Abstracts of the History of Science Society 2004 Austin Meeting 18 ...

ured in tales of transmutation and haunting, include the quantitative harnessing of previously mysterious fluids such as electricity, magnetism,
light and heat in post-Laplacean physics; the emergence of steam power in transport and heavy industry; and the eradication of
the old regime and the fitful cycle of revolution and reaction which followed it. In Freud’s famous theory of the uncanny, a “disquieting
strangeness” is explained as the revelation of the individual psychic past in the reactions of the present; my analysis will expand to
include other cases in which distinct ways of worldmaking are brought into sudden and jarring contact: the encounter of distinct places
(as in the Orientalism of Nerval), times (both in new speculative fictions and in the nostalgia of a lost aristocratic order), and worldviews
(as in the “gestalt switch” of Kuhn’s theory of scientific change, figured in imagery of alchemy and bewitchment). Despite a fascination
with mechanical processes of production and communication, in the pages of fantastic literature, a new image of the self, subject
to overwhelming irrational forces, emerged; at the same time the field of “literature” took shape, as the repository for “subjective”
explorations of language and the human imagination. This paper situates mid-century images of the automaton and related imagery in
their context, a history of mechanical subjectivity that connects new modes of understanding the self with new technologies for the
mastery of nature.
Olga A. Valkova, S. I. Vavilov Institute for History of Science and Technology, Moscow (valkova@ihst.ru)
Saturday, 20-Nov-04, 9:00 - 11:45 AM - Hill Country A
Women Taking on the Role of Scientist in Nineteenth-Century Russia
The decade of the 1860s served as a watershed in many aspects of social life in nineteenth-century Russia, including the establishment
of the cult of science among the public and the beginning of an active struggle for women’s equal access to higher education. But even
before Russian women obtained legal rights for higher education, and before they were allowed to work as college teachers or
researchers, a number of them had already managed to establish themselves as members of the scientific community, including several
women who were elected as corresponding members of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. This paper examines the first generation
of female scientists, revealing how they came to accept and understand their newfound roles.
Steven R. Vanden Broecke, The Johns Hopkins University (sbroecke@jhu.edu)
Saturday, 20-Nov-04, 9:00 - 11:45 AM - Texas Ballroom V
Disciplining Astrology: Notes on the Publication of Tycho Brahe’s World System (1588)
Disciplinary “role-reversal” and courtly patronage contributed greatly to our understanding of Renaissance astronomy. However, the
motivations of courtly patrons in supporting disciplinary hooliganism are still a matter of contention. This paper seeks to advance this
conversation by focusing on the publication of Tycho Brahe’s geo-heliocentric system (1588). The latter is often portrayed as a “theoretical”
event, seeking to contest or redefine various academic traditions of representing nature and supernature. As an alternative, I suggest
that the publication of Tycho’s world-system was a disciplining act aimed at the “practice” of judicial astrology. This interpretation
avoids certain assumptions about the historical events surrounding Tycho’s publication and its performative function in a court setting
that seem weakly supported.
Holly C. VanScoy, Academic Research Associates (academres@aol.com)
Saturday, 20-Nov-04, 1:30 - 3:10 PM - Hill Country A
The Role of The Psychological Sciences in The Supreme Court’s Decision in Brown v. Board of Education
An content analysis of psychology journals in the ten years before and after the landmark Supreme Court decision ending segregation
is used to examine the extent to which scholarly research informed the decision, as well as the extent to which the decision bolstered
scholarly research. This analysis supports the conclusion that research in psychology was more impacted by the judicial decision than
impactful of the decision. Alternate interpretation of the results are also provided, including reflections on the status of scholarly journals
and publication standards of the period.
Charissa S. Varma, IHPST, University of Toronto (charissa.varma@utoronto.ca)
Friday, 19-Nov-04, 1:30 - 3:10 PM - Hill Country C
Early 19th Century Taxonomy and Essentialism: William Kirby’s Place in the History of Systematics
Pre-Darwinian naturalists aimed to catalogue nature into efficient, practical information storage and retrieval systems that also attempted
to reflect the real, natural order of living things. However, historians of systematics have focused not on their aims and practicality
but on their metaphysics: their belief in the fixity of species created by God and their belief that the task of taxonomy is to discover
the “essences” of species. Ernst Mayr has stressed that pre-Darwinian naturalists were essentialists. Arthur Cain’s argument that
Linnaeus is a prime example of such a naturalist has been widely accepted. One would expect William Kirby the pious author of one
of the Bridgewater Treatises to fit this image perfectly. Yet Kirby’s claims in his great 1802 monograph on bee taxonomy frustrate any
attempt to squeeze him into the boxes Cain and Mayr have constructed. Kirby’s “Monographia Apum Angliae” uses a variety of “type
concepts”, some of which resist this essentialist characterisation. While Kirby’s beliefs about species were certainly creationist, his
methodology was quite unconstrained by his creationist worldview. More importantly, Kirby admired Linnaeus and adopted large portions
of Linnaeus’s system precisely because he saw Linnaeus behaving in ways counter to our present understanding of essentialism.