In Defence of Biography: The Use of Biography in the History of Science

Relocating the History of Science

“…Moreover, some of the earliest history of science was biographical in nature. Thomas Hankins (1979) drew attention to the famous éloges written at the Paris Academy of Sciences by Bernard le Bouvier de Fontenelle, who from 1697 served as secretary of the Academy. Fontenelle and his successors as eulogists were faced with the difficult problem of combining panegyrics with historically accurate biographies.…”

Milieu and the “Intellectual Landscape”: Carl O. Sauer's Undergraduate Heritage

“…Biography provides a potent vehicle for uncovering the patterns underlying intellectual thought at specific times and places (Hankins 1979); it helps explicate the intellectual landscape by focusing attention on past milieus. It is a reflection of, and it represents an insight into, the Zeitgeist of a given social environment.…”

“…It is a reflection of, and it represents an insight into, the Zeitgeist of a given social environment. Biography provides a potent vehicle for uncovering the patterns underlying intellectual thought at specific times and places (Hankins 1979); it helps explicate the intellectual landscape by focusing attention on past milieus. Each setting is unique, and each bears its own distinguishing characteristics.…”

Hans Spemann 1869–1941 Experimentelle Forschung im Spannungsfeld von Empirie und Theorie

“…., 1977197919811969ISSI 1993 Jahr lSI Science Citation Index 1973-1993: Hiiufigkeit der Zitierungen von Spemanns wissenschaftlichen Schriften ler. "There could be no better representative of Zoology and Embryology from Germany."!…”