scientific rapprochement between Poland and America, he became, if not one of the most important figures in the life of American Polonia in the twentieth century, so certainly among the New York State Poles.
Cullis-Williams was the founder and president of the Polish Institute of Arts and Literature in New York City and a well known American polonophile in the American environment.
The archives of the Kościuszko Foundation have survived copies of Mierza’s letters written to Znaniecki.
Copies of Cullis-Williams letters have not been preserved in this collection, but even those sent to her by Eileen, presented in this edition, perfectly complement the picture of American relationships and social relations of the Znaniecki marriage emerging from other sources.
Chronologically, the letters cover the period 1923–1940 and show the beginnings of Znaniecki's cooperation with the Kosciuszko Foundation. What is more, the collection brings a little new light to Znaniecki’s presence in New York in 1931–1933 and the first months of the Poznań sociologist’s stay in the United States of America in 1940.
Stanisław Domoradzki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 489-504
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.015.12571The article familiarizes the readers with the stay of A. Pelczar (1937–2010) in France and his encounters with mathematicians working and staying in the prestigious Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in Bures-sur-Yvette (IHÉS) and Université Paris XI (Faculté des Sciences d’Orsay). The future founder of the Kraków school of dynamical systems had an opportunity to meet the following mathematicians, among others: M. Artin, A. Grothendieck, N. Kuiper, B. Malgrange, J. Mather, P. Deligne, R. Thom, Ch. Zeeman.
The article was written thanks to the memories of Jacek Bochnak, the companion of Pelczar in France, nowadays a renowned professor of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 507-541
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.016.12572The article presents facts about the hitherto pending “Complaint calling for a correction of the score given to the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum from 20 to 70 points” (of September 9, 2019 and of January 15, 2020) addressed to the Science Evaluation Commission of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Polish Government.
It analyzes publicly available information on the presence of Polish journals on ‘history’, ‘history of science’ and ‘history and philosophy of science’ in indexation databases or journal libraries and their bibliometric indicators. This information is compared with the scoring awarded in the ministerial evaluation of journals in 2019.
Since the ministerial scoring is not related to the actual achievements of the journal of the Commission on the History of Science, Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, urgent change in the scoring of this journal has been demanded.
Maciej Denkowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 19 (2020), 2020, pp. 545-560
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.20.017.12573We give an overview of the seventh volume of series IVA of the Birkhäuser edition of Leonhard Euler’s complete works and correspondence. This volume contains Euler’s correspondence in French with ten of his Swiss countrymen: Louis Bertrand, Charles Bonnet, Marc-Michel Bousquet, Jean de Castillon, Gabriel Cramer, Philibert Cramer, Gaspard Cuentz, Albrecht von Haller, Georges-Louis Lesage and Johan Caspar Wettstein. A letter of the German Johann Michael von Loën to Euler, mentioned in the Euler-Bertrand letter exchange is also included as well as the recently rediscovered first letter of Euler to Jean le Rond d’Alembert in supplement. The letters cover a large range of topics also outside Euler’s mathematical and physical interests giving a new insight into his non-scientific activities, and thus casting also a new light on this great scientist as a person.
Publication date: 15.11.2019
Editor-in-Chief: Magdalena Sztandara
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 13-17
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.001.11007The article outlines the sixth phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science).
The information is provided on the following matters: the journal obtaining the award in the ministerial program “Support for scientific journals 2019–2020” (in April 2019), the evaluation of the magazine in “ICI Master Journal List 2017” (published at the end of 2018) and in “List of journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Polish Republic 2019” (published on 31 July 2019), the indexation of the journal in the Scopus database (from September 2019), the implementation of the service Similarity Check (Crossref), the works on updating the journal’s website in OJS (3.1.2.1.), the number of foreign authors and the number of reviewers of the current volume of the journal.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 19-23
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.002.11008The article outlines the sixth phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous namePrace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science).
The information is provided on the following matters: the journal obtaining the award in the ministerial program “Support for scientific journals 2019–2020” (in April 2019), the evaluation of the magazine in “ICI Master Journal List 2017” (published at the end of 2018) and in “List of journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Polish Republic 2019” (published on 31 July 2019), the indexation of the journal in the Scopus database (from September 2019), the implementation of the service Similarity Check (Crossref), the works on updating the journal’s website in OJS (3.1.2.1), the number of foreign authors and the number of reviewers of the current volume of the journal.
Paweł Polak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 27-53
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.003.11009Marian Smoluchowski (1872–1917) was an outstanding Polish physicist, known e.g. as a pioneer of statistical physics. His short paper about history of physics in Poland represents the initial study in this field. It was cited many times, creating the starting point for the historiography of physics in Poland. However, the role of history of science played in Smoluchowski’s activities was never systematically analyzed before. This article concentrates on three main domains of Smoluchowski’s activities involved with history of science: scientific, didactic and philosophical. It reveals that for Smoluchowski the importance of history of science was determined by its cultural impact. History of science played the important role in crystallization of his philosophical concepts, as well as in didactics revealing the internal dynamics of science and inspiring to new discoveries. The last issue is tied with specific methodological approach to physics called by Smoluchowski ‘romanticism of science’. This paper shows that Smoluchowski was not only a pioneer of history of physics in Poland, but also prepared some foundations for future development of this field of research.
Stanisław Domoradzki, Małgorzata Stawiska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 55-92
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.004.11010In the second part of our article we continue presentation of individual fates of Polish mathematicians (in a broad sense) and the formation of modern Polish mathematical community against the background of the events of World War I. In particular we focus on the situations of Polish mathematicians in the Russian Empire (including those affiliatedwith the University of Warsaw, reactivated by Germans, and the Warsaw Polytechnics, founded already by Russians) and other countries.
Alicja Zemanek, Piotr Köhler
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 93-137
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.005.11011The university in Vilna (in Polish: Wilno, now: Vilnius, Lithuania), founded in 1579, by Stefan Batory (Stephen Báthory), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, was a centre of Polish botany in 1780–1832 and 1919–1939.
In the latter period the university functioned under the Polish name Uniwersytet Stefana Batorego (in English: Stefan Batory University). It comprised six departments connected with botany (General Botany, Pharmacognosy and Cultivation of Medicinal Plants, Plant Taxonomy, Botanical Garden, Garden of Medicinal Plants, and Natural History Museum).
There worked such distinguished scientists, as: Jakub Mowszowicz (1901–1983), phytogeographer and phytosociologist; Jan Muszyński (1884–1957), botanist and pharmacist; Bronisław Szakien (1890–1938), cytologist and mycologist; Piotr Wiśniewski (1881––1971), physiologist; and Józef Trzebiński (1867–1941), mycologist and phytopathologist. Ca. 300 publications (including ca. 100 scientific ones) were printed in the period investigated, dealing mainly with morphology and anatomy, cytology, plant physiology, floristics (floristic geography of plants), systematics (taxonomy) of vascular plants, mycology and phytopathology, ecology of plant communities (phytosociology), as well as ethnobotany, and history of botany. Stefan Batory University was also an important centre of teaching and popularization of botany in that region of Europe.
The aim of the article is to describe the history of botany at the Stefan Batory University in 1919–1939.
Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 139-162
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.006.11012The history of the sufferings and the emigration of mathematicians under Nazi influence would be very incomplete without considering the perhaps most vibrant and at the same time most victimized European mathematical school of the 1930s, namely the Polish one. Polish mathematical emigration contributed – similarly to German-speaking emigration – considerably to the development of mathematics in the host countries, particularly in the United States.
The paper contributes to the discussion with some archival documents from two specific sources, which have so far found relatively little attention among historians of mathematics. These are the files of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL) at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, UK, and the files related to the Asylum Fellowship Planorganized by the Astronomer at Harvard University Harlow Shapley, now in possession of the Harvard University Archives.
Martin Rohde
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 165-218
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.007.11013This article discusses the possibilities which amateur participation offered to the young Shevchenko Scientific Society – limited to the description of the activities of this Society in the years 1892–1914.
The Society intended to develop rapidly into an academy of sciences in the Ukrainian language, but lacked the necessary resources. The existing network of Ukrainian associations in Eastern Galicia, which contributed to the development of scientific exchange, was helpful in achieving that status.
Before looking into the details of research agendas, the possibilities to use concepts of citizen science are measured for the context of the late 19th and the early 20th century.
The relation between ‘scientists’ and ‘amateurs’ is problematized on the basis of biographical examples of engaged scientists and activists, especially Volodymyr Hnatiuk from the Ethnographic Commission and Stanislav Dnistriansky from the Statistical Commission.
In order to understand the specific relations of Hnatiuk to his network of folklore collectors, their projects, aims and possibilities, Hnatiuk’s research is contrasted with the statistical surveys initiated by Dnistrians’kyĭ.
Based on their archival documentation and published sources, these research projects are analyzed together with the different circumstances between the poles of “national science” and “local knowledge”.
The article suggests that Ukrainian amateur researchers contributed intensely to the nation- and region-building in the multinational Empire.
Roman Gilmintinov
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 219-254
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.008.11014In the 1920s, the young Soviet Republic, rejecting the old social system, turned to the study of the past. Instead of engaging with professional historians, the new regime initiated a whole range of large-scale participatory projects incorporated into political and public institutions to produce new, revolutionary history. In this article, instead of approaching this topic in terms of ideology and memory I put it in the context of history of science. Focusing on the case of trade unions, I suggest considering the early Soviet non-academic history-writing as a form of radical citizen science. Even though trade unionists had no special education, they dared to use scientific methods in their research that ended with positive results. This story allows us to question the opposition between amateurs and professionals in the field of citizen science.
Krzysztof Maślanka, Jacek Rodzeń, Ewa Wyka
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 257-293
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.009.11015This paper presents examples of mathematical models which have almost passed into oblivion, yet a few decades ago still played a significant role in the teaching of mathematics. In the late nineteenth century such devices started to be produced on a large scale for schools and universities. The Jagiellonian University Museum has three such models in perfect condition in its collections.
Halina Lichocka
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 295-313
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.010.11016Is the chemical element Vestium discovered by Jędrzej Śniadecki the same as the Ruthenium? The dispute on this subject has been going on for more than one hundred years. At present, this dispute over recognition of the priority of discovery is very difficult to resolve. However, from the point of view of the history of chemistry, another aspect is more important in all this. In this context, it turns out that Jędrzej Śniadecki was the first researcher who tried to prove the existence of the sixth platinum metal. Time showed that Śniadecki was right. The confirmation of this was the subsequent separation of the metallic ruthenium by Karl Ernst Claus.
Tomasz Pudłocki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 315-326
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.011.11017The author discusses the archival legacy of William John Rose (1885–1968), a Canadian Slavist, historian and sociologist, showing its usefulness in researching the history of science and the relations between Polish scholars and scientists from Anglo-Saxon countries. Due to the distance of Vancouver from Poland, the Rose Fond collected in the Archives of the University of British Columbia (Canada) has not been the subject of interest of Polish scholars so far, but it is worth noting due to its richness and thematic diversity.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 327-464
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.012.11018This article investigates the forgotten achievements of Władysław Natanson (1864–1937) related to the creation of Bose-Einstein statistics.
The introductory part of the article presents considerations regarding the methodology of history and the history of exact sciences, and then the divergent research perspectives that can be taken in the description of the history of Bose-Einstein statistics, as well as the author’s integrated approach to this issue, which eliminates the disadvantages of these divergent views.
This integrated approach is then used to describe the achievements of Władysław Natanson related to the creation of Bose-Einstein statistics.
These achievements are presented against the background and in the context of discussions which – relatively sporadically – took place among various groups of researchers: historians and philosophers of science, physicists, sociologists of scientific knowledge in the 20th and 21st centuries.
These discussions have now been reordered here. They are followed by a presentation of the complete list of Natanson’s publications regarding the subject. Also shown is his strategy to quote reliably the bibliography with regard to the explanation of the distribution of blackbody radiation and related issues.
Additionally, a list of scientists who knew Natanson’s publications has been supplemented in the article and the precursorship of Natanson’s achievements is explained. This is followed by a rebuttal of many erroneous or simplified statements about him and his achievements.
The already well-known terminological conventions have been recalled: “Bose statistics” and “Bose-Einstein statistics”, as well as recently introduced: “Planck-Bose statistics” (1984), “Natanson’s statistics” (1997)”, “Natanson-Bose-Einstein statistics” (2005), “Planck-Natanson-Bose-Einstein statistics” (2011), and “Natanson statistics” (2013).
New terminological conventions have been introduced: “Boltzmann-Planck-Natanson statistics” and “Boltzmann-Planck-Natanson-Bose-Einstein statistics”.
A side effect of this research is a discovery that Robert K. Merton – the author of the label ‘Matthew effect’ – chose the name of the effect using erroneous premises and the effect should therefore be named after its actual discoverer.
The article is accompanied by four appendixes: the first presents reflections on the methodology of historiography and historiography of exact sciences, the second – a commentary on the use of the terms: “Bose statistics”, “Bose-Einstein statistics”, “Einstein-Bose statistics” and “Planck-Bose statistics”, the third – a very important letter by Max Planck to Władysław Natanson (of 25 January 1913), and the fourth – the excerpts of two letters from Sommerfeld to Rubinowicz (of 1 October 1919 and 1 November 1919).
Enrique Wulff
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 465-490
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.013.11019Until the 1950s, the first results in the studies of calcitonin-thyrocalcitonin were ignored in the accepted research scheme. However, it was José Fernández Nonídez from the Spanish School of Histology, died in Augusta (Georgia, USA) in 1947, whose expertise in the parafollicular cells of the mammalian thyroid had led him to an advanced understanding of this separate endocrine organ, which secretes calcitonin. The antecedent of the secretion was present in the cytoplasm of these cells, which Nonídez explained in a paper published in 1932.
In 1973, a Spanish group from the Instituto Gregorio Marañón (Madrid) leading the research into the ectopic production of calcitonin identified the precursor responsible for its biosynthesis. Nonetheless, given the informal power in connection with the communication between the scientists, this significative contribution was absolutely discarded in terms of acknowledgment within their social circle. The services responsible for dissemination of scientific knowledge considered that priority should be given to another group of young scientists dedicated to pro-calcitonin evidence.
The nature and extent of informal communication are highlighted in countries with different measures to guarantee the autonomy and independence of their state powers. Irrespectively of political circumstances, the paper is focused on the competition between two different approaches in science particularly important for progress in medicine: the perspective presented by experimental studies in basic sciences (in animals) and the models developed in clinical sciences.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 493-504
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.014.11020The article presents an introduction to the topic of the Working Session “Polish scientific journals from disciplines: «history and philosophy of science» and «science of science» –current challenges”organized by the PAU Commission on the History of Sciencein Kraków on 25 June 25 2019, along with specific proposals of organizational and editorial solutions for journals and publishing houses, as well as of legislative solutions regarding the principles of journal evaluation.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 505-513
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.015.11021The article presents the results of the evaluation of the Polish journals from the history of science, history, philosophy of science, and science of science, based on the “List of journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland 2017 & 2019” and “ICI Journal Master List 2014–2017”. A comment has also been added to these results. The following facts were noted:
a) the fact that there is a negative correlation between the journal’s rating in the “List of journals MNiSW 2019” and the journal’s ratings in the “ICI Journal Master List 2014–2017” for journals from the history and history of science;
b) the fact that the presence of the journal in the DOAJ does not raise the ministerial rating of the journal;
c) the fact that the evaluation of the journal in the Scopus database has not significantly affected the increase in the ministerial rating: the rating depends on the discipline and sub-discipline;
d) the fact that journals from the ministerial program “Support for scientific journals 2019–2020” (WCN 2019–2020) and ERIH+ received 20 to 70 points; their ministerial ratings depend on discipline and sub-discipline.
In addition, it was hoped that for the good of Polish science, some errors of the “List of journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Polish Republic 2019” would be removed in a short time, as some magazines received too low marks (this statement results from a comparison of journals’ achievements, including bibliometric indicators).
Paweł E. Tomaszewski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 517-529
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.016.11022Several remarks on the text by Mariusz W. Majewski devoted to the history of the Institute of Metallurgy and Metal Science at the Technical University of Warsaw, and on the role of Prof. Jan Czochralski, are presented. The aim was to show that the topic has not been exhausted, and some wordings need correction.
Mariusz W. Majewski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 531-553
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.017.11023The article is a response to the polemical commentary by Paweł E. Tomaszewski, PhD, published in the current volume of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum 18 (2019), regarding the author’s earlier article on the work of the Institute of Metallurgy and Metal Science at the Warsaw University of Technology with the addenda to the biography of Jan Czochralski, published in the previous volume of the journal.
It is well known that any attempt to compile the history of any issue requires critical approach to historical sources and that acquiring information collected in archival sources, the press and memoirs requires from the researcher a diligent and thorough comparative work. However, the problem arises when an author of a future publication has only few sources at his disposal, or even only one, which was the case here.
The article answers the doubts bothering Paweł E. Tomaszewski regarding the financing of the construction and equipment of the Institute of Metallurgy and Metallurgy at the Warsaw University of Technology and the origin and work of Jan Czochralski. The issues of the enterprises Zakłady Hohenlohe SA, Wspólnota Interesów and Wspólnota Interesów Górniczo-Hutniczych SA were also discussed.
The author proposes that a systematic team inquiry into both press and archival resources regarding Jan Czochralski should be carried out, and researchers should be allowed access to respective private archives. This will allow for a more research-grounded historical syntheses of Jan Czochralski.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 557-561
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.018.11024The article describes the course of the Working Session „Polish scientific journals from the disciplines: «history and philosophy of science» and «science of science» – current challenges” (Kraków, 25 June 2019), organized by the Commission of the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 563-566
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.019.11025The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018/2019. It presents the lists of: scientific meetings, conferences, symposia, new members of the Commission, and new publications.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 567-570
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.020.11026Abstract
The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018/2019. It presents the lists of: scientific meetings, conferences, symposia, new members of the Commission, and new publications.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 13-17
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.001.11007The article outlines the sixth phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science).
The information is provided on the following matters: the journal obtaining the award in the ministerial program “Support for scientific journals 2019–2020” (in April 2019), the evaluation of the magazine in “ICI Master Journal List 2017” (published at the end of 2018) and in “List of journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Polish Republic 2019” (published on 31 July 2019), the indexation of the journal in the Scopus database (from September 2019), the implementation of the service Similarity Check (Crossref), the works on updating the journal’s website in OJS (3.1.2.1.), the number of foreign authors and the number of reviewers of the current volume of the journal.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 19-23
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.002.11008The article outlines the sixth phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous namePrace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science).
The information is provided on the following matters: the journal obtaining the award in the ministerial program “Support for scientific journals 2019–2020” (in April 2019), the evaluation of the magazine in “ICI Master Journal List 2017” (published at the end of 2018) and in “List of journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Polish Republic 2019” (published on 31 July 2019), the indexation of the journal in the Scopus database (from September 2019), the implementation of the service Similarity Check (Crossref), the works on updating the journal’s website in OJS (3.1.2.1), the number of foreign authors and the number of reviewers of the current volume of the journal.
Paweł Polak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 27-53
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.003.11009Marian Smoluchowski (1872–1917) was an outstanding Polish physicist, known e.g. as a pioneer of statistical physics. His short paper about history of physics in Poland represents the initial study in this field. It was cited many times, creating the starting point for the historiography of physics in Poland. However, the role of history of science played in Smoluchowski’s activities was never systematically analyzed before. This article concentrates on three main domains of Smoluchowski’s activities involved with history of science: scientific, didactic and philosophical. It reveals that for Smoluchowski the importance of history of science was determined by its cultural impact. History of science played the important role in crystallization of his philosophical concepts, as well as in didactics revealing the internal dynamics of science and inspiring to new discoveries. The last issue is tied with specific methodological approach to physics called by Smoluchowski ‘romanticism of science’. This paper shows that Smoluchowski was not only a pioneer of history of physics in Poland, but also prepared some foundations for future development of this field of research.
Stanisław Domoradzki, Małgorzata Stawiska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 55-92
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.004.11010In the second part of our article we continue presentation of individual fates of Polish mathematicians (in a broad sense) and the formation of modern Polish mathematical community against the background of the events of World War I. In particular we focus on the situations of Polish mathematicians in the Russian Empire (including those affiliatedwith the University of Warsaw, reactivated by Germans, and the Warsaw Polytechnics, founded already by Russians) and other countries.
Alicja Zemanek, Piotr Köhler
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 93-137
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.005.11011The university in Vilna (in Polish: Wilno, now: Vilnius, Lithuania), founded in 1579, by Stefan Batory (Stephen Báthory), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, was a centre of Polish botany in 1780–1832 and 1919–1939.
In the latter period the university functioned under the Polish name Uniwersytet Stefana Batorego (in English: Stefan Batory University). It comprised six departments connected with botany (General Botany, Pharmacognosy and Cultivation of Medicinal Plants, Plant Taxonomy, Botanical Garden, Garden of Medicinal Plants, and Natural History Museum).
There worked such distinguished scientists, as: Jakub Mowszowicz (1901–1983), phytogeographer and phytosociologist; Jan Muszyński (1884–1957), botanist and pharmacist; Bronisław Szakien (1890–1938), cytologist and mycologist; Piotr Wiśniewski (1881––1971), physiologist; and Józef Trzebiński (1867–1941), mycologist and phytopathologist. Ca. 300 publications (including ca. 100 scientific ones) were printed in the period investigated, dealing mainly with morphology and anatomy, cytology, plant physiology, floristics (floristic geography of plants), systematics (taxonomy) of vascular plants, mycology and phytopathology, ecology of plant communities (phytosociology), as well as ethnobotany, and history of botany. Stefan Batory University was also an important centre of teaching and popularization of botany in that region of Europe.
The aim of the article is to describe the history of botany at the Stefan Batory University in 1919–1939.
Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 139-162
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.006.11012The history of the sufferings and the emigration of mathematicians under Nazi influence would be very incomplete without considering the perhaps most vibrant and at the same time most victimized European mathematical school of the 1930s, namely the Polish one. Polish mathematical emigration contributed – similarly to German-speaking emigration – considerably to the development of mathematics in the host countries, particularly in the United States.
The paper contributes to the discussion with some archival documents from two specific sources, which have so far found relatively little attention among historians of mathematics. These are the files of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL) at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, UK, and the files related to the Asylum Fellowship Planorganized by the Astronomer at Harvard University Harlow Shapley, now in possession of the Harvard University Archives.
Martin Rohde
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 165-218
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.007.11013This article discusses the possibilities which amateur participation offered to the young Shevchenko Scientific Society – limited to the description of the activities of this Society in the years 1892–1914.
The Society intended to develop rapidly into an academy of sciences in the Ukrainian language, but lacked the necessary resources. The existing network of Ukrainian associations in Eastern Galicia, which contributed to the development of scientific exchange, was helpful in achieving that status.
Before looking into the details of research agendas, the possibilities to use concepts of citizen science are measured for the context of the late 19th and the early 20th century.
The relation between ‘scientists’ and ‘amateurs’ is problematized on the basis of biographical examples of engaged scientists and activists, especially Volodymyr Hnatiuk from the Ethnographic Commission and Stanislav Dnistriansky from the Statistical Commission.
In order to understand the specific relations of Hnatiuk to his network of folklore collectors, their projects, aims and possibilities, Hnatiuk’s research is contrasted with the statistical surveys initiated by Dnistrians’kyĭ.
Based on their archival documentation and published sources, these research projects are analyzed together with the different circumstances between the poles of “national science” and “local knowledge”.
The article suggests that Ukrainian amateur researchers contributed intensely to the nation- and region-building in the multinational Empire.
Roman Gilmintinov
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 219-254
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.008.11014In the 1920s, the young Soviet Republic, rejecting the old social system, turned to the study of the past. Instead of engaging with professional historians, the new regime initiated a whole range of large-scale participatory projects incorporated into political and public institutions to produce new, revolutionary history. In this article, instead of approaching this topic in terms of ideology and memory I put it in the context of history of science. Focusing on the case of trade unions, I suggest considering the early Soviet non-academic history-writing as a form of radical citizen science. Even though trade unionists had no special education, they dared to use scientific methods in their research that ended with positive results. This story allows us to question the opposition between amateurs and professionals in the field of citizen science.
Krzysztof Maślanka, Jacek Rodzeń, Ewa Wyka
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 257-293
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.009.11015This paper presents examples of mathematical models which have almost passed into oblivion, yet a few decades ago still played a significant role in the teaching of mathematics. In the late nineteenth century such devices started to be produced on a large scale for schools and universities. The Jagiellonian University Museum has three such models in perfect condition in its collections.
Halina Lichocka
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 295-313
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.010.11016Is the chemical element Vestium discovered by Jędrzej Śniadecki the same as the Ruthenium? The dispute on this subject has been going on for more than one hundred years. At present, this dispute over recognition of the priority of discovery is very difficult to resolve. However, from the point of view of the history of chemistry, another aspect is more important in all this. In this context, it turns out that Jędrzej Śniadecki was the first researcher who tried to prove the existence of the sixth platinum metal. Time showed that Śniadecki was right. The confirmation of this was the subsequent separation of the metallic ruthenium by Karl Ernst Claus.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 505-513
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.015.11021The article presents the results of the evaluation of the Polish journals from the history of science, history, philosophy of science, and science of science, based on the “List of journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland 2017 & 2019” and “ICI Journal Master List 2014–2017”. A comment has also been added to these results. The following facts were noted:
a) the fact that there is a negative correlation between the journal’s rating in the “List of journals MNiSW 2019” and the journal’s ratings in the “ICI Journal Master List 2014–2017” for journals from the history and history of science;
b) the fact that the presence of the journal in the DOAJ does not raise the ministerial rating of the journal;
c) the fact that the evaluation of the journal in the Scopus database has not significantly affected the increase in the ministerial rating: the rating depends on the discipline and sub-discipline;
d) the fact that journals from the ministerial program “Support for scientific journals 2019–2020” (WCN 2019–2020) and ERIH+ received 20 to 70 points; their ministerial ratings depend on discipline and sub-discipline.
In addition, it was hoped that for the good of Polish science, some errors of the “List of journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Polish Republic 2019” would be removed in a short time, as some magazines received too low marks (this statement results from a comparison of journals’ achievements, including bibliometric indicators).
Paweł E. Tomaszewski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 517-529
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.016.11022Several remarks on the text by Mariusz W. Majewski devoted to the history of the Institute of Metallurgy and Metal Science at the Technical University of Warsaw, and on the role of Prof. Jan Czochralski, are presented. The aim was to show that the topic has not been exhausted, and some wordings need correction.
Mariusz W. Majewski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 531-553
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.017.11023The article is a response to the polemical commentary by Paweł E. Tomaszewski, PhD, published in the current volume of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum 18 (2019), regarding the author’s earlier article on the work of the Institute of Metallurgy and Metal Science at the Warsaw University of Technology with the addenda to the biography of Jan Czochralski, published in the previous volume of the journal.
It is well known that any attempt to compile the history of any issue requires critical approach to historical sources and that acquiring information collected in archival sources, the press and memoirs requires from the researcher a diligent and thorough comparative work. However, the problem arises when an author of a future publication has only few sources at his disposal, or even only one, which was the case here.
The article answers the doubts bothering Paweł E. Tomaszewski regarding the financing of the construction and equipment of the Institute of Metallurgy and Metallurgy at the Warsaw University of Technology and the origin and work of Jan Czochralski. The issues of the enterprises Zakłady Hohenlohe SA, Wspólnota Interesów and Wspólnota Interesów Górniczo-Hutniczych SA were also discussed.
The author proposes that a systematic team inquiry into both press and archival resources regarding Jan Czochralski should be carried out, and researchers should be allowed access to respective private archives. This will allow for a more research-grounded historical syntheses of Jan Czochralski.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 557-561
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.018.11024The article describes the course of the Working Session „Polish scientific journals from the disciplines: «history and philosophy of science» and «science of science» – current challenges” (Kraków, 25 June 2019), organized by the Commission of the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 563-566
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.019.11025The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018/2019. It presents the lists of: scientific meetings, conferences, symposia, new members of the Commission, and new publications.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 567-570
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.020.11026Abstract
The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018/2019. It presents the lists of: scientific meetings, conferences, symposia, new members of the Commission, and new publications.
Tomasz Pudłocki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 315-326
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.011.11017The author discusses the archival legacy of William John Rose (1885–1968), a Canadian Slavist, historian and sociologist, showing its usefulness in researching the history of science and the relations between Polish scholars and scientists from Anglo-Saxon countries. Due to the distance of Vancouver from Poland, the Rose Fond collected in the Archives of the University of British Columbia (Canada) has not been the subject of interest of Polish scholars so far, but it is worth noting due to its richness and thematic diversity.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 327-464
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.012.11018This article investigates the forgotten achievements of Władysław Natanson (1864–1937) related to the creation of Bose-Einstein statistics.
The introductory part of the article presents considerations regarding the methodology of history and the history of exact sciences, and then the divergent research perspectives that can be taken in the description of the history of Bose-Einstein statistics, as well as the author’s integrated approach to this issue, which eliminates the disadvantages of these divergent views.
This integrated approach is then used to describe the achievements of Władysław Natanson related to the creation of Bose-Einstein statistics.
These achievements are presented against the background and in the context of discussions which – relatively sporadically – took place among various groups of researchers: historians and philosophers of science, physicists, sociologists of scientific knowledge in the 20th and 21st centuries.
These discussions have now been reordered here. They are followed by a presentation of the complete list of Natanson’s publications regarding the subject. Also shown is his strategy to quote reliably the bibliography with regard to the explanation of the distribution of blackbody radiation and related issues.
Additionally, a list of scientists who knew Natanson’s publications has been supplemented in the article and the precursorship of Natanson’s achievements is explained. This is followed by a rebuttal of many erroneous or simplified statements about him and his achievements.
The already well-known terminological conventions have been recalled: “Bose statistics” and “Bose-Einstein statistics”, as well as recently introduced: “Planck-Bose statistics” (1984), “Natanson’s statistics” (1997)”, “Natanson-Bose-Einstein statistics” (2005), “Planck-Natanson-Bose-Einstein statistics” (2011), and “Natanson statistics” (2013).
New terminological conventions have been introduced: “Boltzmann-Planck-Natanson statistics” and “Boltzmann-Planck-Natanson-Bose-Einstein statistics”.
A side effect of this research is a discovery that Robert K. Merton – the author of the label ‘Matthew effect’ – chose the name of the effect using erroneous premises and the effect should therefore be named after its actual discoverer.
The article is accompanied by four appendixes: the first presents reflections on the methodology of historiography and historiography of exact sciences, the second – a commentary on the use of the terms: “Bose statistics”, “Bose-Einstein statistics”, “Einstein-Bose statistics” and “Planck-Bose statistics”, the third – a very important letter by Max Planck to Władysław Natanson (of 25 January 1913), and the fourth – the excerpts of two letters from Sommerfeld to Rubinowicz (of 1 October 1919 and 1 November 1919).
Enrique Wulff
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 465-490
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.013.11019Until the 1950s, the first results in the studies of calcitonin-thyrocalcitonin were ignored in the accepted research scheme. However, it was José Fernández Nonídez from the Spanish School of Histology, died in Augusta (Georgia, USA) in 1947, whose expertise in the parafollicular cells of the mammalian thyroid had led him to an advanced understanding of this separate endocrine organ, which secretes calcitonin. The antecedent of the secretion was present in the cytoplasm of these cells, which Nonídez explained in a paper published in 1932.
In 1973, a Spanish group from the Instituto Gregorio Marañón (Madrid) leading the research into the ectopic production of calcitonin identified the precursor responsible for its biosynthesis. Nonetheless, given the informal power in connection with the communication between the scientists, this significative contribution was absolutely discarded in terms of acknowledgment within their social circle. The services responsible for dissemination of scientific knowledge considered that priority should be given to another group of young scientists dedicated to pro-calcitonin evidence.
The nature and extent of informal communication are highlighted in countries with different measures to guarantee the autonomy and independence of their state powers. Irrespectively of political circumstances, the paper is focused on the competition between two different approaches in science particularly important for progress in medicine: the perspective presented by experimental studies in basic sciences (in animals) and the models developed in clinical sciences.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 18 (2019), 2019, pp. 493-504
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.014.11020The article presents an introduction to the topic of the Working Session “Polish scientific journals from disciplines: «history and philosophy of science» and «science of science» –current challenges”organized by the PAU Commission on the History of Sciencein Kraków on 25 June 25 2019, along with specific proposals of organizational and editorial solutions for journals and publishing houses, as well as of legislative solutions regarding the principles of journal evaluation.
Publication date: 12.12.2018
Editor-in-Chief: Magdalena Sztandara
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 13-16
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.001.9321The article outlines the fifth phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science). A new journal website has been created. The information has been provided on the journal indexing and its availability in libraries around the world, the number of foreign authors, and the number of journal reviewers.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 17-20
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.002.9322The article outlines the fifth phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science). A new journal website has been created. The information has been provided on the journal indexing and its availability in libraries around the world, the number of foreign authors, and the number of journal reviewers.
Stanisław Domoradzki, Małgorzata Stawiska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 23-49
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.003.9323In this article we present diverse experiences of Polish mathematicians (in a broad sense) who during World War I fought for freedom of their homeland or conducted their research and teaching in difficult wartime circumstances. We discuss not only individual fates, but also organizational efforts of many kinds (teaching at the academic level outside traditional institutions, Polish scientific societies, publishing activities) in order to illustrate the formation of modern Polish mathematical community.
In Part I we focus on mathematicians affiliated with the existing Polish institutions of higher education: Universities in Lwów in Kraków and the Polytechnical School in Lwów, within the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Aistis Žalnora
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 51-87
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.004.9324Objective: During the interwar period, the healthcare system in Europe experienced a dramatic transformation. It was perceived that preventive medicine was no less important than curative medicine. Moreover, without proper prevention of the so-called social diseases, all later therapeutic measures were expensive and ineffective. The former battle against the consequences was replaced by measures targeting the causes. The fight against social diseases involved a state-owned strategy and a broad arsenal of measures. The University’s scholars also took part in this
process. Our study revealed that the significance of the disease prevention in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Stephen Bathory was well understood. Moreover, the treatment was not segregated from hygiene as strictly as it is today. Many hygienists as well as clinicians contributed to the development of preventive mechanisms. The broad specialization of doctors enabled them to see not only biomedical, but also social and economic aspects of a disease. Hygienists and doctors encouraged cooperation and coordination of their activities with the central and local authorities as well as education of the local population.
The progress of medical science in Europe and the World, as well as the Soviet ideology in Eastern Europe distracted doctors from the search for the etiology of social illness. Biomedical treatment had become much more effective, and the development of social hygiene research in Eastern Europe had experienced stagnation. For ideological reasons the disease etiology in the Soviet bloc could not be associated with social factors. Social hygiene in the Soviet Union was highly politicized; it could only be interpreted in a frame of Soviet models. The healthcare system that had been created in the Soviet Union was named as the best in the world. The actual medical statistics were concealed from the public, since their logical interpretation could reveal the social causes of illnesses and the disadvantages of the soviet system.
Sometimes we must return to basic ideas to improve current public health mechanisms. It is worth reconsidering fundamental questions, i.e. what public health is and how to achieve it. The breadth of the approach of the interwar Vilnius hygienists and doctors, the sensitivity to the social origins of diseases and persistence in combating them by all possible means could serve as an example for today’s doctors. At that time, hygienists approached the idea that the highest goal of prevention was to create a healthy environment, healthy living and working conditions. Although today we live in a much safer environment than those individuals did, new threats are emerging because of changing technology and lifestyle. The broad approach of physicians remains equally important in order not only to combat individual precedents, but also to overcome the preconditions for emerging precedents. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to reveal the theoretical patterns of hygiene and public health established by the hygienists of the Vilnius Hygiene Department as well as the attempts to apply them in practice.
Methods: The study was conducted by analyzing the primary and secondary historical sources using the comparative method. A lot of data from the Lietuvos Centrinis Valstybės Archyvas (Lithuanian Central State Archives) that had been used in this research were published for the first time. According to the original archival data, an analysis of the scientific publications of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Stephen Bathory was made to find out the priorities of the research carried out at that time.
Conclusions: The complicated economic conditions, the lack of support from the local and central government as well as the imperfections in health legislation of that time hindered the full implementation of the hygienist strategies of the University of Stephen Bathory. However, the activities of the Department of Hygiene of Stephen Bathory University had a significant impact on the development of hygiene science as well as medical practice in the Vilnius region during the Interwar period (1919–1939).
Mariusz W. Majewski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 89-117
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.005.9325The article discusses the issues of implementation of important achievements in the field of metallurgy (including armored weapons, fortifications and the navy), under the supervision of prof. Jan Czochralski, who played an important role in the development of the armed forces of the Second Polish Republic.
At the same time, it has been noted that the activities of the institutes were conditioned by the poor development of non-ferrous metallurgy, which contributed to delays in the development of technical thinking in the field of aviation and combustion engines, an important element of the armed forces.
Stanisław Cieślak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 119-149
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.006.9326On September 15th 1922, a young Jesuit, Father S. Bednarski, enrolled at the Jagiellonian University, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, with specialization in modern history, history of culture and history of art. One of his college professors was a well-known historian, Prof. Stanisław Kot.
The Jesuit and Prof. S. Kot shared historical interests and ties of friendship. Prof. S. Kot became the mentor and professor adviser of the Jesuit’s doctoral dissertation, Collapse and rebirth of Jesuit schools in Poland (Kraków, 1933), which on June 15th1934 was awarded a prize by the PAU General Assembly and was considered the best historical work in 1933.
During his research in archives and libraries in Poland and abroad, the Jesuit had in mind not only his own plans but also his mentor’s interests. The student was loyal to his mentor, who was associated with the anti-Piłsudski faction and politically engaged in activities of the Polish Peasant Party. For this reason, Prof. S. Kot did not enjoy the trust of the state authorities. In 1933, as a result of Jędrzejewicz reform, the Chair of Cultural History headed by him was abolished. Fr. S. Bednarski bravely stood in its defence.
The friendship of the mentor and student’s ended in World War II. Prof. S. Kot survived the War and emigrated, where he remained active in politics, while his student died on July 16, 1942 in the German Nazi concentration camp in Dachau near Munich.
Tomasz Pudłocki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 151-174
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.007.9327This article provides a brief history of the English Department at the Jagiellonian University from 1945 to 1952. It presents the members of the staff and discusses their background and responsibilities as well as problems they faced in the new post-war reality. After the death of Prof. Roman Dyboski, the founder and first Head of the Department, and the arrest of his successor, Prof. Władysław Tarnawski, formerly affiliated with the University of Lvov, the staff were mainly of junior academic ranks, with no involvement in any serious research. Despite that and despite a perennial shortage of space and problems with logistics, the number of students enrolling in the English studies programme would increase each year making the Department grow in size and scope. Thanks to the help of the New York Kosciuszko Foundation, the Department received a collection of several thousands of books, a few young American grantees of the Foundation joined the teaching staff, and some of the outstanding academics and students (e.g. Przemysław Mroczkowski and Alfred Reszkiewicz) obtained funding support to study or conduct research abroad. For ideological reasons, however, Poland’s authorities closed the programme, which ultimately led to the closure of the Department in 1952.
Paweł E. Tomaszewski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 175-203
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.008.9328Institute of Low Temperature and Structure Research of Polish Academy of Sciences celebrated its 50th anniversary in November 2016. The paper presents the history of the Institute going backward to the history of other ten scientific institutions from which the Institute was finally founded in 1966. It shows the efforts of Prof. Roman Ingarden and Prof. Włodzimierz Trzebiatowski to establish a powerful center of physics and physico-chemistry of solid state in Wrocław.
David E. Dunning
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 207-251
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.009.9329Between the World Wars, a robust research community emerged in the nascent discipline of mathematical logic in Warsaw. Logic in Warsaw grew out of overlapping imperial legacies, launched mainly by Polish-speaking scholars who had trained in Habsburg universities and had come during the First World War to the University of Warsaw, an institution controlled until recently by Russia and reconstructed as Polish under the auspices of German occupation. The intellectuals who formed the Warsaw School of Logic embraced a patriotic Polish identity. Competitive nationalist attitudes were common among interwar scientists – a stance historians have called “Olympic internationalism,” in which nationalism and internationalism interacted as complementary rather than conflicting impulses.
One of the School’s leaders, Jan Łukasiewicz, developed a system of notation that he promoted as a universal tool for logical research and communication. A number of his compatriots embraced it, but few logicians outside Poland did; Łukasiewicz’s notation thus inadvertently served as a distinctively national vehicle for his and his colleagues’ output. What he had intended as his most universally applicable invention became instead a respected but provincialized way of writing. Łukasiewicz’s system later spread in an unanticipated form, when postwar computer scientists found aspects of its design practical for working under the specific constraints of machinery; they developed a modified version for programming called “Reverse Polish Notation” (RPN). RPN attained a measure of international currency that Polish notation in logic never had, enjoying a global career in a different discipline outside its namesake country. The ways in which versions of the notation spread, and remained or did not remain “Polish” as they traveled, depended on how readers (whether in mathematical logic or computer science) chose to read it; the production of a nationalized science was inseparable from its international reception.
Maciej Górny
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 253-272
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.010.9330This article analyses strategies used by geographers of Central and Eastern Europe, foremost Poland, to improve their international position, in the interwar. The boycott of Germany and its former allies almost until mid-1930s was a challenge to this group and it gradually hindered its development. The most original attempt at overcoming the threat of marginalization were congresses of Slavic geographers organized from 1924. The greatest success, however, came with the 1934 Warsaw congress of the Geographical Union, which was also the occasion for German geographers to fully return to international scholarly exchange.
Jerzy Sawicki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 275-340
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.011.9331On October 11, 1745, a German scientist Ewald Georg (Jürgen) Kleist in Cammin in Pommern (today Kamień Pomorski) discovered both the phenomenon of storing electricity in a glass vessel with water, and a new device – an electric capacitor. Kleist quickly and correctly announced his discovery to the scientific community.
The greatest help in confirming the discovery and its publication was received by Kleist from Daniel Gralath who was active in the first Polish Society for Experimental Physics Societas Physicae Experimentalis in Gdańsk.
At the beginning of 1746, in the Dutch Leiden, in the workshop of the famous professor Pieter Musschenbroek, an experiment was conducted similar to the one in Cammin. The information about the Leiden experiment quickly reached Paris, the centre of European science of that time, and which lead to a proclamation of a new, very important physical discovery. The experiment gained wide publicity in Europe thanks to numerous public repetitions. The French promoter of the Leiden experiment was physicist Jean-Antoine Nollet.
The discoverer’s fame was unjustly attributed to Musschenbroek and Leiden, although Daniel Gralath reported Nollet’s letter about Kleist’s priority. From the moment of discovery to modern times, scientific publications in the field of physics and history of science often misrepresent the person of the discoverer, the place of discovery and its name.
The aim of the article is to present a broad overview of the reports, descriptions and opinions contained in scientific publications about the discovery. In the review presented in the article, 117 books are divided by country of issue, language and time of publication. The most frequent errors were classified and assigned to the analyzed publications. The result turned out to be surprising, as only 6 items were free of errors, and in the remaining, 254 errors were found. Unfortunately, in both former and contemporary publications, Kleist is sometimes ignored, and even if noticed, his discovery is usually depreciated in various ways. It may come as a surprise that the first two works on the history of electrical research written in the eighteenth century by Daniel Gralath and Joseph Priestley correctly and profoundly convey the course of events and the priority of Kleist’s discovery. It turns out that the French untrue version of the history of this finding is still alive, especially in European countries, so that pupils, students and physics enthusiasts receive a false message about this important discovery.
In the circle of reliable researchers in the history of science, the priority of Kleist’s discovery is widely recognized, but even they have a problem with naming the electric capacitor discovered by the Cammin physicist differently than the Leiden jar. One of the reasons for the poor knowledge of Kleist and his experiment is scant scientific literature on the subject and the ignorance of the source texts written by the Cammin explorer. This gap is bridged by a scientific monograph written by the author of the present article. The text of this paper complements the information presented in the author’s book entitled Ewald Georg Kleist – Wielki odkrywca z małego miasta (A great discoverer from a small town): Kamień Pomorski 1745 (Warszawa: Instytut Historii Nauki PAN, Stowarzyszenie Elektryków Polskich, Zachodniopomorski Uniwersytet Technologiczny w Szczecinie, 2018).
Tomasz Mróz
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 341-364
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.012.9332The paper presents Lewis Campbell (1830–1908), his research on Plato, and the collection of letters sent to this Scottish scholar by: James Martineau (1805–1900), William Hepworth Thompson (1810–1886), Paul Shorey (1857–1934), Wincenty Lutosławski (1863–1954), Eduard Gottlob Zeller (1814–1908), Franz Susemihl (1826–1901), and Theodor Gomperz (1832–1912). This collection supplements the knowledge of the research on Plato’s dialogues at the turn of the 20th century, since Plato scholars in their letters touched on the issues relating to the methods and results of the research on the chronology of Plato’s dialogues. They made judgements concerning the works of other academics, they sent to each other their own publications, and reported on the progress of their studies. They also did not shy away from making personal remarks and communicating personal reflections.
Jan Woleński
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 365-389
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.013.9333Legal theory was the main field of Leon Petrażycki’s investigations. However, his interests also included philosophy, methodology, psychology and sociology. His views in these fields were non-trivial, not only as far as the cognitive horizon of his time was concerned, but also with regard to the present epoche. Particularly significant is the idea of politics of law, i.e. the investigation and prediction of social effects of legal systems.
Nobukata Nagasawa
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 391-419
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.014.9334Possible reasons are studied why Ladislas (Władysław) Natanson’s paper on the statistical theory of radiation, published in 1911 both in English and in the German translation, was not cited properly in the early history of quantum statistics by outstanding scientists, such as Arnold Sommerfeld, Paul Ehrenfest, Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein.
The social and psychological aspects are discussed as background to many so far discussions on the academic evaluation of his theory.
In order to avoid in the future such Natansonian cases of very limited reception of valuable scientific works, it is proposed to introduce a digital tag in which all the information of relevant papers published so far should be automatically accumulated and updated.
Maria Pawłowska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 421-449
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.015.9335The article discusses an extraordinary event, i.e. the First International Cosmic Rays Conference, which took place in Cracow in 1947, shortly after the end of the Second World War. The conference was organized by a group of theoretical physicists from the Jagiellonian University and the Academy of Mining under the leadership of Professor Jan Weyssenhoff. The achievements of Polish physicists, especially Cracow scientists, who were involved in the study of cosmic radiation in the 1930s and 1940s are reminded of in this article. The author recalls names of outstanding physicists representing the most wellknown research centers in Europe and the United States during the Conference. The article was enriched with photographs taken during the Conference and numerous unofficial meetings that took place in October 1947 in Cracow. The author of the pictures, Andrzej Hrynkiewicz, was a young scientist, and later professor of nuclear physics at the Jagiellonian University and the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 453-476
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.016.9336The article presents essential reservations about the proposal and the adopted Act 2.0 vel Constitution for Science. It focuses on the analysis of two topics: model of university and model of evaluation of journals and books. Our analysis is made in the light of knowledge of integrated sciences of science (containing, i.a., history of science, history of organization of higher education system and science, scientometrics and bibliometrics) and a model of university of new humanism.
The article calls for introduction of series of vital modifications in the analyzed Act 2.0 and implementing regulations to remedy their fundamental drawbacks.
Viktor Blåsjö
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 479-497
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.017.9337I reply to recent arguments by Peter Barker & Tofigh Heidarzadeh, Arun Bala, and F. Jamil Ragep claiming that certain aspects Copernicus’s astronomical models where influenced by late Islamic authors connected with the Maragha school. In particular, I argue that: the deleted passage in De revolutionibus that allegedly references unspecified previous authors on the Tusi couple actually refers to a simple harmonic motion, and not the Tusi couple; the arguments based on lettering and other conventions used in Copernicus’s figure for the Tusi couple have no evidentiary merit whatever; alleged indications that Nicole Oresme was aware of the Tusi couple are much more naturally explained on other grounds; plausibility considerations regarding the status of Arabic astronomy and norms regarding novelty claims weight against the influence thesis, not for it.
Alicja Rafalska-Łasocha
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 501-521
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.018.9338The article regards the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Marie Sklodowska-Curie − a discoverer of polonium and radium, twice decorated with a Noble Prize, the first woman professor of the Sorbonne, who in the ranking organized by the periodical New Scientist was considered the most outstanding and inspiring scientist of all time.
In her youth, many universities (among them also Polish) were closed to women, so Marie Skłodowska studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. When, after her studies, she was not accepted as an assistant at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków (Poland), Marie Skłodowska came back to Paris, married Pierre Curie and started her scientific work in his humble lab.
The scientific achievements of Maria Skłodowska-Curie were a breakthrough in the history of exact sciences and the basis for the application of new methods in oncological therapies. For modern scientists she is a timeless source of inspiration and is admired not only for her scientific achievements but also for her courage in breaking barriers and helping to redefine the role of women in society and science.
On November 7, 2017, we celebrated the 150th anniversary of Marie Skłodowska-Curie’s birth. In Poland and abroad many events were organized during the whole year of 2017 to commemorate her life and achievements. Some of them, as well as some aspects of Skłodowska-Curie’s life and work are described in this paper.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 523-526
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.019.9339The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017/2018. It presents the lists of: scientific meetings, new members, new publications, and members who have died.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 527-530
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.020.9340The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017/2018. It presents the lists of: scientific meetings, new members, new publications, and members who have died.
Krzysztof Maślanka
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 533-548
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.021.9341In this note we present brief curriculum vitae and scientific achievements of the recently deceased astronomer Piotr Flin.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 549-582
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.022.9342The bibliography presents the list of publications by Piotr Flin (1945–2018), an astronomer and exact sciences historian.
This study presents a list of two hundred and fifty (including two hundred and forty-three separate) publications of the late Piotr Flin and a list of three doctoral theses he supervised. It is likely that the list of publications presented is not a complete bibliography of the author’s works.
Due to the specificity of the study, the co-authored publications are listed in a chronological order, not an alphabetical order of co-authors. In addition, compared to the standard bibliographical style adopted in the journal, the date of publication appears at the end of each bibliographic record in square brackets. Providing the date in this format follows the convention adopted on the SAO / NASA portal Astrophysics Data System and its enriched copy: “The Science Archive Facility” at the European Southern Observatory. In accordance with the conventions adopted in the aforementioned portals, the list of publications also includes two reviews of a co-authored monograph by P. Flin.
Anita Magowska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 583-599
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.023.9343This article focuses on life and scientific developments of Zbigniew Bela (1948–2018) who was professor of the history of pharmacy and director of the Museum of Pharmacy of Jagiellonian University in Cracow. The aim of the article is to identify specificity of his research activity, particular because he was a Polish language scholar, however, interested in the history of pharmacy. It was proven that he used literary perspective to investigate the history of pharmacy that was very original and peculiar. His most important achievements were monographs inspired and illustrated by items from the Museum of Pharmacy in Cracow, especially the 16th century formulary by Alexey from Piedmont.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 601-617
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.024.9344The bibliography presents the list of publications by Zbigniew Bela (1949–2018), a philologist, prosaist, and historian of pharmacy.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 13-16
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.001.9321The article outlines the fifth phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science). A new journal website has been created. The information has been provided on the journal indexing and its availability in libraries around the world, the number of foreign authors, and the number of journal reviewers.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 17-20
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.002.9322The article outlines the fifth phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science). A new journal website has been created. The information has been provided on the journal indexing and its availability in libraries around the world, the number of foreign authors, and the number of journal reviewers.
Stanisław Domoradzki, Małgorzata Stawiska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 23-49
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.003.9323In this article we present diverse experiences of Polish mathematicians (in a broad sense) who during World War I fought for freedom of their homeland or conducted their research and teaching in difficult wartime circumstances. We discuss not only individual fates, but also organizational efforts of many kinds (teaching at the academic level outside traditional institutions, Polish scientific societies, publishing activities) in order to illustrate the formation of modern Polish mathematical community.
In Part I we focus on mathematicians affiliated with the existing Polish institutions of higher education: Universities in Lwów in Kraków and the Polytechnical School in Lwów, within the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Aistis Žalnora
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 51-87
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.004.9324Objective: During the interwar period, the healthcare system in Europe experienced a dramatic transformation. It was perceived that preventive medicine was no less important than curative medicine. Moreover, without proper prevention of the so-called social diseases, all later therapeutic measures were expensive and ineffective. The former battle against the consequences was replaced by measures targeting the causes. The fight against social diseases involved a state-owned strategy and a broad arsenal of measures. The University’s scholars also took part in this
process. Our study revealed that the significance of the disease prevention in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Stephen Bathory was well understood. Moreover, the treatment was not segregated from hygiene as strictly as it is today. Many hygienists as well as clinicians contributed to the development of preventive mechanisms. The broad specialization of doctors enabled them to see not only biomedical, but also social and economic aspects of a disease. Hygienists and doctors encouraged cooperation and coordination of their activities with the central and local authorities as well as education of the local population.
The progress of medical science in Europe and the World, as well as the Soviet ideology in Eastern Europe distracted doctors from the search for the etiology of social illness. Biomedical treatment had become much more effective, and the development of social hygiene research in Eastern Europe had experienced stagnation. For ideological reasons the disease etiology in the Soviet bloc could not be associated with social factors. Social hygiene in the Soviet Union was highly politicized; it could only be interpreted in a frame of Soviet models. The healthcare system that had been created in the Soviet Union was named as the best in the world. The actual medical statistics were concealed from the public, since their logical interpretation could reveal the social causes of illnesses and the disadvantages of the soviet system.
Sometimes we must return to basic ideas to improve current public health mechanisms. It is worth reconsidering fundamental questions, i.e. what public health is and how to achieve it. The breadth of the approach of the interwar Vilnius hygienists and doctors, the sensitivity to the social origins of diseases and persistence in combating them by all possible means could serve as an example for today’s doctors. At that time, hygienists approached the idea that the highest goal of prevention was to create a healthy environment, healthy living and working conditions. Although today we live in a much safer environment than those individuals did, new threats are emerging because of changing technology and lifestyle. The broad approach of physicians remains equally important in order not only to combat individual precedents, but also to overcome the preconditions for emerging precedents. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to reveal the theoretical patterns of hygiene and public health established by the hygienists of the Vilnius Hygiene Department as well as the attempts to apply them in practice.
Methods: The study was conducted by analyzing the primary and secondary historical sources using the comparative method. A lot of data from the Lietuvos Centrinis Valstybės Archyvas (Lithuanian Central State Archives) that had been used in this research were published for the first time. According to the original archival data, an analysis of the scientific publications of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Stephen Bathory was made to find out the priorities of the research carried out at that time.
Conclusions: The complicated economic conditions, the lack of support from the local and central government as well as the imperfections in health legislation of that time hindered the full implementation of the hygienist strategies of the University of Stephen Bathory. However, the activities of the Department of Hygiene of Stephen Bathory University had a significant impact on the development of hygiene science as well as medical practice in the Vilnius region during the Interwar period (1919–1939).
Mariusz W. Majewski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 89-117
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.005.9325The article discusses the issues of implementation of important achievements in the field of metallurgy (including armored weapons, fortifications and the navy), under the supervision of prof. Jan Czochralski, who played an important role in the development of the armed forces of the Second Polish Republic.
At the same time, it has been noted that the activities of the institutes were conditioned by the poor development of non-ferrous metallurgy, which contributed to delays in the development of technical thinking in the field of aviation and combustion engines, an important element of the armed forces.
Stanisław Cieślak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 119-149
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.006.9326On September 15th 1922, a young Jesuit, Father S. Bednarski, enrolled at the Jagiellonian University, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, with specialization in modern history, history of culture and history of art. One of his college professors was a well-known historian, Prof. Stanisław Kot.
The Jesuit and Prof. S. Kot shared historical interests and ties of friendship. Prof. S. Kot became the mentor and professor adviser of the Jesuit’s doctoral dissertation, Collapse and rebirth of Jesuit schools in Poland (Kraków, 1933), which on June 15th1934 was awarded a prize by the PAU General Assembly and was considered the best historical work in 1933.
During his research in archives and libraries in Poland and abroad, the Jesuit had in mind not only his own plans but also his mentor’s interests. The student was loyal to his mentor, who was associated with the anti-Piłsudski faction and politically engaged in activities of the Polish Peasant Party. For this reason, Prof. S. Kot did not enjoy the trust of the state authorities. In 1933, as a result of Jędrzejewicz reform, the Chair of Cultural History headed by him was abolished. Fr. S. Bednarski bravely stood in its defence.
The friendship of the mentor and student’s ended in World War II. Prof. S. Kot survived the War and emigrated, where he remained active in politics, while his student died on July 16, 1942 in the German Nazi concentration camp in Dachau near Munich.
Tomasz Pudłocki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 151-174
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.007.9327This article provides a brief history of the English Department at the Jagiellonian University from 1945 to 1952. It presents the members of the staff and discusses their background and responsibilities as well as problems they faced in the new post-war reality. After the death of Prof. Roman Dyboski, the founder and first Head of the Department, and the arrest of his successor, Prof. Władysław Tarnawski, formerly affiliated with the University of Lvov, the staff were mainly of junior academic ranks, with no involvement in any serious research. Despite that and despite a perennial shortage of space and problems with logistics, the number of students enrolling in the English studies programme would increase each year making the Department grow in size and scope. Thanks to the help of the New York Kosciuszko Foundation, the Department received a collection of several thousands of books, a few young American grantees of the Foundation joined the teaching staff, and some of the outstanding academics and students (e.g. Przemysław Mroczkowski and Alfred Reszkiewicz) obtained funding support to study or conduct research abroad. For ideological reasons, however, Poland’s authorities closed the programme, which ultimately led to the closure of the Department in 1952.
Paweł E. Tomaszewski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 175-203
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.008.9328Institute of Low Temperature and Structure Research of Polish Academy of Sciences celebrated its 50th anniversary in November 2016. The paper presents the history of the Institute going backward to the history of other ten scientific institutions from which the Institute was finally founded in 1966. It shows the efforts of Prof. Roman Ingarden and Prof. Włodzimierz Trzebiatowski to establish a powerful center of physics and physico-chemistry of solid state in Wrocław.
David E. Dunning
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 207-251
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.009.9329Between the World Wars, a robust research community emerged in the nascent discipline of mathematical logic in Warsaw. Logic in Warsaw grew out of overlapping imperial legacies, launched mainly by Polish-speaking scholars who had trained in Habsburg universities and had come during the First World War to the University of Warsaw, an institution controlled until recently by Russia and reconstructed as Polish under the auspices of German occupation. The intellectuals who formed the Warsaw School of Logic embraced a patriotic Polish identity. Competitive nationalist attitudes were common among interwar scientists – a stance historians have called “Olympic internationalism,” in which nationalism and internationalism interacted as complementary rather than conflicting impulses.
One of the School’s leaders, Jan Łukasiewicz, developed a system of notation that he promoted as a universal tool for logical research and communication. A number of his compatriots embraced it, but few logicians outside Poland did; Łukasiewicz’s notation thus inadvertently served as a distinctively national vehicle for his and his colleagues’ output. What he had intended as his most universally applicable invention became instead a respected but provincialized way of writing. Łukasiewicz’s system later spread in an unanticipated form, when postwar computer scientists found aspects of its design practical for working under the specific constraints of machinery; they developed a modified version for programming called “Reverse Polish Notation” (RPN). RPN attained a measure of international currency that Polish notation in logic never had, enjoying a global career in a different discipline outside its namesake country. The ways in which versions of the notation spread, and remained or did not remain “Polish” as they traveled, depended on how readers (whether in mathematical logic or computer science) chose to read it; the production of a nationalized science was inseparable from its international reception.
Maciej Górny
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 253-272
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.010.9330This article analyses strategies used by geographers of Central and Eastern Europe, foremost Poland, to improve their international position, in the interwar. The boycott of Germany and its former allies almost until mid-1930s was a challenge to this group and it gradually hindered its development. The most original attempt at overcoming the threat of marginalization were congresses of Slavic geographers organized from 1924. The greatest success, however, came with the 1934 Warsaw congress of the Geographical Union, which was also the occasion for German geographers to fully return to international scholarly exchange.
Jerzy Sawicki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 275-340
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.011.9331On October 11, 1745, a German scientist Ewald Georg (Jürgen) Kleist in Cammin in Pommern (today Kamień Pomorski) discovered both the phenomenon of storing electricity in a glass vessel with water, and a new device – an electric capacitor. Kleist quickly and correctly announced his discovery to the scientific community.
The greatest help in confirming the discovery and its publication was received by Kleist from Daniel Gralath who was active in the first Polish Society for Experimental Physics Societas Physicae Experimentalis in Gdańsk.
At the beginning of 1746, in the Dutch Leiden, in the workshop of the famous professor Pieter Musschenbroek, an experiment was conducted similar to the one in Cammin. The information about the Leiden experiment quickly reached Paris, the centre of European science of that time, and which lead to a proclamation of a new, very important physical discovery. The experiment gained wide publicity in Europe thanks to numerous public repetitions. The French promoter of the Leiden experiment was physicist Jean-Antoine Nollet.
The discoverer’s fame was unjustly attributed to Musschenbroek and Leiden, although Daniel Gralath reported Nollet’s letter about Kleist’s priority. From the moment of discovery to modern times, scientific publications in the field of physics and history of science often misrepresent the person of the discoverer, the place of discovery and its name.
The aim of the article is to present a broad overview of the reports, descriptions and opinions contained in scientific publications about the discovery. In the review presented in the article, 117 books are divided by country of issue, language and time of publication. The most frequent errors were classified and assigned to the analyzed publications. The result turned out to be surprising, as only 6 items were free of errors, and in the remaining, 254 errors were found. Unfortunately, in both former and contemporary publications, Kleist is sometimes ignored, and even if noticed, his discovery is usually depreciated in various ways. It may come as a surprise that the first two works on the history of electrical research written in the eighteenth century by Daniel Gralath and Joseph Priestley correctly and profoundly convey the course of events and the priority of Kleist’s discovery. It turns out that the French untrue version of the history of this finding is still alive, especially in European countries, so that pupils, students and physics enthusiasts receive a false message about this important discovery.
In the circle of reliable researchers in the history of science, the priority of Kleist’s discovery is widely recognized, but even they have a problem with naming the electric capacitor discovered by the Cammin physicist differently than the Leiden jar. One of the reasons for the poor knowledge of Kleist and his experiment is scant scientific literature on the subject and the ignorance of the source texts written by the Cammin explorer. This gap is bridged by a scientific monograph written by the author of the present article. The text of this paper complements the information presented in the author’s book entitled Ewald Georg Kleist – Wielki odkrywca z małego miasta (A great discoverer from a small town): Kamień Pomorski 1745 (Warszawa: Instytut Historii Nauki PAN, Stowarzyszenie Elektryków Polskich, Zachodniopomorski Uniwersytet Technologiczny w Szczecinie, 2018).
Tomasz Mróz
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 341-364
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.012.9332The paper presents Lewis Campbell (1830–1908), his research on Plato, and the collection of letters sent to this Scottish scholar by: James Martineau (1805–1900), William Hepworth Thompson (1810–1886), Paul Shorey (1857–1934), Wincenty Lutosławski (1863–1954), Eduard Gottlob Zeller (1814–1908), Franz Susemihl (1826–1901), and Theodor Gomperz (1832–1912). This collection supplements the knowledge of the research on Plato’s dialogues at the turn of the 20th century, since Plato scholars in their letters touched on the issues relating to the methods and results of the research on the chronology of Plato’s dialogues. They made judgements concerning the works of other academics, they sent to each other their own publications, and reported on the progress of their studies. They also did not shy away from making personal remarks and communicating personal reflections.
Jan Woleński
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 365-389
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.013.9333Legal theory was the main field of Leon Petrażycki’s investigations. However, his interests also included philosophy, methodology, psychology and sociology. His views in these fields were non-trivial, not only as far as the cognitive horizon of his time was concerned, but also with regard to the present epoche. Particularly significant is the idea of politics of law, i.e. the investigation and prediction of social effects of legal systems.
Nobukata Nagasawa
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 391-419
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.014.9334Possible reasons are studied why Ladislas (Władysław) Natanson’s paper on the statistical theory of radiation, published in 1911 both in English and in the German translation, was not cited properly in the early history of quantum statistics by outstanding scientists, such as Arnold Sommerfeld, Paul Ehrenfest, Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein.
The social and psychological aspects are discussed as background to many so far discussions on the academic evaluation of his theory.
In order to avoid in the future such Natansonian cases of very limited reception of valuable scientific works, it is proposed to introduce a digital tag in which all the information of relevant papers published so far should be automatically accumulated and updated.
Maria Pawłowska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 421-449
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.015.9335The article discusses an extraordinary event, i.e. the First International Cosmic Rays Conference, which took place in Cracow in 1947, shortly after the end of the Second World War. The conference was organized by a group of theoretical physicists from the Jagiellonian University and the Academy of Mining under the leadership of Professor Jan Weyssenhoff. The achievements of Polish physicists, especially Cracow scientists, who were involved in the study of cosmic radiation in the 1930s and 1940s are reminded of in this article. The author recalls names of outstanding physicists representing the most wellknown research centers in Europe and the United States during the Conference. The article was enriched with photographs taken during the Conference and numerous unofficial meetings that took place in October 1947 in Cracow. The author of the pictures, Andrzej Hrynkiewicz, was a young scientist, and later professor of nuclear physics at the Jagiellonian University and the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 453-476
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.016.9336The article presents essential reservations about the proposal and the adopted Act 2.0 vel Constitution for Science. It focuses on the analysis of two topics: model of university and model of evaluation of journals and books. Our analysis is made in the light of knowledge of integrated sciences of science (containing, i.a., history of science, history of organization of higher education system and science, scientometrics and bibliometrics) and a model of university of new humanism.
The article calls for introduction of series of vital modifications in the analyzed Act 2.0 and implementing regulations to remedy their fundamental drawbacks.
Viktor Blåsjö
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 479-497
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.017.9337I reply to recent arguments by Peter Barker & Tofigh Heidarzadeh, Arun Bala, and F. Jamil Ragep claiming that certain aspects Copernicus’s astronomical models where influenced by late Islamic authors connected with the Maragha school. In particular, I argue that: the deleted passage in De revolutionibus that allegedly references unspecified previous authors on the Tusi couple actually refers to a simple harmonic motion, and not the Tusi couple; the arguments based on lettering and other conventions used in Copernicus’s figure for the Tusi couple have no evidentiary merit whatever; alleged indications that Nicole Oresme was aware of the Tusi couple are much more naturally explained on other grounds; plausibility considerations regarding the status of Arabic astronomy and norms regarding novelty claims weight against the influence thesis, not for it.
Alicja Rafalska-Łasocha
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 501-521
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.018.9338The article regards the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Marie Sklodowska-Curie − a discoverer of polonium and radium, twice decorated with a Noble Prize, the first woman professor of the Sorbonne, who in the ranking organized by the periodical New Scientist was considered the most outstanding and inspiring scientist of all time.
In her youth, many universities (among them also Polish) were closed to women, so Marie Skłodowska studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. When, after her studies, she was not accepted as an assistant at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków (Poland), Marie Skłodowska came back to Paris, married Pierre Curie and started her scientific work in his humble lab.
The scientific achievements of Maria Skłodowska-Curie were a breakthrough in the history of exact sciences and the basis for the application of new methods in oncological therapies. For modern scientists she is a timeless source of inspiration and is admired not only for her scientific achievements but also for her courage in breaking barriers and helping to redefine the role of women in society and science.
On November 7, 2017, we celebrated the 150th anniversary of Marie Skłodowska-Curie’s birth. In Poland and abroad many events were organized during the whole year of 2017 to commemorate her life and achievements. Some of them, as well as some aspects of Skłodowska-Curie’s life and work are described in this paper.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 523-526
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.019.9339The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017/2018. It presents the lists of: scientific meetings, new members, new publications, and members who have died.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 527-530
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.020.9340The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017/2018. It presents the lists of: scientific meetings, new members, new publications, and members who have died.
Krzysztof Maślanka
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 533-548
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.021.9341In this note we present brief curriculum vitae and scientific achievements of the recently deceased astronomer Piotr Flin.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 549-582
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.022.9342The bibliography presents the list of publications by Piotr Flin (1945–2018), an astronomer and exact sciences historian.
This study presents a list of two hundred and fifty (including two hundred and forty-three separate) publications of the late Piotr Flin and a list of three doctoral theses he supervised. It is likely that the list of publications presented is not a complete bibliography of the author’s works.
Due to the specificity of the study, the co-authored publications are listed in a chronological order, not an alphabetical order of co-authors. In addition, compared to the standard bibliographical style adopted in the journal, the date of publication appears at the end of each bibliographic record in square brackets. Providing the date in this format follows the convention adopted on the SAO / NASA portal Astrophysics Data System and its enriched copy: “The Science Archive Facility” at the European Southern Observatory. In accordance with the conventions adopted in the aforementioned portals, the list of publications also includes two reviews of a co-authored monograph by P. Flin.
Anita Magowska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 583-599
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.023.9343This article focuses on life and scientific developments of Zbigniew Bela (1948–2018) who was professor of the history of pharmacy and director of the Museum of Pharmacy of Jagiellonian University in Cracow. The aim of the article is to identify specificity of his research activity, particular because he was a Polish language scholar, however, interested in the history of pharmacy. It was proven that he used literary perspective to investigate the history of pharmacy that was very original and peculiar. His most important achievements were monographs inspired and illustrated by items from the Museum of Pharmacy in Cracow, especially the 16th century formulary by Alexey from Piedmont.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 17 (2018), 2018, pp. 601-617
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.18.024.9344The bibliography presents the list of publications by Zbigniew Bela (1949–2018), a philologist, prosaist, and historian of pharmacy.
Publication date: 18.12.2017
Editor-in-Chief: Magdalena Sztandara
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 11-14
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.001.7702The article presents the fourth phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science). The sections of the journal were modified, as well as the peer review procedure and the bibliographic style. There has also been an increase in the number of foreign authors and reviewers of the journal.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 15-18
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.002.7703The article presents the fourth phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science). The sections of the journal were modified, as well as the peer review procedure and the bibliographic style. There has also been an increase in the number of foreign authors and reviewers of the journal.
Efthymios Nicolaidis
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 21-27
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.003.7704The 20th Alexandre Koyré Medal awarded since 1968 to prominent historians of science was awarded to Robert Fox, leading historian of European science of the period from the 18th to the beginnings of the 20th century. The Medal was presented to Robert Fox during the 7th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science, Prague, 23 September 2016, and the Éloge describes his career and work.
Robert Fox
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 29-47
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.004.7705In the half-century before the Great War, collaborative international ventures in science became increasingly common. The trend, manifested in scientific congresses and attempts to establish agreement on physical units and systems of nomenclature, had important consequences.
One was the fear of information overload. How were scientists to keep abreast of the growing volume of books, journals, and reports? How were they to do so in an era without a common language? Responses to these challenges helped to foster new departures in cataloguing, bibliography, and an interest in Esperanto and other constructed languages.
By 1914, the responses had also become involved in wider movements that promoted communication as a force for peace.
The Great War dealt a severe blow to these cosmopolitan ideals, and the post-war reordering of international science did little to resurrect them.
A “national turn” during the 1920s assumed a darker form in the 1930s, as totalitarian regimes in the Soviet Union, Italy, Germany, and Spain associated science ever more closely with national interests.
Although the Second World War further undermined the ideal of internationalism in science, the vision of science as part of a world culture open to all soon resurfaced, notably in UNESCO.
As an aspiration, it remains with us today, in ventures for universal access to information made possible by digitization and the World Wide Web).
The challenge in the twenty-first century is how best to turn aspiration into reality.
Robert Fox
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 49-68
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.005.7706In the half-century before the Great War, collaborative international ventures in science became increasingly common. The trend, manifested in scientific congresses and attempts to establish agreement on physical units and systems of nomenclature, had important consequences.
One was the fear of information overload. How were scientists to keep abreast of the growing volume of books, journals, and reports? How were they to do so in an era without a common language? Responses to these challenges helped to foster new departures in cataloguing, bibliography, and an interest in Esperanto and other constructed languages.
By 1914, the responses had also become involved in wider movements that promoted communication as a force for peace.
The Great War dealt a severe blow to these cosmopolitan ideals, and the post-war reordering of international science did little to resurrect them.
A “national turn” during the 1920s assumed a darker form in the 1930s, as totalitarian regimes in the Soviet Union, Italy, Germany, and Spain associated science ever more closely with national interests.
Although the Second World War further undermined the ideal of internationalism in science, the vision of science as part of a world culture open to all soon resurfaced, notably in UNESCO.
As an aspiration, it remains with us today, in ventures for universal access to information made possible by digitization and the World Wide Web).
The challenge in the twenty-first century is how best to turn aspiration into reality.
Robert Fox, Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 69-119
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.006.7707The article is an extended discussion with a laureate of numerous international distinctions, Professor Robert Fox, about his career, intellectual fascinations, as well as changing methods, styles, approaches and themes in the historiography of science and technology.
Krzysztof Ludwik Birkenmajer
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 123-153
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.007.7708The article describes Polish research and discoveries in the Arctic and the Antarctic since the 19th century. The author is a geologist and since 1956 has been engaged in scientific field research on Spitsbergen, Greenland and Antarctica (23 expeditions). For many years chairman of the Committee on Polar Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, he is now its Honorary Chairman.
Paweł E. Tomaszewski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 155-200
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.008.7709In August 2016 exactly one hundred years passed from the discovery of the Czochralski method of single crystal pulling, named after Jan Czochralski (1885–1953), the Polish chemist and metallurgist. To celebrate this anniversary, a translation of Czochralski main publication into Polish was published. In the present paper we show the pharmaceutical inspiration which was most likely a source of the discovery of the Czochralski method. We present the evolution of this method up to obtaining huge single crystals of silicon, the fundamental element of contemporary electronics and our civilization.
Stefan Witold Alexandrowicz
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 201-238
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.009.7710Karl Kolbenheyer was born on May 28, 1841 in Bielsko. After attending a lower secondary school in Cieszyn, he began studies in classical languages (Greek and Latin) at universities in Vienna and Jena, then he worked as a teacher in lower secondary schools in Lewocza, Cieszyn, and Bielsko. The research he undertook included botanical studies, measurements of absolute elevation, and meteorological observations in the Western Beskids as well as in the Tatra Mountains. The results of the studies were printed in German, Austrian, Polish, and Hungarian publications. He found species of plants not known earlier to exist in the area of Cieszyn and Bielsko. The measurements of elevations he made of characteristic points of landscape (more than 500) were used for cartographic purposes. From 1866 on, he was a member of Physiographic Commission of Kraków Scientific Society, and later of the Academy of Fine Arts and Science, which financially supported his field work. Karl Kolbenheyer was one of the founders of the Beskidenverein – a German tourist organisation – and managed its branch in Bielsko. He prepared two tourist guides: the guide to Tatra Mountains – Die hohe Tatra (ten editions), and to the Beskids – Führer durch die Beskiden… (two editions). These guides contributed to the remarkable propagation of tourism. Karl Kolbenheyer died on February 1, 1901, and was buried at the Old Evangelical Cemetery in Bielsko.
Adéla Jůnová Macková
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 241-267
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.010.7711State institutes started emerging shortly after the establishment of the first Czechoslovak Republic (1918) in the form of institutions affiliated to the Ministry of Schools and National Education. They were independent scientific institutions receiving regular state subsidies and their scientific focus and budgets were approved by the state.
The State Institute of Archaeology and the National Institute for Folk Songs were founded in 1919.
We may already follow the activities of the Institute of Oriental Studies and the Institute of Slavic Studies in the early 1920s. – even though they reached full efficiency only in 1928.
The paper shows the organizational and personal transformation of these institutions, in particular from 1948 until 1952 or 1953, when they “voluntarily” became part of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. The incorporation of state institutes into the Academy of Sciences thus gives a clearer picture of the centralization of sciences in the 1950s, arranged according to the Soviet model.
Vyacheslav Artyukh
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 269-301
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.011.7712This article addresses the appropriation of positivist thought by Ukrainian intellectuals in the second half of the nineteenth century, in particular in the field of philosophy of history. By discussing elements of positivist thought in the works of Mykhailo Drahomanov, Ivan Franko and Pantaleimon Kulish, the author argues that all three were under direct influence of positivist thought, but none of them was a blind adherent of positivism. Positivism particularly influenced their thinking about history and the issue of determinism. Importantly, it was not the French positivism of Auguste Comte whose ideas were adopted, but rather the English positivism of Henry Thomas Buckle and John Stuart Mill.
Ewelina Drzewiecka
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 303-331
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.012.7713The aim of the paper is to show the interplay between the power and the science in the context of cultural memory. The focus is on the Cyrillo-Methodian anniversaries in Bulgaria in the communist period, and the object of the analysis is the anniversary of 1969. The context relates to the process of development of new historiography and the functionalization of the nation-centric narrative. The main issue discussed is how the Communist Party, as a political institution, and the Bulgarian Academy of Science, as an academic institution, cooperated to establish a new vision of society. The discussion offers an interpretation in the light of the Orthodox concept of the symphony of power perceived as a metaphor of the relation between the secular and the spiritual power.
Stephen Cooper
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 335-364
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.013.7714The concepts of Ludwik Fleck (1896–1961), a microbiologist, historian, and philosopher of medicine, can be used to analyze the conservative nature of scientific ideas. This is discussed and applied to ideas dominant in the understanding of the eukaryotic cell cycle. These are (a) the G1-phase restriction point as a regulatory element of the mammalian cell cycle, (b) the Rate Change Point proposed to exist in fission yeast, and (c) the proposal that a large number of genes are expressed in a cell-cycle-dependent manner.
Fleck proposed that scientific ideas become fixed and difficult to change because criticisms of current and dominant models are either ignored or turned to support of the current model. The idea of a thought-collective leading to the stability of scientific ideas is a central theme of the theory of Ludwik Fleck.
Steven Laporte
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 367-378
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.014.7715Even though the use of open preprint databases for scholarly publications is commonplace in several disciplines, their possibilities remain largely unexplored in the humanities. This article examines the emergence and the dynamics of academic preprint and evaluates the possibilities for introducing preprint for the humanities.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 379-388
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.015.7716The article discuses the Bill of 23 March 2017 of the “Directive of the Minister of Science and Higher Education, Republic of Poland, dated ………… 2017”. It indicates serious flaws of this Bill regarding legislation and the science of science (including bibliometrics), and proposes significant amendments to the content of the provisions of this Directive.
Michał Rydlewski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 391-406
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.016.7717The article disscuses a set of texts dedicated to the Lvovian microbiologist and theorist of science knowledge – Ludwik Fleck. The article presents the main theses of the texts, taking a substantive and sometimes polemical stance on them.
Karolina Targosz
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 407-444
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.017.7718A number of publications devoted to Jan Heweliusz have been published between 2011 and 2016. On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of his birthday celebrated in 2011, four books have been published gathering the conferences and lectures, with a great deal of foreign authors presenting various aspects of the Gdańsk astronomer’s activities and achievements. In 2014, the publishing of Hevelius’s correspondence was initiated with the volume Prologomena.
This article critically discusses the mentioned publications, pointing out their advantages and shortcomings.
The preliminary study of the volume by Chantal Grell was also published in a Polish translation as a separate book. The author has indeed – more precisely than her predecessors – presented the years of Hevelius’s studies and the network of his correspondents, however overly emphasized his polemics with the French and English scholars. Her final conclusion, qualifying Hevelius as an amateur isolated from the leading currents of the seventeenth century, is contradictory to the evidence of his correspondence, which will be published over the next years.
Tomasz Pudłocki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 447-454
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.018.7719“Intellectuals and the First World War: Central European Perspective”, a conference organized on October 20–22, 2016 in Kraków, was a perfect opportunity to discuss the phenomenon of the 1914–1918 conflict and its impact on the lives of intellectuals and the creators of culture. Many important scientific studies or cultural activities were interrupted by the war as a result of the conscription of the intellectuals and their death either on the WW1 fronts or as civilian victims. On the other hand, the war was also an opportunity for many to redirect professional careers in new directions e.g. in the service of military propaganda. The conference was organized by the Institute of History of the Jagiellonian University with the financial support of the Kraków City Council – City of Kraków. The conference brought together nearly 30 speakers from the European Union and the United States of America.
Jerzy M. Kreiner
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 455-462
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.019.7720The article contains short information about the international conference on the history of world calendars and calendar making. The conference was organized to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the birth of KIM Dam (1416–1464), a leading Korean astronomer and calendar scholar. The papers presented at the conference included the interactions among different cultures and regions, and the contributions of astronomers to calendar making.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 463-466
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.020.7721The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016/2017. It presents the lists of: scientific meeting, conferences, and new publications.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 467-470
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.021.7722The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016/2017. It presents the lists of: scientific meeting, conferences, and new publications.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 11-14
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.001.7702The article presents the fourth phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science). The sections of the journal were modified, as well as the peer review procedure and the bibliographic style. There has also been an increase in the number of foreign authors and reviewers of the journal.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 15-18
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.002.7703The article presents the fourth phase of the development of the journal Studia Historiae Scientiarum (previous name Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU / Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science). The sections of the journal were modified, as well as the peer review procedure and the bibliographic style. There has also been an increase in the number of foreign authors and reviewers of the journal.
Efthymios Nicolaidis
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 21-27
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.003.7704The 20th Alexandre Koyré Medal awarded since 1968 to prominent historians of science was awarded to Robert Fox, leading historian of European science of the period from the 18th to the beginnings of the 20th century. The Medal was presented to Robert Fox during the 7th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science, Prague, 23 September 2016, and the Éloge describes his career and work.
Robert Fox
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 29-47
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.004.7705In the half-century before the Great War, collaborative international ventures in science became increasingly common. The trend, manifested in scientific congresses and attempts to establish agreement on physical units and systems of nomenclature, had important consequences.
One was the fear of information overload. How were scientists to keep abreast of the growing volume of books, journals, and reports? How were they to do so in an era without a common language? Responses to these challenges helped to foster new departures in cataloguing, bibliography, and an interest in Esperanto and other constructed languages.
By 1914, the responses had also become involved in wider movements that promoted communication as a force for peace.
The Great War dealt a severe blow to these cosmopolitan ideals, and the post-war reordering of international science did little to resurrect them.
A “national turn” during the 1920s assumed a darker form in the 1930s, as totalitarian regimes in the Soviet Union, Italy, Germany, and Spain associated science ever more closely with national interests.
Although the Second World War further undermined the ideal of internationalism in science, the vision of science as part of a world culture open to all soon resurfaced, notably in UNESCO.
As an aspiration, it remains with us today, in ventures for universal access to information made possible by digitization and the World Wide Web).
The challenge in the twenty-first century is how best to turn aspiration into reality.
Robert Fox
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 49-68
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.005.7706In the half-century before the Great War, collaborative international ventures in science became increasingly common. The trend, manifested in scientific congresses and attempts to establish agreement on physical units and systems of nomenclature, had important consequences.
One was the fear of information overload. How were scientists to keep abreast of the growing volume of books, journals, and reports? How were they to do so in an era without a common language? Responses to these challenges helped to foster new departures in cataloguing, bibliography, and an interest in Esperanto and other constructed languages.
By 1914, the responses had also become involved in wider movements that promoted communication as a force for peace.
The Great War dealt a severe blow to these cosmopolitan ideals, and the post-war reordering of international science did little to resurrect them.
A “national turn” during the 1920s assumed a darker form in the 1930s, as totalitarian regimes in the Soviet Union, Italy, Germany, and Spain associated science ever more closely with national interests.
Although the Second World War further undermined the ideal of internationalism in science, the vision of science as part of a world culture open to all soon resurfaced, notably in UNESCO.
As an aspiration, it remains with us today, in ventures for universal access to information made possible by digitization and the World Wide Web).
The challenge in the twenty-first century is how best to turn aspiration into reality.
Robert Fox, Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 69-119
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.006.7707The article is an extended discussion with a laureate of numerous international distinctions, Professor Robert Fox, about his career, intellectual fascinations, as well as changing methods, styles, approaches and themes in the historiography of science and technology.
Krzysztof Ludwik Birkenmajer
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 123-153
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.007.7708The article describes Polish research and discoveries in the Arctic and the Antarctic since the 19th century. The author is a geologist and since 1956 has been engaged in scientific field research on Spitsbergen, Greenland and Antarctica (23 expeditions). For many years chairman of the Committee on Polar Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, he is now its Honorary Chairman.
Paweł E. Tomaszewski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 155-200
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.008.7709In August 2016 exactly one hundred years passed from the discovery of the Czochralski method of single crystal pulling, named after Jan Czochralski (1885–1953), the Polish chemist and metallurgist. To celebrate this anniversary, a translation of Czochralski main publication into Polish was published. In the present paper we show the pharmaceutical inspiration which was most likely a source of the discovery of the Czochralski method. We present the evolution of this method up to obtaining huge single crystals of silicon, the fundamental element of contemporary electronics and our civilization.
Stefan Witold Alexandrowicz
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 201-238
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.009.7710Karl Kolbenheyer was born on May 28, 1841 in Bielsko. After attending a lower secondary school in Cieszyn, he began studies in classical languages (Greek and Latin) at universities in Vienna and Jena, then he worked as a teacher in lower secondary schools in Lewocza, Cieszyn, and Bielsko. The research he undertook included botanical studies, measurements of absolute elevation, and meteorological observations in the Western Beskids as well as in the Tatra Mountains. The results of the studies were printed in German, Austrian, Polish, and Hungarian publications. He found species of plants not known earlier to exist in the area of Cieszyn and Bielsko. The measurements of elevations he made of characteristic points of landscape (more than 500) were used for cartographic purposes. From 1866 on, he was a member of Physiographic Commission of Kraków Scientific Society, and later of the Academy of Fine Arts and Science, which financially supported his field work. Karl Kolbenheyer was one of the founders of the Beskidenverein – a German tourist organisation – and managed its branch in Bielsko. He prepared two tourist guides: the guide to Tatra Mountains – Die hohe Tatra (ten editions), and to the Beskids – Führer durch die Beskiden… (two editions). These guides contributed to the remarkable propagation of tourism. Karl Kolbenheyer died on February 1, 1901, and was buried at the Old Evangelical Cemetery in Bielsko.
Adéla Jůnová Macková
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 241-267
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.010.7711State institutes started emerging shortly after the establishment of the first Czechoslovak Republic (1918) in the form of institutions affiliated to the Ministry of Schools and National Education. They were independent scientific institutions receiving regular state subsidies and their scientific focus and budgets were approved by the state.
The State Institute of Archaeology and the National Institute for Folk Songs were founded in 1919.
We may already follow the activities of the Institute of Oriental Studies and the Institute of Slavic Studies in the early 1920s. – even though they reached full efficiency only in 1928.
The paper shows the organizational and personal transformation of these institutions, in particular from 1948 until 1952 or 1953, when they “voluntarily” became part of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. The incorporation of state institutes into the Academy of Sciences thus gives a clearer picture of the centralization of sciences in the 1950s, arranged according to the Soviet model.
Vyacheslav Artyukh
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 269-301
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.011.7712This article addresses the appropriation of positivist thought by Ukrainian intellectuals in the second half of the nineteenth century, in particular in the field of philosophy of history. By discussing elements of positivist thought in the works of Mykhailo Drahomanov, Ivan Franko and Pantaleimon Kulish, the author argues that all three were under direct influence of positivist thought, but none of them was a blind adherent of positivism. Positivism particularly influenced their thinking about history and the issue of determinism. Importantly, it was not the French positivism of Auguste Comte whose ideas were adopted, but rather the English positivism of Henry Thomas Buckle and John Stuart Mill.
Ewelina Drzewiecka
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 303-331
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.012.7713The aim of the paper is to show the interplay between the power and the science in the context of cultural memory. The focus is on the Cyrillo-Methodian anniversaries in Bulgaria in the communist period, and the object of the analysis is the anniversary of 1969. The context relates to the process of development of new historiography and the functionalization of the nation-centric narrative. The main issue discussed is how the Communist Party, as a political institution, and the Bulgarian Academy of Science, as an academic institution, cooperated to establish a new vision of society. The discussion offers an interpretation in the light of the Orthodox concept of the symphony of power perceived as a metaphor of the relation between the secular and the spiritual power.
Stephen Cooper
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 335-364
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.013.7714The concepts of Ludwik Fleck (1896–1961), a microbiologist, historian, and philosopher of medicine, can be used to analyze the conservative nature of scientific ideas. This is discussed and applied to ideas dominant in the understanding of the eukaryotic cell cycle. These are (a) the G1-phase restriction point as a regulatory element of the mammalian cell cycle, (b) the Rate Change Point proposed to exist in fission yeast, and (c) the proposal that a large number of genes are expressed in a cell-cycle-dependent manner.
Fleck proposed that scientific ideas become fixed and difficult to change because criticisms of current and dominant models are either ignored or turned to support of the current model. The idea of a thought-collective leading to the stability of scientific ideas is a central theme of the theory of Ludwik Fleck.
Steven Laporte
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 367-378
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.014.7715Even though the use of open preprint databases for scholarly publications is commonplace in several disciplines, their possibilities remain largely unexplored in the humanities. This article examines the emergence and the dynamics of academic preprint and evaluates the possibilities for introducing preprint for the humanities.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 379-388
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.015.7716The article discuses the Bill of 23 March 2017 of the “Directive of the Minister of Science and Higher Education, Republic of Poland, dated ………… 2017”. It indicates serious flaws of this Bill regarding legislation and the science of science (including bibliometrics), and proposes significant amendments to the content of the provisions of this Directive.
Michał Rydlewski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 391-406
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.016.7717The article disscuses a set of texts dedicated to the Lvovian microbiologist and theorist of science knowledge – Ludwik Fleck. The article presents the main theses of the texts, taking a substantive and sometimes polemical stance on them.
Karolina Targosz
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 407-444
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.017.7718A number of publications devoted to Jan Heweliusz have been published between 2011 and 2016. On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of his birthday celebrated in 2011, four books have been published gathering the conferences and lectures, with a great deal of foreign authors presenting various aspects of the Gdańsk astronomer’s activities and achievements. In 2014, the publishing of Hevelius’s correspondence was initiated with the volume Prologomena.
This article critically discusses the mentioned publications, pointing out their advantages and shortcomings.
The preliminary study of the volume by Chantal Grell was also published in a Polish translation as a separate book. The author has indeed – more precisely than her predecessors – presented the years of Hevelius’s studies and the network of his correspondents, however overly emphasized his polemics with the French and English scholars. Her final conclusion, qualifying Hevelius as an amateur isolated from the leading currents of the seventeenth century, is contradictory to the evidence of his correspondence, which will be published over the next years.
Tomasz Pudłocki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 447-454
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.018.7719“Intellectuals and the First World War: Central European Perspective”, a conference organized on October 20–22, 2016 in Kraków, was a perfect opportunity to discuss the phenomenon of the 1914–1918 conflict and its impact on the lives of intellectuals and the creators of culture. Many important scientific studies or cultural activities were interrupted by the war as a result of the conscription of the intellectuals and their death either on the WW1 fronts or as civilian victims. On the other hand, the war was also an opportunity for many to redirect professional careers in new directions e.g. in the service of military propaganda. The conference was organized by the Institute of History of the Jagiellonian University with the financial support of the Kraków City Council – City of Kraków. The conference brought together nearly 30 speakers from the European Union and the United States of America.
Jerzy M. Kreiner
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 455-462
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.019.7720The article contains short information about the international conference on the history of world calendars and calendar making. The conference was organized to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the birth of KIM Dam (1416–1464), a leading Korean astronomer and calendar scholar. The papers presented at the conference included the interactions among different cultures and regions, and the contributions of astronomers to calendar making.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 463-466
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.020.7721The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016/2017. It presents the lists of: scientific meeting, conferences, and new publications.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 16 (2017), 2017, pp. 467-470
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.17.021.7722The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016/2017. It presents the lists of: scientific meeting, conferences, and new publications.
Publication date: 24.11.2016
Editor-in-Chief: Magdalena Sztandara
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 11-16
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.001.6144It is outlined the third phase of the development of the journal Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU (Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science). In June 2016 Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU 2015, vol. XIV was issued. Following the legal decision with effect from 4 July 2016 the journal, while maintaining the continuity of its publication, has been renamed to Studia Historiae Scientiarum. Since June 2016 the journal has a new website with an editorial panel on the Scientific Journals Portal. At the same time it still uses the existing website on the PAUPortal. In November 2016 Studia Historiae Scientiarum 2016, vol. 15 was issued.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 17-22
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.002.6145It is outlined the third phase of the development of the journal Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU (Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science). In June 2016 Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU 2015, vol. XIV was issued. Following the legal decision with effect from 4 July 2016 the journal, while maintaining the continuity of its publication, has been renamed to Studia Historiae Scientiarum. Since June 2016 the journal has a new website with an editorial panel on the Scientific Journals Portal. At the same time it still uses the existing website on the PAU Portal. In November 2016 Studia Historiae Scientiarum 2016, vol. 15 was issued.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 23-43
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.003.6146The article discusses the criteria and procedure for the parametric evaluation of scientific journals according to the Bill of 6 June 2016 of the “Directive of the Minister of Science and Higher Education, Republic of Poland, dated .................... 2016 concerning the process of granting academic categories to scientific institutions”. It indicates serious legislative flaws as well as flaws concerning the science of science (including bibliometrics) in the Bill and proposes significant amendments to the provisions of this Directive. It indicates serious flaws of this Bill regarding legislation, the science of science (including bibliometrics), and proposes significant amendments to the content of the provisions of this Directive.
Andrij Rovenchak, Olena Kiktyeva
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 47-73
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.004.6147Previously, an attempt was made to compile in a series of papers a complete bibliography of works related to physics at the University of Lviv. The period since the foundation of the University in 1661 until the division of the Chair of Physics in 1872 was discussed by Rovenchak (2014). Special attention was paid to the development of theoretical physics, starting from the first professor, Oskar Fabian (Rovenchak 2009), followed by the famous physicist Marian Smoluchowski (Rovenchak 2012), and finally the Interbellum (Rovenchak 2013). The history of astronomy at the University of Lviv, albeit without a special bibliographic section, is presented by Novosyadlyj (2011) and Apunevych et al. (2011). The development of the experimental physics since 1872 still awaits a detailed study.
The present paper will provide some additions to this bibliography: firstly with the descriptions of several missing early works from the 17th and 18th century and then, with a presentation of the activity of Wojciech Urbański. It is followed by a couple of works by Oskar Fabian and Marian Smoluchowski. Finally, minor complements to the bibliographic lists from the 1930s will be made, including popular newspaper articles. We strive to present the bibliographic description as completely as possible, in particular by avoiding abbreviations in names and titles, so that readers can extract any information of their interest. All items were examined de visu except for those marked with an asterisk (*) after the number.
Przedstawione materiały, dotyczące fizyki na Uniwersytecie Lwowskim na przestrzeni wieków od XVII do XX, będą przydatne dla dalszych badań historii fizyki i bibliografii nauk przyrodniczych w Europie Środkowej i Wschodniej.
Roman Sznajder
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 75-110
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.005.6148In this work we focus on research contacts of Leonhard Euler with Polish scientists of his era, mainly with those from the city of Gdańsk (then Gedanum, Danzig). L. Euler was the most prolific mathematician of all times, the most outstanding mathematician of the 18th century, and one of the best ever. The complete edition of his manuscripts is still in process (Kleinert 2015; Kleinert, Mattmüller 2007).
Euler’s contacts with French, German, Russian, and Swiss scientists have been widely known, while relations with Poland, then one of the largest European countries, are still in oblivion. Euler visited Poland only once, in June of 1766, on his way back from Berlin to St. Petersburg. He was hosted for ten days in Warsaw by Stanisław II August Poniatowski, the last king of Poland. Many Polish scientists were introduced to Euler, not only from mathematical circles, but also astronomers and geographers. The correspondence of Euler with Gdańsk scientists and officials, including Carl L. Ehler, Heinrich Kühn and Nathanael M. von Wolf, originated already in the mid-1730s. We highlight the relations of L. Euler with H. Kühn, a professor of mathematics at the Danzig Academic Gymnasium and arguably the best Polish mathematician of his era. It was H. Kühn from whom Euler learned about the Königsberg Bridge Problem; hence one can argue that the beginning of the graph theory and topology of the plane originated in Gdańsk. In addition, H. Kühn was the first mathematician who proposed a geometric interpretation of complex numbers, the theme very much appreciated by Euler.
Findings included in this paper are either unknown or little known to a general mathematical community.
Ewa Wyka
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 111-156
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.006.6149From June to November 1793 Grodno (now Belarus) was the place of the last session of Parliament of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, with the participation of king Stanisław August Poniatowski, and it was where the second partition of Poland was approved.
In the days free of parliamentary debates, Grodno’s Dominicans prepared a series of physics experiments for the king. The course of the experiments and their subject matter is known from a press release (Pismo Peryodyczne Korrespondenta 2, January 9, 1794, pp. 35–42). It is a type of daily report informing about 18 meetings, each time indicating their subject matter.
This report was sufficient to recreate the course and the type of the experiments.
Three thematic groups presented by the Dominicans can be distinguished. The first is a presentation of the physics cabinet – the king was visited, among others, the Nooth’s apparatus to produce “carbonated water”, a geological collection and other items used in the later shows. The second series of demonstrations was devoted to issues related to electricity. The idea and nature of lightning was also demonstrated.
The third series of presentations concerned the properties of gases. In addition to other demonstrations, the Dominicans prepared an experiment which presented the process of producing water from oxygen and hydrogen. The experiment lasted all day, during which the reagents were measured: the volume of gases that were used and the mass of the water obtained.
The report brings a lot of important information, indicating the level of scientific knowledge and the experimental skills of the Dominicans. It is evidence of how modern physics was taught by the Dominicans with the use of appropriate instruments for this purpose. It is also a source of knowledge about school equipment in Poland.
Additionally, the report is so far one of the few well-documented public demonstrations prepared for the king. It also confirms the view that the king Stanislaus August was a broad-minded intellectual interested in science.
Danuta Ciesielska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 157-192
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.007.6150The main purpose of the article is to present the role of the Dr. Władysław Kretkowski Fund in the development of mathematics in Kraków. Kretkowski graduated in mathematics from Sorbonne (1867) and he received his PhD from the Jagiellonian University (1882). He was a private docent at the Polytechnic and University of Lvov. Kretkowski donated his huge fortune to mathematicians in Kraków. From 1911 to 1920 the Kretkowski Fund sponsored very modern mathematical lectures and seminars at the Jagiellonian University. Kretkowski also donated his extensive library for the use of the mathematical seminar in Kraków. This paper lists the lectures financed from the Kretkowski Fund as well as the research fellows of the Fund (with the time and place of studies). This is followed by a presentation of the state of the Kretkowski Library, now the property of the Institute of Mathematics of the Jagiellonian University. The article provides also a brief biography of Władysław Kretkowski (1840–1910).
Andrzej J. Wójcik
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 193-215
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.008.6151Research in the field of applied geology (geology of deposits, engineering geology, hydrogeology) at the turn of the 20th century in Siberia, was conducted by the graduates of the Institute of Mining led by Karol Bohdanowicz. The team included, among others, Stefan Czarnocki and Stanisław Doktorowicz-Hrebnicki. Their activity in Siberia became a proof that the so-called “Bohdanowicz’s school” existed and the results of their research have earned their place in the science and have become the basis for developing the mining of mineral resources.
Jan Koroński
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 217-243
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.009.6152This paper provides a general characterization of the Kraków Learned Society (Towarzystwo Naukowe Krakowskie). It existed in the period 1815–1872 and during that time changed its name several times. The Academy of Arts and Sciences (Akademia Umiejętności – AU) was founded in 1872, as a result of the transformation of the Krakow Learned Society. Additionally, this paper presents mathematical publications in the Annals of the Kraków Learned Society.
Paweł Polak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 245-273
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.010.6153A centenary of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity brings forward some questions with regard to the impact of Einstein’s theory on philosophy. This theory, and the chronologically earlier Special Theory of Relativity, have had many important philosophical implications. In Poland they provoked interesting philosophical discussions before WWII. The history of those discussions reveals numerous noteworthy facts concerning the relationships between mathematics, physics and philosophy.
A case study of the reception of the Special and General Theory of Relativity in Kraków and Lwów before 1925 focuses on the peculiar specificity of exact sciences and philosophy in Polish Galicia. The concept of “philosophy in science” coined by Michael Heller is particularly suitable for describing this specificity.
The article begins with a short overview of the early reception of the Special Theory of Relativity in Kraków. Next, it shows how the discussions during the 10th and 11th Congresses of Polish Physicians and Natural Scientists (Lwów 1907, Kraków 1911) influenced the reception of the STR. What is also discussed are the roots of the specificity of the reception in Lwów, i.e. the influence of the considerations about the foundations of mechanics and a public philosophical debate around Einstein’s theories. In order to demonstrate how different the reception of these theories was in Kraków, a description is provided of a methodological debate between S. Zaremba and T. Banachiewicz. Some notes are also added about the concurrent styles of philosophy of science (philosophy of nature). The article ends with conclusions about the specificity of Kraków’s and Lwów’s styles of philosophy in science.
This study reveals that in this period Einstein’s theories significantly stimulated philosophical considerations in Poland. These considerations have become an important supplement to the scientific activity in Kraków and Lwów.
Renata Bujakiewicz-Korońska, Jan Koroński
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 275-300
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.011.6154This paper is a synthetic biography of Tadeusz Banachiewicz (1882–1954), which takes into account his most important scientific achievements. Its aim is to present the achievements of this Polish scientist to the foreign reader.
Alicja Zemanek, Piotr Köhler
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 301-345
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.012.6155The university in Vilna (Lithuanian: Vilnius), now Vilniaus universitetas, founded in 1579 by Stefan Batory (Stephen Báthory), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, was a centre of Polish botany in 1780-1832 and 1919-1939. The Botanic Garden established by Jean-Emmanuel Gilibert (1741–1814) in 1781 (or, actually, from 1782) survived the loss of independence by Poland (1795), and a later closure of the University (1832), and it continued to function until 1842, when it was shut down by Russian authorities. After Poland had regained independence and the University was reopened as the Stefan Batory University (SBU), its Botanic Garden was established on a new location (1919, active since 1920). It survived as a Polish institution until 1939. After the Second World War, as a result of changed borders, it found itself in the Soviet Union, and from 1990 – in the Republic of Lithuania.
A multidisciplinary research project has been recently launched with the aim to create a publication on the history of science at the Stefan Batory University. The botanical part of the project includes, among others, drafting the history of the Botanic Garden. Obtaining electronic copies of archival documents, e.g. annual reports written by the directors, enabled a more thorough analysis of the Garden’s history.
Piotr Wiśniewski (1884–1971), a plant physiologist, nominated as Professor in the Department of General Botany on 1 June 1920, was the organiser and the first director of the Garden. He resigned from his post in October 1923, due to financial problems of the Garden. From October 1923 to April 1924, the management was run by the acting director, Edward Bekier (1883–1945), Professor in the Department of Physical Chemistry, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. For 13 subsequent years, i.e. from 1 May 1924 to 30 April 1937, the directorship of the Garden was held by Józef Trzebiński (1867–1941), a mycologist and one of the pioneers of phytopathology in Poland, Head of the Department of Botany II (Agricultural Botany), renamed in 1926 as the Department of Plant Taxonomy, and in 1937 – the Department of Taxonomy and Geography of Plants.
From May 1937 to 1939, his successor as director was Franciszek Ksawery Skupieński (1888–1962), a researcher of slime moulds.
Great credit for the development of the Garden is due to the Inspector, i.e. Chief Gardener, Konstanty Prószyński (Proszyński) (1859–1936) working there from 1919, through his official nomination in 1920, until his death. He was an amateur-naturalist, a former landowner, who had lost his property. Apart from the work on establishing and maintaining the Garden’s collection, as well as readying seeds for exchange, he published one mycological paper, and prepared a manuscript on fungi, illustrated by himself, containing descriptions of the new species. Unfortunately, this work was not published for lack of funds, and the prepared material was scattered. Some other illustrations of flowering plants drawn by Prószyński survived. There were some obstacles to the further development of the institution, namely substantially inadequate funds as well as too few members of the personnel (1–3 gardeners, and 1–3 seasonal workers).
The area of the Garden, covering approx. 2 hectares was situated on the left bank of the Neris river (Polish: Wilia). It was located on sandy soils of a floodplain, and thus liable to flooding. These were the reasons for the decision taken in June 1939 to move the Garden to a new site but the outbreak of the Second World War stood in the way. Despite these disadvantageous conditions, the management succeeded in setting up sections of plants analogous to these established in other botanical gardens in Poland and throughout the world, i.e. general taxonomy (1922), native flora (1922), psammophilous plants (1922), cultivated plants (1924/1925), plant ecology (1927/1928), alpinarium (1927–1929), high-bog plants (1927–1929), and, additionally – in the 1920s – the arboretum, as well as sections of aquatic and bog plants. A glasshouse was erected in 1926–1929 to provide room for plants of warm and tropical zones. The groups representing the various types of vegetation illustrated the progress in ecology and phytosociology in the science of the period (e.g. in the ecology section, the Raunkiaer’s life forms were presented). The number of species grown increased over time, from 1,347 in 1923/1924 to approx. 2,800 in 1936/1937. Difficult weather conditions – the severe winter of 1928 as well as the snowless winter and the dry summer of 1933/34 contributed to the reduction of the collections. The ground collections, destroyed by flood in spring of 1931, were restored in subsequent years. Initially, the source of plant material was the wild plant species collected during field trips. Many specimens were also obtained from other botanical gardens, such as Warsaw and Cracow (Kraków). Beginning from 1923, printed catalogues of seeds offered for exchange were published (cf. the list on p. ... ). Owing to that, the Garden began to participate in the national and international plant exchange networks. From its inception, the collection of the Garden was used for teaching purposes, primarily to the students of the University, as well as for the botanical education of schoolchildren and the general public, particularly of the residents of Vilna. Scientific experiments on phytopathology were conducted on the Garden’s plots.
After Vilna was incorporated into Lithuania in October 1939, the Lithuanian authorities shut down the Stefan Batory University, thus ending the history of the Polish Botanic Garden. Its area is now one of the sections of the Vilnius University Botanic Garden (“Vingis” section – Vilniaus universiteto botanikos sodas). In 1964, its area was extended to 7.35 hectares. In 1974, after establishing the new Botanic Garden in Kairenai to the east of Vilnius, the old Garden lost its significance. Nevertheless, it still serves the students and townspeople of Vilnius, and its collections of flowering plants are often used to decorate and grace the university halls during celebrations.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 349-362
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.013.6156This article presents a discussion of two monographs reporting on their merits and shortcomings: Modi memorandi: Leksykon kultury pamięci by M. Saryusz-Wolska (2014), and Deutsch-Polnische Erinnerungsorte, vols 1–5 (2012–2015) / Polsko-niemieckie miejsca pamięci, vols 1–4 (2013–2015).
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 363-371
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.014.6157This article presents a peer review of the book by Władysław Marek Kolasa on the historiography of the Polish press. It regards the methodology of historiography, the science of science and its sub-disciplines: scientometrics and bibliometrics.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 373-378
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.015.6158This article presents a discussion of the monograph by A. Rafalska-Łasocha dedicated mainly to the contacts of Maria Skłodowska-Curie with the Krakow scientific community.
Tomasz Pudłocki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 381-385
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.016.6159The author gave to print the report of the scientific “Andrzej Gawroński (1885–1927) - a linguist and scholar.” It was organized by the Society of Friends of Science in Przemyśl, Juliusz Słowacki High School No. 1 in Przemyśl as well as the Podkarpackie Center for Teacher Education Przemysl Chapter on April 1, 2016. The meeting was devoted to different aspects of life and scientific work of one of the world's most famous linguists - professor of oriental philology Krakow and Lviv universities, also briefly lived in Przemysl. Materials from the session will be published in The Przemyśl Yearbook issue Literature and Language.
Tomasz Pudłocki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 387-392
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.017.6160The author submittedto print the report of the scientific conference which had been organized on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the foundation of the Kraków Learned Society. The session was held in December 9–10, 2015 as a result of cooperation between the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Jagiellonian University as well as the Scientific Archives of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków. It brought an international group of speakers together to discuss in their deliberations the various aspects of the Cracow Learned Society. The outcome of the meeting is the publication Towarzystwo Naukowe Krakowskie w 200-lecie założenia (1815–2015). Materiały konferencji naukowej 9–10 grudnia 2015, edited by Wanda Lohman (Kraków, 2016).
Paweł E. Tomaszewski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 395-404
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.018.6161This is a subsequent (third) part of the polemic on the facts from the life of Jan Czochralski and the difference in the presentation of these facts by amateur and professional historians. The main source of controversy is Jan Czochralski’s voluminous biography entitled Powrót. Rzecz o Janie Czochralskim(2012), English edition: Jan Czochralski restored (2013).
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 405-408
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.019.6162The author replies to the letter of Dr. Paweł E. Tomaszewski, which is a subsequent (third) stage of the controversy regarding the facts of life of Jan Czochralski and the differences in the way they are presented by an amateur researcher and a professional historian. The source of the controversy is the biography Powrót. Rzecz o Janie Czochralskim (2012), the English edition: Jan Czochralski restored (2013).
In the opinion of the author, a professional historian of science may have some reservations regarding the sometimes too popular a style of the publications of Dr. Tomaszewski. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that so far this amateur [i.e. enthusiast] of historical research has done much more regarding the biography and achievements of Jan Czochralski than professional historians and historians of science.
This reply concludes the exchange of polemics.
Michael Gordin, Jan Surman
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 411-431
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.020.6163What is special about sciences in Central and Eastern Europe? What are the obstacles for writing histories of science production beyond metropoles? Is this science different then science in the centers and what makes it such? How imperial are sciences made by representatives of the dominant nations and of non-dominant nations? These are some of the questions touched upon in the interview of Michael Gordin, leading historian of science from Princeton University.
Michael Gordin, Jan Surman
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 433-452
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.021.6164What is special about sciences in Central and Eastern Europe? What are the obstacles for writing histories of science done beyond metropoles? Is this science different than the science in the centers and what makes it so? How imperial are sciences made by representatives of dominant nations compared to non-dominant nations? These are some of the questions touched upon in the interview with Michael Gordin, a leading historian of science from Princeton University.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 455-458
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.022.6165The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015/2016. It presents the lists of: scientific meeting, administrative-election meetings, new members, and new publications.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 459-462
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.023.6166The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015/2016. It presents the lists of: scientific meeting, administrative-election meetings, new members, and new publications.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 11-16
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.001.6144It is outlined the third phase of the development of the journal Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU (Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science). In June 2016 Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU 2015, vol. XIV was issued. Following the legal decision with effect from 4 July 2016 the journal, while maintaining the continuity of its publication, has been renamed to Studia Historiae Scientiarum. Since June 2016 the journal has a new website with an editorial panel on the Scientific Journals Portal. At the same time it still uses the existing website on the PAUPortal. In November 2016 Studia Historiae Scientiarum 2016, vol. 15 was issued.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 17-22
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.002.6145It is outlined the third phase of the development of the journal Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU (Proceedings of the PAU Commission on the History of Science). In June 2016 Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU 2015, vol. XIV was issued. Following the legal decision with effect from 4 July 2016 the journal, while maintaining the continuity of its publication, has been renamed to Studia Historiae Scientiarum. Since June 2016 the journal has a new website with an editorial panel on the Scientific Journals Portal. At the same time it still uses the existing website on the PAU Portal. In November 2016 Studia Historiae Scientiarum 2016, vol. 15 was issued.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 23-43
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.003.6146The article discusses the criteria and procedure for the parametric evaluation of scientific journals according to the Bill of 6 June 2016 of the “Directive of the Minister of Science and Higher Education, Republic of Poland, dated .................... 2016 concerning the process of granting academic categories to scientific institutions”. It indicates serious legislative flaws as well as flaws concerning the science of science (including bibliometrics) in the Bill and proposes significant amendments to the provisions of this Directive. It indicates serious flaws of this Bill regarding legislation, the science of science (including bibliometrics), and proposes significant amendments to the content of the provisions of this Directive.
Andrij Rovenchak, Olena Kiktyeva
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 47-73
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.004.6147Previously, an attempt was made to compile in a series of papers a complete bibliography of works related to physics at the University of Lviv. The period since the foundation of the University in 1661 until the division of the Chair of Physics in 1872 was discussed by Rovenchak (2014). Special attention was paid to the development of theoretical physics, starting from the first professor, Oskar Fabian (Rovenchak 2009), followed by the famous physicist Marian Smoluchowski (Rovenchak 2012), and finally the Interbellum (Rovenchak 2013). The history of astronomy at the University of Lviv, albeit without a special bibliographic section, is presented by Novosyadlyj (2011) and Apunevych et al. (2011). The development of the experimental physics since 1872 still awaits a detailed study.
The present paper will provide some additions to this bibliography: firstly with the descriptions of several missing early works from the 17th and 18th century and then, with a presentation of the activity of Wojciech Urbański. It is followed by a couple of works by Oskar Fabian and Marian Smoluchowski. Finally, minor complements to the bibliographic lists from the 1930s will be made, including popular newspaper articles. We strive to present the bibliographic description as completely as possible, in particular by avoiding abbreviations in names and titles, so that readers can extract any information of their interest. All items were examined de visu except for those marked with an asterisk (*) after the number.
Przedstawione materiały, dotyczące fizyki na Uniwersytecie Lwowskim na przestrzeni wieków od XVII do XX, będą przydatne dla dalszych badań historii fizyki i bibliografii nauk przyrodniczych w Europie Środkowej i Wschodniej.
Roman Sznajder
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 75-110
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.005.6148In this work we focus on research contacts of Leonhard Euler with Polish scientists of his era, mainly with those from the city of Gdańsk (then Gedanum, Danzig). L. Euler was the most prolific mathematician of all times, the most outstanding mathematician of the 18th century, and one of the best ever. The complete edition of his manuscripts is still in process (Kleinert 2015; Kleinert, Mattmüller 2007).
Euler’s contacts with French, German, Russian, and Swiss scientists have been widely known, while relations with Poland, then one of the largest European countries, are still in oblivion. Euler visited Poland only once, in June of 1766, on his way back from Berlin to St. Petersburg. He was hosted for ten days in Warsaw by Stanisław II August Poniatowski, the last king of Poland. Many Polish scientists were introduced to Euler, not only from mathematical circles, but also astronomers and geographers. The correspondence of Euler with Gdańsk scientists and officials, including Carl L. Ehler, Heinrich Kühn and Nathanael M. von Wolf, originated already in the mid-1730s. We highlight the relations of L. Euler with H. Kühn, a professor of mathematics at the Danzig Academic Gymnasium and arguably the best Polish mathematician of his era. It was H. Kühn from whom Euler learned about the Königsberg Bridge Problem; hence one can argue that the beginning of the graph theory and topology of the plane originated in Gdańsk. In addition, H. Kühn was the first mathematician who proposed a geometric interpretation of complex numbers, the theme very much appreciated by Euler.
Findings included in this paper are either unknown or little known to a general mathematical community.
Ewa Wyka
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 111-156
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.006.6149From June to November 1793 Grodno (now Belarus) was the place of the last session of Parliament of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, with the participation of king Stanisław August Poniatowski, and it was where the second partition of Poland was approved.
In the days free of parliamentary debates, Grodno’s Dominicans prepared a series of physics experiments for the king. The course of the experiments and their subject matter is known from a press release (Pismo Peryodyczne Korrespondenta 2, January 9, 1794, pp. 35–42). It is a type of daily report informing about 18 meetings, each time indicating their subject matter.
This report was sufficient to recreate the course and the type of the experiments.
Three thematic groups presented by the Dominicans can be distinguished. The first is a presentation of the physics cabinet – the king was visited, among others, the Nooth’s apparatus to produce “carbonated water”, a geological collection and other items used in the later shows. The second series of demonstrations was devoted to issues related to electricity. The idea and nature of lightning was also demonstrated.
The third series of presentations concerned the properties of gases. In addition to other demonstrations, the Dominicans prepared an experiment which presented the process of producing water from oxygen and hydrogen. The experiment lasted all day, during which the reagents were measured: the volume of gases that were used and the mass of the water obtained.
The report brings a lot of important information, indicating the level of scientific knowledge and the experimental skills of the Dominicans. It is evidence of how modern physics was taught by the Dominicans with the use of appropriate instruments for this purpose. It is also a source of knowledge about school equipment in Poland.
Additionally, the report is so far one of the few well-documented public demonstrations prepared for the king. It also confirms the view that the king Stanislaus August was a broad-minded intellectual interested in science.
Danuta Ciesielska
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 157-192
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.007.6150The main purpose of the article is to present the role of the Dr. Władysław Kretkowski Fund in the development of mathematics in Kraków. Kretkowski graduated in mathematics from Sorbonne (1867) and he received his PhD from the Jagiellonian University (1882). He was a private docent at the Polytechnic and University of Lvov. Kretkowski donated his huge fortune to mathematicians in Kraków. From 1911 to 1920 the Kretkowski Fund sponsored very modern mathematical lectures and seminars at the Jagiellonian University. Kretkowski also donated his extensive library for the use of the mathematical seminar in Kraków. This paper lists the lectures financed from the Kretkowski Fund as well as the research fellows of the Fund (with the time and place of studies). This is followed by a presentation of the state of the Kretkowski Library, now the property of the Institute of Mathematics of the Jagiellonian University. The article provides also a brief biography of Władysław Kretkowski (1840–1910).
Andrzej J. Wójcik
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 193-215
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.008.6151Research in the field of applied geology (geology of deposits, engineering geology, hydrogeology) at the turn of the 20th century in Siberia, was conducted by the graduates of the Institute of Mining led by Karol Bohdanowicz. The team included, among others, Stefan Czarnocki and Stanisław Doktorowicz-Hrebnicki. Their activity in Siberia became a proof that the so-called “Bohdanowicz’s school” existed and the results of their research have earned their place in the science and have become the basis for developing the mining of mineral resources.
Jan Koroński
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 217-243
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.009.6152This paper provides a general characterization of the Kraków Learned Society (Towarzystwo Naukowe Krakowskie). It existed in the period 1815–1872 and during that time changed its name several times. The Academy of Arts and Sciences (Akademia Umiejętności – AU) was founded in 1872, as a result of the transformation of the Krakow Learned Society. Additionally, this paper presents mathematical publications in the Annals of the Kraków Learned Society.
Paweł Polak
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 245-273
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.010.6153A centenary of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity brings forward some questions with regard to the impact of Einstein’s theory on philosophy. This theory, and the chronologically earlier Special Theory of Relativity, have had many important philosophical implications. In Poland they provoked interesting philosophical discussions before WWII. The history of those discussions reveals numerous noteworthy facts concerning the relationships between mathematics, physics and philosophy.
A case study of the reception of the Special and General Theory of Relativity in Kraków and Lwów before 1925 focuses on the peculiar specificity of exact sciences and philosophy in Polish Galicia. The concept of “philosophy in science” coined by Michael Heller is particularly suitable for describing this specificity.
The article begins with a short overview of the early reception of the Special Theory of Relativity in Kraków. Next, it shows how the discussions during the 10th and 11th Congresses of Polish Physicians and Natural Scientists (Lwów 1907, Kraków 1911) influenced the reception of the STR. What is also discussed are the roots of the specificity of the reception in Lwów, i.e. the influence of the considerations about the foundations of mechanics and a public philosophical debate around Einstein’s theories. In order to demonstrate how different the reception of these theories was in Kraków, a description is provided of a methodological debate between S. Zaremba and T. Banachiewicz. Some notes are also added about the concurrent styles of philosophy of science (philosophy of nature). The article ends with conclusions about the specificity of Kraków’s and Lwów’s styles of philosophy in science.
This study reveals that in this period Einstein’s theories significantly stimulated philosophical considerations in Poland. These considerations have become an important supplement to the scientific activity in Kraków and Lwów.
Renata Bujakiewicz-Korońska, Jan Koroński
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 275-300
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.011.6154This paper is a synthetic biography of Tadeusz Banachiewicz (1882–1954), which takes into account his most important scientific achievements. Its aim is to present the achievements of this Polish scientist to the foreign reader.
Alicja Zemanek, Piotr Köhler
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 301-345
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.012.6155The university in Vilna (Lithuanian: Vilnius), now Vilniaus universitetas, founded in 1579 by Stefan Batory (Stephen Báthory), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, was a centre of Polish botany in 1780-1832 and 1919-1939. The Botanic Garden established by Jean-Emmanuel Gilibert (1741–1814) in 1781 (or, actually, from 1782) survived the loss of independence by Poland (1795), and a later closure of the University (1832), and it continued to function until 1842, when it was shut down by Russian authorities. After Poland had regained independence and the University was reopened as the Stefan Batory University (SBU), its Botanic Garden was established on a new location (1919, active since 1920). It survived as a Polish institution until 1939. After the Second World War, as a result of changed borders, it found itself in the Soviet Union, and from 1990 – in the Republic of Lithuania.
A multidisciplinary research project has been recently launched with the aim to create a publication on the history of science at the Stefan Batory University. The botanical part of the project includes, among others, drafting the history of the Botanic Garden. Obtaining electronic copies of archival documents, e.g. annual reports written by the directors, enabled a more thorough analysis of the Garden’s history.
Piotr Wiśniewski (1884–1971), a plant physiologist, nominated as Professor in the Department of General Botany on 1 June 1920, was the organiser and the first director of the Garden. He resigned from his post in October 1923, due to financial problems of the Garden. From October 1923 to April 1924, the management was run by the acting director, Edward Bekier (1883–1945), Professor in the Department of Physical Chemistry, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. For 13 subsequent years, i.e. from 1 May 1924 to 30 April 1937, the directorship of the Garden was held by Józef Trzebiński (1867–1941), a mycologist and one of the pioneers of phytopathology in Poland, Head of the Department of Botany II (Agricultural Botany), renamed in 1926 as the Department of Plant Taxonomy, and in 1937 – the Department of Taxonomy and Geography of Plants.
From May 1937 to 1939, his successor as director was Franciszek Ksawery Skupieński (1888–1962), a researcher of slime moulds.
Great credit for the development of the Garden is due to the Inspector, i.e. Chief Gardener, Konstanty Prószyński (Proszyński) (1859–1936) working there from 1919, through his official nomination in 1920, until his death. He was an amateur-naturalist, a former landowner, who had lost his property. Apart from the work on establishing and maintaining the Garden’s collection, as well as readying seeds for exchange, he published one mycological paper, and prepared a manuscript on fungi, illustrated by himself, containing descriptions of the new species. Unfortunately, this work was not published for lack of funds, and the prepared material was scattered. Some other illustrations of flowering plants drawn by Prószyński survived. There were some obstacles to the further development of the institution, namely substantially inadequate funds as well as too few members of the personnel (1–3 gardeners, and 1–3 seasonal workers).
The area of the Garden, covering approx. 2 hectares was situated on the left bank of the Neris river (Polish: Wilia). It was located on sandy soils of a floodplain, and thus liable to flooding. These were the reasons for the decision taken in June 1939 to move the Garden to a new site but the outbreak of the Second World War stood in the way. Despite these disadvantageous conditions, the management succeeded in setting up sections of plants analogous to these established in other botanical gardens in Poland and throughout the world, i.e. general taxonomy (1922), native flora (1922), psammophilous plants (1922), cultivated plants (1924/1925), plant ecology (1927/1928), alpinarium (1927–1929), high-bog plants (1927–1929), and, additionally – in the 1920s – the arboretum, as well as sections of aquatic and bog plants. A glasshouse was erected in 1926–1929 to provide room for plants of warm and tropical zones. The groups representing the various types of vegetation illustrated the progress in ecology and phytosociology in the science of the period (e.g. in the ecology section, the Raunkiaer’s life forms were presented). The number of species grown increased over time, from 1,347 in 1923/1924 to approx. 2,800 in 1936/1937. Difficult weather conditions – the severe winter of 1928 as well as the snowless winter and the dry summer of 1933/34 contributed to the reduction of the collections. The ground collections, destroyed by flood in spring of 1931, were restored in subsequent years. Initially, the source of plant material was the wild plant species collected during field trips. Many specimens were also obtained from other botanical gardens, such as Warsaw and Cracow (Kraków). Beginning from 1923, printed catalogues of seeds offered for exchange were published (cf. the list on p. ... ). Owing to that, the Garden began to participate in the national and international plant exchange networks. From its inception, the collection of the Garden was used for teaching purposes, primarily to the students of the University, as well as for the botanical education of schoolchildren and the general public, particularly of the residents of Vilna. Scientific experiments on phytopathology were conducted on the Garden’s plots.
After Vilna was incorporated into Lithuania in October 1939, the Lithuanian authorities shut down the Stefan Batory University, thus ending the history of the Polish Botanic Garden. Its area is now one of the sections of the Vilnius University Botanic Garden (“Vingis” section – Vilniaus universiteto botanikos sodas). In 1964, its area was extended to 7.35 hectares. In 1974, after establishing the new Botanic Garden in Kairenai to the east of Vilnius, the old Garden lost its significance. Nevertheless, it still serves the students and townspeople of Vilnius, and its collections of flowering plants are often used to decorate and grace the university halls during celebrations.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 349-362
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.013.6156This article presents a discussion of two monographs reporting on their merits and shortcomings: Modi memorandi: Leksykon kultury pamięci by M. Saryusz-Wolska (2014), and Deutsch-Polnische Erinnerungsorte, vols 1–5 (2012–2015) / Polsko-niemieckie miejsca pamięci, vols 1–4 (2013–2015).
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 363-371
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.014.6157This article presents a peer review of the book by Władysław Marek Kolasa on the historiography of the Polish press. It regards the methodology of historiography, the science of science and its sub-disciplines: scientometrics and bibliometrics.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 373-378
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.015.6158This article presents a discussion of the monograph by A. Rafalska-Łasocha dedicated mainly to the contacts of Maria Skłodowska-Curie with the Krakow scientific community.
Tomasz Pudłocki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 381-385
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.016.6159The author gave to print the report of the scientific “Andrzej Gawroński (1885–1927) - a linguist and scholar.” It was organized by the Society of Friends of Science in Przemyśl, Juliusz Słowacki High School No. 1 in Przemyśl as well as the Podkarpackie Center for Teacher Education Przemysl Chapter on April 1, 2016. The meeting was devoted to different aspects of life and scientific work of one of the world's most famous linguists - professor of oriental philology Krakow and Lviv universities, also briefly lived in Przemysl. Materials from the session will be published in The Przemyśl Yearbook issue Literature and Language.
Tomasz Pudłocki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 387-392
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.017.6160The author submittedto print the report of the scientific conference which had been organized on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the foundation of the Kraków Learned Society. The session was held in December 9–10, 2015 as a result of cooperation between the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Jagiellonian University as well as the Scientific Archives of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków. It brought an international group of speakers together to discuss in their deliberations the various aspects of the Cracow Learned Society. The outcome of the meeting is the publication Towarzystwo Naukowe Krakowskie w 200-lecie założenia (1815–2015). Materiały konferencji naukowej 9–10 grudnia 2015, edited by Wanda Lohman (Kraków, 2016).
Paweł E. Tomaszewski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 395-404
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.018.6161This is a subsequent (third) part of the polemic on the facts from the life of Jan Czochralski and the difference in the presentation of these facts by amateur and professional historians. The main source of controversy is Jan Czochralski’s voluminous biography entitled Powrót. Rzecz o Janie Czochralskim(2012), English edition: Jan Czochralski restored (2013).
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 405-408
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.019.6162The author replies to the letter of Dr. Paweł E. Tomaszewski, which is a subsequent (third) stage of the controversy regarding the facts of life of Jan Czochralski and the differences in the way they are presented by an amateur researcher and a professional historian. The source of the controversy is the biography Powrót. Rzecz o Janie Czochralskim (2012), the English edition: Jan Czochralski restored (2013).
In the opinion of the author, a professional historian of science may have some reservations regarding the sometimes too popular a style of the publications of Dr. Tomaszewski. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that so far this amateur [i.e. enthusiast] of historical research has done much more regarding the biography and achievements of Jan Czochralski than professional historians and historians of science.
This reply concludes the exchange of polemics.
Michael Gordin, Jan Surman
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 411-431
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.020.6163What is special about sciences in Central and Eastern Europe? What are the obstacles for writing histories of science production beyond metropoles? Is this science different then science in the centers and what makes it such? How imperial are sciences made by representatives of the dominant nations and of non-dominant nations? These are some of the questions touched upon in the interview of Michael Gordin, leading historian of science from Princeton University.
Michael Gordin, Jan Surman
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 433-452
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.021.6164What is special about sciences in Central and Eastern Europe? What are the obstacles for writing histories of science done beyond metropoles? Is this science different than the science in the centers and what makes it so? How imperial are sciences made by representatives of dominant nations compared to non-dominant nations? These are some of the questions touched upon in the interview with Michael Gordin, a leading historian of science from Princeton University.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 455-458
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.022.6165The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015/2016. It presents the lists of: scientific meeting, administrative-election meetings, new members, and new publications.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 15 (2016), 2016, pp. 459-462
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749SHS.16.023.6166The report discusses the activities of the Commission on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015/2016. It presents the lists of: scientific meeting, administrative-election meetings, new members, and new publications.
Publication date: 27.06.2016
Editor-in-Chief: Magdalena Sztandara
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 5-10
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.001.5257Andreas Kleinert
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 13-35
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.002.5258The paper gives an overview on the history and present state of the edition of the complete works of Leonhard Euler (1707–1783). After several failed initiatives in the 19th century, the project began in 1907 with the edition of Euler’s printed works. The works were divided into three series: I. Mathematics (29 volumes); II. Mechanics and Astronomy (31 volumes); and III. Physics and Miscellaneous (12 volumes). After several ups and downs due to two World Wars and economic problems, the publication of the printed works with a total of 72 volumes is nearly finished. Only two volumes on perturbation theory in astronomy are still missing. The publication of series IV (manuscripts and correspondence) started in 1967 as a joint project of the Swiss and the Soviet academies of sciences. The manuscript edition was postponed, and the project focussed on Euler’s correspondence which contains approximately 3000 letters, 1000 of them written by Euler. The correspondents include famous mathematicians of the 18th century like d’Alembert, Clairaut and the Bernoullis, but also many less-known people with whom Euler corresponded on a great variety of subjects. A major problem is to find and to finance appropriate editors who are able to read French, Latin, and the old German handwriting, and who are acquainted with history, culture and science of the 18th century. During the last 50 years, the editors gathered copies or scans of most of the preserved Euler’s letters. The original letters addressed to Euler were made available to the editorial group in Switzerland by the Russian Academy of Sciences before World War I, and before their restitution in 1947 the editors made fairly good photographs that are now an important part of the material basis of the edition. Each volume of the letter series (VIA) contains Euler’s correspondence with one or more of his contemporaries, presented in a chronological order. Up to the present day, four volumes of the correspondence have been published, in addition to an inventory of all known letters to and from Euler, including short summaries and useful information about the date, language and location of the existing copies, and former publication. Four more volumes are in progress and will be published in 2016 or 2017. The remaining letters that are not intended for publication in the printed volumes are planned to be made available in an online edition.
Halina Lichocka
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 37-62
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.003.5259The article shows that the Czech humanists formed the largest group among the foreign members of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow. It is mainly based on the reports of the activities of the Academy.
The Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow was established by transforming the Krakow Learned Society. The Statute of the newly founded Academy was approved by a decision of the Emperor Franz Joseph I on February 16, 1872. The Emperor nominated his brother Archduke Karl Ludwig as the Academy’s Protector.
The Academy was assigned to take charge of research matters related to different fields of science: philology (mainly Polish and other Slavic languages); history of literature; history of art; philosophical; political and legal sciences; history and archaeology; mathematical sciences, life sciences, Earth sciences and medical sciences. In order to make it possible for the Academy to manage so many research topics, it was divided into three classes: a philological class, a historico‑philosophical class, and a class for mathematics and natural sciences. Each class was allowed to establish its own commissions dealing with different branches of science.
The first members of the Academy were chosen from among the members of the Krakow Learned Society. It was a 12‑person group including only local members, approved by the Emperor. It was also them who elected the first President of the Academy, Józef Majer, and the Secretary General, Józef Szujski, from this group.
By the end of 1872, the organization of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow was completed. It had its administration, management and three classes that were managed by the respective directors and secretaries. It also had three commissions, taken over from the Krakow Learned Society, namely: the Physiographic Commission, the Bibliographic Commission and the Linguistic Commission. At that time, the Academy had only a total of 24 active members who had the right to elect non‑ resident and foreign members. Each election had to be approved by the Emperor.
The first public plenary session of the Academy was held in May 1873. After the speeches had been delivered, a list of candidates for new members of the Academy was read out. There were five people on the list, three of which were Czech: Josef Jireček, František Palacký and Karl Rokitansky. The second on the list was – since February 18, 1860 – a correspondent member of the Krakow Learned Society, already dissolved at the time. They were approved by the Emperor Franz Joseph in his rescript of July 7, 1873.
Josef Jireček (1825–1888) became a member of the Philological Class. He was an expert on Czech literature, an ethnographer and a historian. František Palacký (1798–1876) became a member of the Historico‑Philosophical Class. The third person from this group, Karl Rokitansky (1804–1878), became a member of the Class for Mathematics and Natural Sciences.
The mere fact that the first foreigners were elected as members of the Academy was a perfect example of the criteria according to which the Academy selected its active members. From among the humanists, it accepted those researchers whose research had been linked to Polish matters and issues. That is why until the end of World War I, the Czech representatives of social sciences were the biggest group among the foreign members of the Academy. As for the members of the Class for Mathematics and Natural Sciences, the Academy invited scientists enjoying exceptional recognition in the world. These criteria were binding throughout the following years.
The Academy elected two other humanists as its members during the session held on October 31, 1877 and these were Václav Svatopluk Štulc (1814–1887) and Antonin Randa (1834–1914). Václav Svatopluk Štulc became a member of the Philological Class and Antonin Randa became a member of the Historico‑Philosophical Class.
The next Czech scholar who became a member of the Academy of Arts and Scientists in Krakow was Václav Vladivoj Tomek (1818–1905). It was the Historico‑Philosophical Class that elected him, which happened on May 2, 1881.
On May 14, 1888, the Krakow Academy again elected a Czech scholar as its active member. This time it was Jan Gebauer (1838–1907), who was to replace Václav Štulc, who had died a few months earlier.
Further Czech members of the Krakow Academy were elected at the session on December 4, 1899. This time it was again humanists who became the new members: Zikmund Winter (1846–1912), Emil Ott (1845–1924) and Jaroslav Goll (1846–1929). Two years later, on November 29, 1901, Jan Kvičala (1834–1908) and Jaromir Čelakovský (1846–1914) were elected as members of the Krakow Academy. Kvičala became a member of the Philological Class and Čelakovský – a corresponding member of the Historical‑Philosophical Class.
The next member of the Krakow Academy was František Vejdovský (1849–1939) elected by the Class for Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Six years later, a chemist, Bohuslav Brauner (1855–1935), became a member of the same Class.
The last Czech scientists who had been elected as members of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow before the end of the World War I were two humanists: Karel Kadlec (1865–1928) and Václav Vondrák (1859–1925).
The founding of the Czech Royal Academy of Sciences in Prague in 1890 strengthened the cooperation between Czech and Polish scientists and humanists.
Wojciech Kocurek
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 63-79
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.004.5260The article is dedicated to high-tech companies founded by Poles at the end of the 19th century in the rural canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. The text is divided into two parts. In the first part, the author attempts to present the economic, social and political reality of Fribourg in a period of intense industrialization in the world and the formation of the liberal free market system. In this rapidly changing reality, the new Catholic-conservative authorities of the canton tried to lead to establishing of a comprehensive, but also different system of a “Christian republic”, whose aim was to achieve social justice consistent with the teachings of the Gospel. In order to complete the project, the cantonal government did not shy away from using the possibilities and measures offered by the contemporary world. Decision-makers, led by Georges Python, needed support from the society, who was aware of the changes. Due to this fact, it became necessary to establish a university capable of shaping new attitudes and views. However, the costs significantly exceeded the financial capabilities of the agricultural and relatively poor canton of Fribourg. In these less favourable circumstances, a conscious policy of industrialization was the way out of the deadlock. Newly created industrial institutions were to contribute to an increase of cash inflows to the canton and thus allow for the financing of the university, which would also become an intellectual foundation for the emerging industry. The activity of Polish scientists, which is the subject of the second part of the article, matched this philosophy perfectly. The Poles invited to cooperate with Python, i.e. Józef Wierusz-Kowalski, Ignacy Mościcki and Jan Modzelewski, created the foundations of the Faculty of Mathematical and Natural Sciences at the University of Fribourg. As members of the faculty, in addition to teaching, they conducted research into, among other things, nitric acid synthesis and construction of electrical capacitors. Convinced of the need to put their innovations into wide production, they financed and built the first experimental factories and, over time, led to the development of a nitric acid factory and a high-voltage capacitor factory on an industrial scale. Although after the First World War the commitment of the Poles stopped, the 30 years of academic research and experience clearly showed that a conscious cooperation of policy-makers and highly qualified scientific personnel can bring surprising and unexpected results.
Tomasz Pudłocki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 81-97
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.005.5261Author found and gave to print unknown letters of Vilnius philosopher and scholar, Wincenty Lutosławski to Stefan Mierzwa, executive director of the Kosciuszko Foundation – the source kept in the Archives of the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City. The letters reveal unknown facts from the life of Vilnius philosopher. Lutosławski appears to be a great admirer of Juliusz Osterwa and his The Reduta (Redoubt) Theatre, as well as a good advocate of his students. In the same time despite of being in late 60. Lutosławski had great plans and ambitions to arrive to the U.S. under auspices of the KF. What is more, the correspondence shows that Lutosławski, focused on promoting his own person and achievements, was not far of underestimating the authority even those scholars, who like Roman Dyboski, were generally favorable to him. The correspondence confirms therefore not the best opinion enjoyed by Polish philosopher in the world of science.
Jan Koroński
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 99-115
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.006.5262The subject of the paper is the history of Mathematics at the Krakow University of Technology since 1945 up to 2015. It presents profiles of the most famous mathematicians in the history of the Krakow University of Technology (M. Krzyżański, J. Bochenek, F. Barański, I. Łojczyk-Królikiewicz) and some information about their scientific achievements.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 117-134
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.007.5263In the debate on scientometrics and bibliometrics, taking place in Poland in the last 25 years, a very serious methodical and methodological mistake has been committed by neglecting the reflection about the science of science, especially of historical and methodological character. The following article discusses this issue.
This aim was achieved with the use of a method of interdisciplinary research originating from the scope of the science of science and the history of the science of science. This method was applied to the analysis of selected major publications on scientometrics and bibliometrics in the past 25 years, with special emphasis on Polish context.
The results are discussed in the article, i.e. a) the context of the current debate on scientometrics and bibliometrics in Poland; b) the history of Polish scientometric analyses based on foreign indexation databases; c) the current discussion on scientometrics and bibliometrics in Poland and d) the key aspect ignored in the current debate, namely the inseparable connection of scientometrics and bibliometrics with the science of science.
The study leads to the following conclusions: it is postulated that the informetric (scientometric, bibliometric, Webometric, etc.) studies return to the scientific discourse, which would be consciously developed in the context of the integrated science of science. This knowledge should be utilized in the development of the current science policy, i.e. the organizational structure of science and higher education and the formation of rules of appraisal of scientific institutions, individual employees and scientific journals.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 135-184
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.008.5264The aim of this research study and review article is to examine the scientific basis of scientometrics and bibliometrics, i.e. to show their real “detection and measurement” capabilities. The analysis is conducted from the author’s perspective of the integrated science of science and the history and methodology of the science of science following this perspective. Particular emphasis is placed on the history and methodology of scientometrics and bibliometrics and the history and methodology of science. This perspective is a new approach to the subject matter and determines a) how to select publications and their interpretations and b) which hierarchy the analyzed issues should follow.
The article describes the view, dominant both in the world and in Poland, on the basics of scientometrics and bibliometrics and their numerous serious scientific restrictions, such as: a) the incompatibility of the so‑called scientometric laws and the Garfield law of concentration with the empirical data; b) the domain bias, the language bias and the geographical bias of indexation databases; c) various practices of scientific communication; d) the local (national or state‑ level) orientation of humanities, social sciences and citation indexes; e) the disadvantages of the impact factor (IF), the manipulations with its values and the “impact factor game”; f) the numerous problems with and abuses of citations, e.g. the Mendel syndrome, the “classic” publication bias, the palimpsestic syndrome, the effect of the disappearance of citations, the so‑called Matthew effect, the theft of citations, the so‑called secondary and tertiary citations, negative citations, “fashionable nonsenses”, forced citations, the pathologies of the so‑ called citation cartels or cooperative citations, the guest authorship and the honorable authorship; g) the distinction between the “impact of publication” and the “importance of publication” or the “significance” of publication; h) the effectiveness of indexation of publications in electronic and Internet databases and
the technological modernity of publications. The discovery of such restrictions regarding scientometrics and bibliometrics has led to the creation of, among others, biobibliometrics, alternative metrics (“altmetrics”) and the open science movement.
The analysis of this information results in a general conclusion that is relevant to the current scientific policy in Poland, i.e. it is necessary to resist the “tyranny of bibliometrics”, because it does not serve the development of science. As a consequence, the use of scientometric methods in evaluations of scientific activities should be limited, particularly in the humanities and social sciences.
The article also advocates for implementing the idea, considered as priority, of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, which is the promotion of the achievements of Polish humanities and social sciences at home and abroad. In order to achieve this aim, the following is proposed: a) developing the integrated science of science (as protection against the numerous errors of scientometrics and bibliometrics); b) expanding indexation databases of publications, digital libraries and digital repositories; c) intensifying the participation of Polish scientists in international research, including becoming actively involved in the international project aiming at building a European indexation database for humanities and social sciences, d) developing open access to scientific contents and e) modernizing Polish scientific journals and scientific publishing.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 185-266
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.009.5265The text presents a selection of bibliography on scientometrics, bibliometrics and informetrics.
The bibliography was chosen in the context of the author’s research of: a) the current debate on scientometrics, bibliometrics and informetrics in Poland, b) the history of these disciplines, and c) the history of the science of science.
This selection has an important advantage because it includes many publications that a) represent the views both of Polish and foreign authors, b) discuss serious methodological limitations of scientometrics, bibliometrics and informetrics and c) show the inseparable connection between the disciplines and the science of science.
This bibliography was already used in two of the author’s articles published in Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU, volume 14 (2015).
Piotr Flin, Elena Panko
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 269-272
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.010.5266Numerous Polish scientists were conferred with scientific degrees in Imperial Russia. It is therefore useful to known what kind of hierarchy these degrees followed.
Paweł E. Tomaszewski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 275-281
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.011.5267Remarks on the critical comments regarding the contents of the paper published after the presentation delivered by the biographer of Prof. Jan Czochralski. Unfortunately, Prof. Kokowski used an incorrect historical approach to such a short paper. The remarks are presented in four main points.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 283-288
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.012.5268The author replies to the text entitled “Remarks to the comment by Prof. Michal Kokowski on the research of Jan Czochralski’s biography” by Dr. Paweł E. Tomaszewski (2015), highlighting the key contentious issues, including the need to rely systematically on historical sources and the criticism thereof.
Jan Surman
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 291-306
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.013.5269The conversation revolves around the historical epistemology as a special branch of the history of science, which has been largely influenced by Hans-Jörg Rheinberger and his team at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. Apart from the discussion of the idea of historical epistemology, its position among the historical disciplines and the implications it has for science policy, what is also considered is experiment as a basic unit of science.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 309-323
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.014.5270The article presents a critical review of the form and content of the Polish translation of Hans-Jörg Rheinberger’s book entitled Epistemologia historyczna (Historical epistemology) (Warsaw: Oficyna Naukowa, 2015. Translated [from German] by Jan Surman. ISBN 978-83-64363-20-7, pp. 336), indicating both the substantive advantages of this book and its some (mainly linguistic) shortcomings.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 327-331
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.015.5271The author, referring to the text of Jan Woleński published on the pages of Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU in 2014, discusses the understanding of the generalized correspondence principle in the context of the following concepts: cumulativism (C.G. Hempel, P. Oppenhaim, E. Nagel), extreme anticumulativism (P. Feyerabend, T.S. Kuhn), dialectical cumulativism (W. Krajewski) and the hypothetico‑ deductive method of correspondence‑oriented thinking as well as Copernicus’s methodology (M. Kokowski).
Alicja Rafalska-Łasocha
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 335-345
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.016.5272The article briefly presents the scientific achievements of Karol Olszewski (1846– 1915), who was born when Poland did not exist on the map of Europe and Polish science was developed mainly in Krakow, Lviv and at some European Universities. In 1883 Karol Olszewski and Zygmunt Wróblewski were the first in the world to liquefy oxygen, nitrogen and carbon oxide from the atmosphere in a stable state. In 1884 Olszewski was also the first person who liquefied hydrogen in a dynamic state, achieving a record low temperature of 225 °C (48 K). In 1895 he succeeded in liquefying argon. In January 1896 Olszewski replicated the Roentgen’s set‑up for obtaining X‑rays and successfully obtained this newly‑ discovered radiation for the first time in Krakow, initiating the foundation of the university’s department of radiology. Olszewski died on 25 March 1915. In March 2015 the Faculty of Chemistry of the Jagiellonian University organized a special celebration to commemorate the life and achievements of Karol Olszewski.
Soňa Štrbaňova
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 347-353
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.017.5273In the last ten years, approximately, we could witness an evolution in informal international collaboration focusing on shared and interconnected history of science in the Habsburg Monarchy and in Central Europe in general. This effort, which includes mainly historians of science from Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, has already produced a number of important results and contributed to the thematization of some timeless topics of history of sciences such as, for instance, nationalization and internationalization of science. In the context of this cooperation, the seminar of Jan Surman, a historian of science of Polish descent, held at the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague in May 2015, concentrated on the formation of national scientific terminologies. It also underlined the necessity and usefulness of international collaboration in achieving a deeper understanding of the “national” histories of science, which cannot be separated from the “international” history.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 357-361
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.018.5274Ewa Wyka
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 365-367
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.019.5275The article describes synthetically the achievements of Professor Katalin Éva Vámos, Habilitated Doctor (22 May 1950 – 25 July 2015), a historian of science, museologist of science and technology, a longtime director of the Hungarian Museum of Science, Technology and Transport in Budapest (MTESZ).
Andreas Kleinert
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 13-35
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.002.5258The paper gives an overview on the history and present state of the edition of the complete works of Leonhard Euler (1707–1783). After several failed initiatives in the 19th century, the project began in 1907 with the edition of Euler’s printed works. The works were divided into three series: I. Mathematics (29 volumes); II. Mechanics and Astronomy (31 volumes); and III. Physics and Miscellaneous (12 volumes). After several ups and downs due to two World Wars and economic problems, the publication of the printed works with a total of 72 volumes is nearly finished. Only two volumes on perturbation theory in astronomy are still missing. The publication of series IV (manuscripts and correspondence) started in 1967 as a joint project of the Swiss and the Soviet academies of sciences. The manuscript edition was postponed, and the project focussed on Euler’s correspondence which contains approximately 3000 letters, 1000 of them written by Euler. The correspondents include famous mathematicians of the 18th century like d’Alembert, Clairaut and the Bernoullis, but also many less-known people with whom Euler corresponded on a great variety of subjects. A major problem is to find and to finance appropriate editors who are able to read French, Latin, and the old German handwriting, and who are acquainted with history, culture and science of the 18th century. During the last 50 years, the editors gathered copies or scans of most of the preserved Euler’s letters. The original letters addressed to Euler were made available to the editorial group in Switzerland by the Russian Academy of Sciences before World War I, and before their restitution in 1947 the editors made fairly good photographs that are now an important part of the material basis of the edition. Each volume of the letter series (VIA) contains Euler’s correspondence with one or more of his contemporaries, presented in a chronological order. Up to the present day, four volumes of the correspondence have been published, in addition to an inventory of all known letters to and from Euler, including short summaries and useful information about the date, language and location of the existing copies, and former publication. Four more volumes are in progress and will be published in 2016 or 2017. The remaining letters that are not intended for publication in the printed volumes are planned to be made available in an online edition.
Halina Lichocka
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 37-62
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.003.5259The article shows that the Czech humanists formed the largest group among the foreign members of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow. It is mainly based on the reports of the activities of the Academy.
The Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow was established by transforming the Krakow Learned Society. The Statute of the newly founded Academy was approved by a decision of the Emperor Franz Joseph I on February 16, 1872. The Emperor nominated his brother Archduke Karl Ludwig as the Academy’s Protector.
The Academy was assigned to take charge of research matters related to different fields of science: philology (mainly Polish and other Slavic languages); history of literature; history of art; philosophical; political and legal sciences; history and archaeology; mathematical sciences, life sciences, Earth sciences and medical sciences. In order to make it possible for the Academy to manage so many research topics, it was divided into three classes: a philological class, a historico‑philosophical class, and a class for mathematics and natural sciences. Each class was allowed to establish its own commissions dealing with different branches of science.
The first members of the Academy were chosen from among the members of the Krakow Learned Society. It was a 12‑person group including only local members, approved by the Emperor. It was also them who elected the first President of the Academy, Józef Majer, and the Secretary General, Józef Szujski, from this group.
By the end of 1872, the organization of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow was completed. It had its administration, management and three classes that were managed by the respective directors and secretaries. It also had three commissions, taken over from the Krakow Learned Society, namely: the Physiographic Commission, the Bibliographic Commission and the Linguistic Commission. At that time, the Academy had only a total of 24 active members who had the right to elect non‑ resident and foreign members. Each election had to be approved by the Emperor.
The first public plenary session of the Academy was held in May 1873. After the speeches had been delivered, a list of candidates for new members of the Academy was read out. There were five people on the list, three of which were Czech: Josef Jireček, František Palacký and Karl Rokitansky. The second on the list was – since February 18, 1860 – a correspondent member of the Krakow Learned Society, already dissolved at the time. They were approved by the Emperor Franz Joseph in his rescript of July 7, 1873.
Josef Jireček (1825–1888) became a member of the Philological Class. He was an expert on Czech literature, an ethnographer and a historian. František Palacký (1798–1876) became a member of the Historico‑Philosophical Class. The third person from this group, Karl Rokitansky (1804–1878), became a member of the Class for Mathematics and Natural Sciences.
The mere fact that the first foreigners were elected as members of the Academy was a perfect example of the criteria according to which the Academy selected its active members. From among the humanists, it accepted those researchers whose research had been linked to Polish matters and issues. That is why until the end of World War I, the Czech representatives of social sciences were the biggest group among the foreign members of the Academy. As for the members of the Class for Mathematics and Natural Sciences, the Academy invited scientists enjoying exceptional recognition in the world. These criteria were binding throughout the following years.
The Academy elected two other humanists as its members during the session held on October 31, 1877 and these were Václav Svatopluk Štulc (1814–1887) and Antonin Randa (1834–1914). Václav Svatopluk Štulc became a member of the Philological Class and Antonin Randa became a member of the Historico‑Philosophical Class.
The next Czech scholar who became a member of the Academy of Arts and Scientists in Krakow was Václav Vladivoj Tomek (1818–1905). It was the Historico‑Philosophical Class that elected him, which happened on May 2, 1881.
On May 14, 1888, the Krakow Academy again elected a Czech scholar as its active member. This time it was Jan Gebauer (1838–1907), who was to replace Václav Štulc, who had died a few months earlier.
Further Czech members of the Krakow Academy were elected at the session on December 4, 1899. This time it was again humanists who became the new members: Zikmund Winter (1846–1912), Emil Ott (1845–1924) and Jaroslav Goll (1846–1929). Two years later, on November 29, 1901, Jan Kvičala (1834–1908) and Jaromir Čelakovský (1846–1914) were elected as members of the Krakow Academy. Kvičala became a member of the Philological Class and Čelakovský – a corresponding member of the Historical‑Philosophical Class.
The next member of the Krakow Academy was František Vejdovský (1849–1939) elected by the Class for Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Six years later, a chemist, Bohuslav Brauner (1855–1935), became a member of the same Class.
The last Czech scientists who had been elected as members of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow before the end of the World War I were two humanists: Karel Kadlec (1865–1928) and Václav Vondrák (1859–1925).
The founding of the Czech Royal Academy of Sciences in Prague in 1890 strengthened the cooperation between Czech and Polish scientists and humanists.
Wojciech Kocurek
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 63-79
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.004.5260The article is dedicated to high-tech companies founded by Poles at the end of the 19th century in the rural canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. The text is divided into two parts. In the first part, the author attempts to present the economic, social and political reality of Fribourg in a period of intense industrialization in the world and the formation of the liberal free market system. In this rapidly changing reality, the new Catholic-conservative authorities of the canton tried to lead to establishing of a comprehensive, but also different system of a “Christian republic”, whose aim was to achieve social justice consistent with the teachings of the Gospel. In order to complete the project, the cantonal government did not shy away from using the possibilities and measures offered by the contemporary world. Decision-makers, led by Georges Python, needed support from the society, who was aware of the changes. Due to this fact, it became necessary to establish a university capable of shaping new attitudes and views. However, the costs significantly exceeded the financial capabilities of the agricultural and relatively poor canton of Fribourg. In these less favourable circumstances, a conscious policy of industrialization was the way out of the deadlock. Newly created industrial institutions were to contribute to an increase of cash inflows to the canton and thus allow for the financing of the university, which would also become an intellectual foundation for the emerging industry. The activity of Polish scientists, which is the subject of the second part of the article, matched this philosophy perfectly. The Poles invited to cooperate with Python, i.e. Józef Wierusz-Kowalski, Ignacy Mościcki and Jan Modzelewski, created the foundations of the Faculty of Mathematical and Natural Sciences at the University of Fribourg. As members of the faculty, in addition to teaching, they conducted research into, among other things, nitric acid synthesis and construction of electrical capacitors. Convinced of the need to put their innovations into wide production, they financed and built the first experimental factories and, over time, led to the development of a nitric acid factory and a high-voltage capacitor factory on an industrial scale. Although after the First World War the commitment of the Poles stopped, the 30 years of academic research and experience clearly showed that a conscious cooperation of policy-makers and highly qualified scientific personnel can bring surprising and unexpected results.
Tomasz Pudłocki
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 81-97
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.005.5261Author found and gave to print unknown letters of Vilnius philosopher and scholar, Wincenty Lutosławski to Stefan Mierzwa, executive director of the Kosciuszko Foundation – the source kept in the Archives of the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City. The letters reveal unknown facts from the life of Vilnius philosopher. Lutosławski appears to be a great admirer of Juliusz Osterwa and his The Reduta (Redoubt) Theatre, as well as a good advocate of his students. In the same time despite of being in late 60. Lutosławski had great plans and ambitions to arrive to the U.S. under auspices of the KF. What is more, the correspondence shows that Lutosławski, focused on promoting his own person and achievements, was not far of underestimating the authority even those scholars, who like Roman Dyboski, were generally favorable to him. The correspondence confirms therefore not the best opinion enjoyed by Polish philosopher in the world of science.
Jan Koroński
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 99-115
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.006.5262The subject of the paper is the history of Mathematics at the Krakow University of Technology since 1945 up to 2015. It presents profiles of the most famous mathematicians in the history of the Krakow University of Technology (M. Krzyżański, J. Bochenek, F. Barański, I. Łojczyk-Królikiewicz) and some information about their scientific achievements.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 117-134
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.007.5263In the debate on scientometrics and bibliometrics, taking place in Poland in the last 25 years, a very serious methodical and methodological mistake has been committed by neglecting the reflection about the science of science, especially of historical and methodological character. The following article discusses this issue.
This aim was achieved with the use of a method of interdisciplinary research originating from the scope of the science of science and the history of the science of science. This method was applied to the analysis of selected major publications on scientometrics and bibliometrics in the past 25 years, with special emphasis on Polish context.
The results are discussed in the article, i.e. a) the context of the current debate on scientometrics and bibliometrics in Poland; b) the history of Polish scientometric analyses based on foreign indexation databases; c) the current discussion on scientometrics and bibliometrics in Poland and d) the key aspect ignored in the current debate, namely the inseparable connection of scientometrics and bibliometrics with the science of science.
The study leads to the following conclusions: it is postulated that the informetric (scientometric, bibliometric, Webometric, etc.) studies return to the scientific discourse, which would be consciously developed in the context of the integrated science of science. This knowledge should be utilized in the development of the current science policy, i.e. the organizational structure of science and higher education and the formation of rules of appraisal of scientific institutions, individual employees and scientific journals.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 135-184
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.008.5264The aim of this research study and review article is to examine the scientific basis of scientometrics and bibliometrics, i.e. to show their real “detection and measurement” capabilities. The analysis is conducted from the author’s perspective of the integrated science of science and the history and methodology of the science of science following this perspective. Particular emphasis is placed on the history and methodology of scientometrics and bibliometrics and the history and methodology of science. This perspective is a new approach to the subject matter and determines a) how to select publications and their interpretations and b) which hierarchy the analyzed issues should follow.
The article describes the view, dominant both in the world and in Poland, on the basics of scientometrics and bibliometrics and their numerous serious scientific restrictions, such as: a) the incompatibility of the so‑called scientometric laws and the Garfield law of concentration with the empirical data; b) the domain bias, the language bias and the geographical bias of indexation databases; c) various practices of scientific communication; d) the local (national or state‑ level) orientation of humanities, social sciences and citation indexes; e) the disadvantages of the impact factor (IF), the manipulations with its values and the “impact factor game”; f) the numerous problems with and abuses of citations, e.g. the Mendel syndrome, the “classic” publication bias, the palimpsestic syndrome, the effect of the disappearance of citations, the so‑called Matthew effect, the theft of citations, the so‑called secondary and tertiary citations, negative citations, “fashionable nonsenses”, forced citations, the pathologies of the so‑ called citation cartels or cooperative citations, the guest authorship and the honorable authorship; g) the distinction between the “impact of publication” and the “importance of publication” or the “significance” of publication; h) the effectiveness of indexation of publications in electronic and Internet databases and
the technological modernity of publications. The discovery of such restrictions regarding scientometrics and bibliometrics has led to the creation of, among others, biobibliometrics, alternative metrics (“altmetrics”) and the open science movement.
The analysis of this information results in a general conclusion that is relevant to the current scientific policy in Poland, i.e. it is necessary to resist the “tyranny of bibliometrics”, because it does not serve the development of science. As a consequence, the use of scientometric methods in evaluations of scientific activities should be limited, particularly in the humanities and social sciences.
The article also advocates for implementing the idea, considered as priority, of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, which is the promotion of the achievements of Polish humanities and social sciences at home and abroad. In order to achieve this aim, the following is proposed: a) developing the integrated science of science (as protection against the numerous errors of scientometrics and bibliometrics); b) expanding indexation databases of publications, digital libraries and digital repositories; c) intensifying the participation of Polish scientists in international research, including becoming actively involved in the international project aiming at building a European indexation database for humanities and social sciences, d) developing open access to scientific contents and e) modernizing Polish scientific journals and scientific publishing.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 185-266
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.009.5265The text presents a selection of bibliography on scientometrics, bibliometrics and informetrics.
The bibliography was chosen in the context of the author’s research of: a) the current debate on scientometrics, bibliometrics and informetrics in Poland, b) the history of these disciplines, and c) the history of the science of science.
This selection has an important advantage because it includes many publications that a) represent the views both of Polish and foreign authors, b) discuss serious methodological limitations of scientometrics, bibliometrics and informetrics and c) show the inseparable connection between the disciplines and the science of science.
This bibliography was already used in two of the author’s articles published in Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU, volume 14 (2015).
Piotr Flin, Elena Panko
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 269-272
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.010.5266Numerous Polish scientists were conferred with scientific degrees in Imperial Russia. It is therefore useful to known what kind of hierarchy these degrees followed.
Paweł E. Tomaszewski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 275-281
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.011.5267Remarks on the critical comments regarding the contents of the paper published after the presentation delivered by the biographer of Prof. Jan Czochralski. Unfortunately, Prof. Kokowski used an incorrect historical approach to such a short paper. The remarks are presented in four main points.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 283-288
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.012.5268The author replies to the text entitled “Remarks to the comment by Prof. Michal Kokowski on the research of Jan Czochralski’s biography” by Dr. Paweł E. Tomaszewski (2015), highlighting the key contentious issues, including the need to rely systematically on historical sources and the criticism thereof.
Jan Surman
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 291-306
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.013.5269The conversation revolves around the historical epistemology as a special branch of the history of science, which has been largely influenced by Hans-Jörg Rheinberger and his team at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. Apart from the discussion of the idea of historical epistemology, its position among the historical disciplines and the implications it has for science policy, what is also considered is experiment as a basic unit of science.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 309-323
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.014.5270The article presents a critical review of the form and content of the Polish translation of Hans-Jörg Rheinberger’s book entitled Epistemologia historyczna (Historical epistemology) (Warsaw: Oficyna Naukowa, 2015. Translated [from German] by Jan Surman. ISBN 978-83-64363-20-7, pp. 336), indicating both the substantive advantages of this book and its some (mainly linguistic) shortcomings.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 327-331
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.015.5271The author, referring to the text of Jan Woleński published on the pages of Prace Komisji Historii Nauki PAU in 2014, discusses the understanding of the generalized correspondence principle in the context of the following concepts: cumulativism (C.G. Hempel, P. Oppenhaim, E. Nagel), extreme anticumulativism (P. Feyerabend, T.S. Kuhn), dialectical cumulativism (W. Krajewski) and the hypothetico‑ deductive method of correspondence‑oriented thinking as well as Copernicus’s methodology (M. Kokowski).
Alicja Rafalska-Łasocha
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 335-345
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.016.5272The article briefly presents the scientific achievements of Karol Olszewski (1846– 1915), who was born when Poland did not exist on the map of Europe and Polish science was developed mainly in Krakow, Lviv and at some European Universities. In 1883 Karol Olszewski and Zygmunt Wróblewski were the first in the world to liquefy oxygen, nitrogen and carbon oxide from the atmosphere in a stable state. In 1884 Olszewski was also the first person who liquefied hydrogen in a dynamic state, achieving a record low temperature of 225 °C (48 K). In 1895 he succeeded in liquefying argon. In January 1896 Olszewski replicated the Roentgen’s set‑up for obtaining X‑rays and successfully obtained this newly‑ discovered radiation for the first time in Krakow, initiating the foundation of the university’s department of radiology. Olszewski died on 25 March 1915. In March 2015 the Faculty of Chemistry of the Jagiellonian University organized a special celebration to commemorate the life and achievements of Karol Olszewski.
Soňa Štrbaňova
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 347-353
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.017.5273In the last ten years, approximately, we could witness an evolution in informal international collaboration focusing on shared and interconnected history of science in the Habsburg Monarchy and in Central Europe in general. This effort, which includes mainly historians of science from Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, has already produced a number of important results and contributed to the thematization of some timeless topics of history of sciences such as, for instance, nationalization and internationalization of science. In the context of this cooperation, the seminar of Jan Surman, a historian of science of Polish descent, held at the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague in May 2015, concentrated on the formation of national scientific terminologies. It also underlined the necessity and usefulness of international collaboration in achieving a deeper understanding of the “national” histories of science, which cannot be separated from the “international” history.
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 357-361
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.018.5274Ewa Wyka
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 365-367
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.019.5275The article describes synthetically the achievements of Professor Katalin Éva Vámos, Habilitated Doctor (22 May 1950 – 25 July 2015), a historian of science, museologist of science and technology, a longtime director of the Hungarian Museum of Science, Technology and Transport in Budapest (MTESZ).
Michał Kokowski
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, XIV (2015), 2015, pp. 5-10
https://doi.org/10.4467/23921749PKHN_PAU.16.001.52572022
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