The Social Appeal of the World of Science

1. Expansion of applied science 

   • the successsful application of chemistry to industry, biology and medicine 

     • ability to manipulate materials, processes, and products 

       • new alloys and synthetic materials: celluloid and other plastics 

       • dyes: Perkin's aniline mauve 

       • explosives: nitrocellulose and dynamite 

     • growth of the chemical industry and leadership in industrial science: petroleum, 

     • chemical analysis of drugs, nutrients, bodily components, and physiology (Justus von Liebig) 

     • new organic products 

       • Liebig's "agricultural chemistry" and fertilizers 

       • anesthesia, e.g. ether and chloroform 

       • new drugs (e.g., chloral hydrate, morphine, cocaine), patent medicines, pharmaceuticals (e.g., aspirin from Bayer) 

   • practical applications of physics, e.g. electrical industry 

   • the human sciences 

     • mathematical models of economics 

     • empirical measurements of human traits, society 

     • statistics applied to medicine and behavior, social issues 

     • models of development of society 

   • optimism for the continued advance of technology 

     • sources of power 

     • materials and chemical technology 

     • mechanical devices -- labor and transport 

     • grand civil engineering 

     • medical breakthroughs 

     • agricultural productivity 

     • new organization of work and the workplace 

     • heightened abilities -- precision, power, and efficacy 

2.  New institutions for public science: 

   • Engineering education: Mining Academy [Bergakademie] at Freiberg (1765), École Polytechnique in Paris (1794) 

   • German research universities (Ph.D. degree and laboratory training), e.g. Berlin (1810) 

   • Institute labs, e.g. Royal Institution in London (1799) 

   • government surveys (U.S., 1807), national laboratories and observatories (U.S., 1830), agencies, commissions, and patent offices 

   • Evening public lectures and mechanics' institutes (1823) for continuing education 

   • Exhibitions of wonders and inventions, e.g. The Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace (1851) 

   • popular demand for science education and application 

     • public education in science 

     • texts and labs in university teaching 

     • land-grant universities (1862) 

     • science degrees and Ph.D.'s (University of London, 1857;  Sheffield Scientific School [Yale], 1861) 

     • the "research university" (The Johns Hopkins University,1876) 

   • the rise of professional opportunities 

     • university research (copying Liebig's lab for Ph.D. students) 

     • government science 

     • industrial research & development 

3.  The heroic image of the scientist, inventor, and technologist 

   • the range and rate of inventions 

   • new industries 

   • "mechanical" agriculture 

   • advances in chemical physiology, applied to agriculture and medicine 

   • "scientific medicine" after 1860 (Claude Bernard in Paris; The Johns Hopkins University medical school) 

   • the engineering ideal of manipulation and control 

   • Samuel Smiles's Lives of the Engineers (1861) and Men of Invention and Industry (1884) 

4.  The turn to scientism:  Science as the proper guide or answer 

   • (social) statistics 

   • historical theory 

     • progressivism 

     • historical determinism (hierarchies and destiny) 

     • Marxism 

   • human nature 

     • criminal anthropology (Cesare Lombroso) 

     • eugenics 

     • psychology 

   • explicit conflict with religion 

     • loss of faith 

     • spiritual alternatives 

     • secularism 

   • confluence with issues in Victorian society 

     • growing nationalism and organization of the state 

     • expanding industrialism and capitalism 

     • optimism, confidence, and work-ethic 

     • hierarchies of ethnocentrism, racism, sexism 

     • changing practice and role of religion 

5.  A vision of modern science in society

• satisfaction with mechanistic explanation (no magic)

•  boundary between science and religion in theory and practice

•  expertise certified by academic training, professional societies, and peer-reviewed publication

• knowledge certified by experiment, statistics, modeling, consilience

• progress of scientific knowledge expected and celebrated (even when overturning standard ideas)

• promotion of the moral and practical value of science for society

• public patronage through industry and foundations and governments

• “Scientific Method” as a way of knowing applicable to all problems

© 2024 Dr. William Kimler