Jürgen Renn - The Evolution of Knowledge

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I can see no other escape from this dilemma (lest our true aim be lost for ever) than that some of us should venture to embark on a synthesis of facts and theories, albeit with second-hand and incomplete knowledge of some of themand at the risk of making fools of ourselves.

ERWIN SCHRDINGER, What Is Life?

This book covers a time span from the origins of human thinking to the modern challenges of the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene is regarded here as the new geological epoch of humankind, defined by the profound and lasting impact of human activities on the Earth system. The Anthropocene is thus the ultimate context for a history of knowledge and the natural vanishing point for an investigation of cultural evolution from a global . From this perspective, I have tried to bind multiple historical and geographical horizons together. This book deals with both the longue dure aspects of the evolution of knowledge and the accelerated changes in the development of knowledge that have brought us into the Anthropocene.

The foundation of the book is research pursued at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science since 1994. My studies and those of my colleagues have been dedicated from the beginning to an investigation of the history of science as part of a larger history of human knowledge. We have consistently emphasized the role of practical knowledge and historical continuity, even when focusing on the turning points of modern science. Our investigations include cross-cultural comparisons, in particular between Western, Chinese, and Islamic science, and a research program on the globalization of knowledge in history.

The research on which this book is based has been (and continues to be) a joint endeavor. It was born from a conceptual framework for a historical epistemologyunderstood as a historical theory of knowledgedeveloped with Peter Damerow, Peter McLaughlin, and Gideon Freudenthal on the basis of earlier work by Peter Damerow and Wolfgang Lefvre on science and its relation to human labor and its societal organization. Wolfgang Lefvre, Klaus Heinrich, and Yehuda Elkana taught me to see science within the broadest contexts of human history and to critically rethink the promises of its Enlightenment ideals and its potential to contribute to humanitys self-awareness.

The present work owes much to the thinking of Peter Damerow, to his leading role in our research team, and to our friendship and collaboration over more than thirty years. It also builds on the fundamental theoretical insights (drawing from philosophy, educational research, psychology, and cognitive science) collected in his 1996 book, I have incorporated here some of the materials we prepared for a joint book on the history of mechanicsa book that could not be completed owing to his premature death in 2011.

Our research at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science is pursued along two main axes: the long-term and globalization. Both of these aspects are essential, I believe, for understanding how we came to enter the Anthropocene, and both reveal patterns in the evolution of knowledge that have long been underestimateddespite their relevance in coping with challenges of the Anthropocene. As such, both are reflected in the structure of this book.

The history of science and technology has traditionally privileged innovation over the transmission, transformation, and transfer of knowledge. But it was often the less spectacular knowledge that led to the most celebrated discoveries and inventions. Some of this knowledge exhibits a striking stability and durability, often persisting over long stretches of time through phases of fundamental change. Similarly, the intercultural transfer and transformation of knowledge have shaped technological and scientific achievements since the dawn of human culturea circumstance that is easily overlooked when focusing exclusively on the apparent points of convergence.

On the basis of our historical investigations, we have attempted to build up a theoretical language that helps us to describe all of these developmental and transmission processes, regardless of type or medium. For this purpose, we have drawn on insights from historical disciplines such as archaeology, political and economic history, the history of science and technology, and the history of art and religion, as well as from philosophical epistemology, cognitive science, the social and behavioral sciences, and in particular from sociology, economics, psychology, and social anthropology.

How can one possibly tackle such an ambitious and comprehensive research programand how to present its outcome? Back in 1994, we decided to try an approach that may be likened to the attempt of biologists to understand general biological patterns by focusing on a single model organism such as Drosophila melanogaster or to the strategy of a film producer adapting a complex novel, with many interwoven narrative strands, into a simplified script for a movie: reduce the number of characters and narrative levels and concentrate on a few, carefully selected key figures and themes. In our context, of course, it was not a question of selecting dramatis personae but rather of concentrating on a certain strand and domain of knowledge development that seemed particularly suited to investigations of both the long-term developments and the global transformations of knowledge.

One narrative strand on which we have concentrated our efforts is the history of mechanics in its widest sense. What I mean is not so much the history of mechanics as a specific scientific discipline, but the history of mechanical knowledge, ranging from elementary, intuitive knowledge about a world in which gravity and pressure reign, to practical knowledge emerging from experience with instruments and tools, to theoretical forms of knowledge as documented in written texts. Mechanical knowledge has a history extending from its prehuman originsvia a long tradition of practical experience, natural philosophy, and classical mechanicsto the latest developments of science, including the new mechanics of relativity theory and quantum mechanics. Another remarkable and relevant feature of mechanical knowledge is the fact that it is not the exclusive boast of the Western tradition but has flourished in other cultures across time.