The Emergence of the Life Sciences Field: Discipline Formation at the German Universities, 1805-1848

• In Event: 431 - Regular Session. Sociology of Knowledge: Organizing Scholarly Knowledge

Abstract

This paper examines the sudden appearance of new, distinctively modern life science disciplines at the German universities during the first half of the nineteenth century. In contrast to existing accounts that stress the role of state reforms in granting university faculty the freedom to take up new forms of scientific inquiry, I suggest that the preexisting field of university disciplines played a significant role in determining the emergence and structure of the life sciences field. I argue that an integrated field of life science disciplines emerged at this time from the formerly separate activities of university disciplines, natural philosophy, and vocational training. Using data on the social background and scientific activities of 135 directors of university institutes for anatomy, agriculture, botany, comparative anatomy, forestry, natural history, pathology, physiology, and zoology, I show that the success of new life sciences depended in part on their connections to traditional university structures. State-led university reforms expanded support to a variety of disciplinary programs, but did not determine which succeeded and which failed. Instead, the connections forged between traditional university disciplines and conceptions of life drawn from idealist philosophies of nature tended to support the latter and isolate more utilitarian disciplinary projects. The result was a field polarized between pure sciences of life that were fully integrated into university faculties, and practical yet marginalized subjects such as agriculture and forestry.

Author

• Jacob Habinek, University of California-Berkeley