Notions of Scientificity in German Antiquity Studies 1800–1850 - IN PERSON

The talk reconsiders the history of the humanities and social sciences, focusing on antiquity studies in the German-speaking territories in the first half of the nineteenth century. I examine conceptions of scientificity in the works of authors like Wilhelm von Humboldt and August Boeckh, noting how true science (Wissenschaft) is defined against school teaching, deferential reconstruction of great works, and instrumentalization by outside forces. Antiquity studies helped lay the foundations for contemporary cultural research both within and beyond Germany, but the materials considered here also form a stark contrast with later discussions of scientificity in the social sciences and humanities, which started to be defensive vis-à-vis the natural sciences in the second half of the nineteenth century. Examining the first half of the nineteenth century is a starting point for reconsidering developments in subsequent periods and later interpretations of authors such as Nietzsche and Weber.

Monika Krause is Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics. She studied sociology and political science at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, the University of Cambridge, and the LSE. Her PhD in sociology is from New York University. She is the author of Model Cases: On Canonical Research Objects and Sites (2021).

Host or Publisher German Historical Institute London