Centre for History and Philosophy of Science, University of Leeds
Encyclopedia
The Centre for History and Philosophy of Science is a research institution devoted to the historical and philosophical study of science and technology, based in the Department of Philosophy
, at the University of Leeds
in West Yorkshire
, England
. The Centre – previously known as the Division of History and Philosophy of Science, which was founded in 1956 – is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the world. Throughout its history, the Centre has been home to many of the leading historians and philosophers of science who have shaped our understanding of scientific activity and how it shapes and is shaped by wider society.
, who was appointed Professor of Philosophy at Leeds in 1954 and head of department in 1956. Whilst Thomas Kuhn
is often seen as the founder of the modern field of history and philosophy of science, Toulmin had argued for an integration of philosophy of science and history of science some nine years before Kuhn published his famous work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
After becoming head of the department of philosophy, Toulmin hired two young scholars who would subsequently become amongst the most important thinkers in history and philosophy of science: Jerry Ravetz and June Goodfield. Furthermore, physicist-turned-historian Donald Cardwell become a research fellow in HPS and then a lecturer. However, Cardwell left Leeds in 1963 to start a similar department at UMIST. When Toulmin, followed by Goodfield, left Leeds for the USA in 1959, Ravetz led the Leeds HPS group into a period of expansion during the 1960s, which is described by many as a ‘golden age’ of HPS at Leeds. A number of scholars were hired, including Piyo Rattansi, Charles Webster, Ted McGuire, Maurice Crosland, and Charles Schmitt, and a number of postgraduate students who would go to become leading HPS thinkers, such as Margaret Jacob and Robert Fox, studied at Leeds with them.
In the 1970s, after the departures of – amongst others – Webster and Crosland, historian of genetics Robert Olby became a leading figure in the Division through his book Path to the Double Helix, which showed how the 1953 discoveries of Crick and Watson were rooted in the work of two University of Leeds scientists: the creator of molecular biology, William Astbury
, and the Nobel prizewinning inventor of X-ray crystallography
, William Henry Bragg
. During this period, a number of scholars who would shape HPS at Leeds during the 1980s and 1990s were appointed. These scholars included John Christie Jonathan Hodge and Geoffrey Cantor
, whose groundbreaking research on the history of physics – in particular Isaac Newton
and Michael Faraday
– would earn him the first professorship in the HPS division at Leeds. Jonathan Hodge collaborated with Geoffrey Cantor on the classic co-edited study Conceptions of Ether: Studies in the History of Ether Theories, 1740–1900 (1981). However, Dr Hodge’s main research interest lies in the history of theories of creation and, in this context, he has written historical articles on the theories of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
and Ronald Fisher
, as well as philosophical pieces on evolutionary biology. In chronological terms, Hodge’s historical focus has been on the period 1770–1850, especially in France and Britain, working on Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
and Charles Darwin
. Monographs are under preparation on the last two, following on from the Cambridge Companion to Darwin (2003), which was co-edited with recently arrived colleague Gregory Radick, and recently issued in a second edition to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species.
John Christie has a broad range of expertise in enlightenment science, especially th history of chemistry. A significant proportion of his articles focus on the characters of William Cullen
and Joseph Black
in Edinburgh
and on Joseph Priestley
in Leeds. Christie, too, has collaborated with Geoffrey Cantor, their shared interests in linguistic aspects of science leading to the co-edited volume The Figural and the Literal: Problems of Language in the History of Science and Philosophy, 1630–1800 (1987).
Notable research students supervised by Cantor, Hodge, and Christie include:
Furthermore, the collective endeavours of life in the Division of HPS at Leeds were epitomized in the much-cited multi-authored Companion to the History of Modern Science (1990), co-edited by Olby, Cantor, Christie and Hodge. Although there are now competitor volumes, articles from the Leeds Companion still reside on many a reading list for history of science courses throughout the world.
In the same year that Steven French was appointed, Adrian Wilson , Lecturer in History of Medicine, came to the Division under a Wellcome University Award. Dr Wilson’s main research focus is seventeenth- and eighteenth-century midwifery/childbirth, particularly with reference to male and female roles in delivery – a subject he explored in his book The Making of Man-Midwifery (1995). However, Dr. Wilson also studies English provincial voluntary hospitals in the eighteenth century and the history of pathology. With help from colleagues, Dr. Wilson built up History of Medicine teaching both as part of the HPS degree programmes (BA and MA) and within the medical curriculum; and Leeds now offers an Intercalated Degree in History of Medicine (only the fourth such degree in Britain).
In 1994, Graeme Gooday was appointed to teach courses on the history and philosophy (especially the ethics) of technology. Gooday’s main research interests are in the history of late nineteenth-century physics, technology, instrumentation, and gender. In particular, as demonstrated by his first book, The Morals of Measurement: Accuracy, Irony and Trust in Late Victorian Electrical Practice (2004), Gooday focuses on the history of laboratories, the multifaceted roles of measurement and on the spatial issues of scientific practice.
Jonathan Tophamarrived in Leeds in 1999 as an AHRB Institutional Fellow for the Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical (SciPer) Project, having previously worked on the Darwin Correspondence Project and at the University of Cambridge
. The work of the SciPer Project reflects Dr Topham’s wide interest in the production and reading of scientific publications in nineteenth-century Britain, a subject on which he has published a number of widely cited articles. Topham’s other main research focus is on science and religion, and he has published valuable articles on natural theology and theologies of nature in nineteenth-century Britain. As a lecturer in history and philosophy of science since January 2005, Topham has helped develop a new Masters programme in science communication in collaboration with the University of Leeds’s Institute of Communication Studies.
After completing his postgraduate studies at Cambridge
, Dr Gregory Radick was appointed as lecturer in the HPS Division in 2000 during Professor Cantor’s sabbatical, becoming a permanent member of staff in 2003. His research and teaching specialties are in the history of the life sciences and the human sciences, with special emphasis on questions of Darwinism and genetics. He has published and contributed to two co-edited volumes, including, with colleague Jonathan Hodge, The Cambridge Companion to Darwin (2003), which was recently issued as a second edition. Radick’s research work has concentrated on three themes in particular: scientific studies of animal mind and animal language; the role of social context and historical contingency in the development of modern biology; and the new genetic technologies in historical and philosophical perspective, concentrating especially on patenting and genetic testing. An interest in the relations between changing technology and changing knowledge runs throughout his work and was demonstrated in his first book, The Simian Tongue: The Long Debate About Animal Language (2008).
Notable postgraduate students at Leeds during and since the 1990s include:
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, at the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
in West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The Centre – previously known as the Division of History and Philosophy of Science, which was founded in 1956 – is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the world. Throughout its history, the Centre has been home to many of the leading historians and philosophers of science who have shaped our understanding of scientific activity and how it shapes and is shaped by wider society.
Early history and expansion
The key figure in establishing history and philosophy of science (HPS) as a discipline at Leeds was the philosopher of science Stephen ToulminStephen Toulmin
Stephen Edelston Toulmin was a British philosopher, author, and educator. Influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Toulmin devoted his works to the analysis of moral reasoning. Throughout his writings, he sought to develop practical arguments which can be used effectively in evaluating the ethics behind...
, who was appointed Professor of Philosophy at Leeds in 1954 and head of department in 1956. Whilst Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Samuel Kuhn was an American historian and philosopher of science whose controversial 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was deeply influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term "paradigm shift," which has since become an English-language staple.Kuhn...
is often seen as the founder of the modern field of history and philosophy of science, Toulmin had argued for an integration of philosophy of science and history of science some nine years before Kuhn published his famous work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
After becoming head of the department of philosophy, Toulmin hired two young scholars who would subsequently become amongst the most important thinkers in history and philosophy of science: Jerry Ravetz and June Goodfield. Furthermore, physicist-turned-historian Donald Cardwell become a research fellow in HPS and then a lecturer. However, Cardwell left Leeds in 1963 to start a similar department at UMIST. When Toulmin, followed by Goodfield, left Leeds for the USA in 1959, Ravetz led the Leeds HPS group into a period of expansion during the 1960s, which is described by many as a ‘golden age’ of HPS at Leeds. A number of scholars were hired, including Piyo Rattansi, Charles Webster, Ted McGuire, Maurice Crosland, and Charles Schmitt, and a number of postgraduate students who would go to become leading HPS thinkers, such as Margaret Jacob and Robert Fox, studied at Leeds with them.
In the 1970s, after the departures of – amongst others – Webster and Crosland, historian of genetics Robert Olby became a leading figure in the Division through his book Path to the Double Helix, which showed how the 1953 discoveries of Crick and Watson were rooted in the work of two University of Leeds scientists: the creator of molecular biology, William Astbury
William Astbury
William Thomas Astbury FRS was an English physicist and molecular biologist who made pioneering X-ray diffraction studies of biological molecules. His work on keratin provided the foundation for Linus Pauling's discovery of the alpha helix...
, and the Nobel prizewinning inventor of X-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography is a method of determining the arrangement of atoms within a crystal, in which a beam of X-rays strikes a crystal and causes the beam of light to spread into many specific directions. From the angles and intensities of these diffracted beams, a crystallographer can produce a...
, William Henry Bragg
William Henry Bragg
Sir William Henry Bragg OM, KBE, PRS was a British physicist, chemist, mathematician and active sportsman who uniquely shared a Nobel Prize with his son William Lawrence Bragg - the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics...
. During this period, a number of scholars who would shape HPS at Leeds during the 1980s and 1990s were appointed. These scholars included John Christie Jonathan Hodge and Geoffrey Cantor
Geoffrey Cantor
Geoffrey N. Cantor is emeritus professor of history and philosophy of science at the University of Leeds and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Science & Technology Studies at University College, London....
, whose groundbreaking research on the history of physics – in particular Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
and Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
– would earn him the first professorship in the HPS division at Leeds. Jonathan Hodge collaborated with Geoffrey Cantor on the classic co-edited study Conceptions of Ether: Studies in the History of Ether Theories, 1740–1900 (1981). However, Dr Hodge’s main research interest lies in the history of theories of creation and, in this context, he has written historical articles on the theories of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedic author.His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Georges Cuvier...
and Ronald Fisher
Ronald Fisher
Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher FRS was an English statistician, evolutionary biologist, eugenicist and geneticist. Among other things, Fisher is well known for his contributions to statistics by creating Fisher's exact test and Fisher's equation...
, as well as philosophical pieces on evolutionary biology. In chronological terms, Hodge’s historical focus has been on the period 1770–1850, especially in France and Britain, working on Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de la Marck , often known simply as Lamarck, was a French naturalist...
and Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
. Monographs are under preparation on the last two, following on from the Cambridge Companion to Darwin (2003), which was co-edited with recently arrived colleague Gregory Radick, and recently issued in a second edition to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species.
John Christie has a broad range of expertise in enlightenment science, especially th history of chemistry. A significant proportion of his articles focus on the characters of William Cullen
William Cullen
William Cullen FRS FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist, and one of the most important professors at the Edinburgh Medical School, during its heyday as the leading center of medical education in the English-speaking world.Cullen was also a central figure in the...
and Joseph Black
Joseph Black
Joseph Black FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician and chemist, known for his discoveries of latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was professor of Medicine at University of Glasgow . James Watt, who was appointed as philosophical instrument maker at the same university...
in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
and on Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
in Leeds. Christie, too, has collaborated with Geoffrey Cantor, their shared interests in linguistic aspects of science leading to the co-edited volume The Figural and the Literal: Problems of Language in the History of Science and Philosophy, 1630–1800 (1987).
Notable research students supervised by Cantor, Hodge, and Christie include:
- Chris Kenny – supervised by Cantor and now a teaching fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Leeds.
- Samuel Alberti – co-supervised by Hodge, Graeme Gooday (Leeds), and Sally Shuttleworth (Sheffield), and now a Research Fellow and Lecturer in Art Gallery and Museum Studies at the University of Manchester.
- Jan Golinski – supervised by Christie and now Professor of History and Humanities at the University of New HampshireUniversity of New HampshireThe University of New Hampshire is a public university in the University System of New Hampshire , United States. The main campus is in Durham, New Hampshire. An additional campus is located in Manchester. With over 15,000 students, UNH is the largest university in New Hampshire. The university is...
. - Mark Jackson – supervised by Christie and now Professor of the History of Medicine and Director of the Centre for Medical History at the University of ExeterUniversity of ExeterThe University of Exeter is a public university in South West England. It belongs to the 1994 Group, an association of 19 of the United Kingdom's smaller research-intensive universities....
.
Furthermore, the collective endeavours of life in the Division of HPS at Leeds were epitomized in the much-cited multi-authored Companion to the History of Modern Science (1990), co-edited by Olby, Cantor, Christie and Hodge. Although there are now competitor volumes, articles from the Leeds Companion still reside on many a reading list for history of science courses throughout the world.
Diversification and expansion in the 1990s
From 1993 onwards, Leeds HPS took a new direction as several new specialist appointments were made in the philosophy of science, the history of medicine and the history of technology. Professor Steven French came to Leeds in 1993, having previously worked in Brazil and the USA. He teaches the philosophy of science, especially the philosophy of physics, and he has supervised numerous PhD students in both areas. His research covers several areas in the history and philosophy of physics. Primarily, Professor French is known for a structuralist approach to models and theories, which can be extended to cover issues of explanation and representation in science and also provides the formal basis for a form of structural realism.In the same year that Steven French was appointed, Adrian Wilson , Lecturer in History of Medicine, came to the Division under a Wellcome University Award. Dr Wilson’s main research focus is seventeenth- and eighteenth-century midwifery/childbirth, particularly with reference to male and female roles in delivery – a subject he explored in his book The Making of Man-Midwifery (1995). However, Dr. Wilson also studies English provincial voluntary hospitals in the eighteenth century and the history of pathology. With help from colleagues, Dr. Wilson built up History of Medicine teaching both as part of the HPS degree programmes (BA and MA) and within the medical curriculum; and Leeds now offers an Intercalated Degree in History of Medicine (only the fourth such degree in Britain).
In 1994, Graeme Gooday was appointed to teach courses on the history and philosophy (especially the ethics) of technology. Gooday’s main research interests are in the history of late nineteenth-century physics, technology, instrumentation, and gender. In particular, as demonstrated by his first book, The Morals of Measurement: Accuracy, Irony and Trust in Late Victorian Electrical Practice (2004), Gooday focuses on the history of laboratories, the multifaceted roles of measurement and on the spatial issues of scientific practice.
Jonathan Tophamarrived in Leeds in 1999 as an AHRB Institutional Fellow for the Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical (SciPer) Project, having previously worked on the Darwin Correspondence Project and at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. The work of the SciPer Project reflects Dr Topham’s wide interest in the production and reading of scientific publications in nineteenth-century Britain, a subject on which he has published a number of widely cited articles. Topham’s other main research focus is on science and religion, and he has published valuable articles on natural theology and theologies of nature in nineteenth-century Britain. As a lecturer in history and philosophy of science since January 2005, Topham has helped develop a new Masters programme in science communication in collaboration with the University of Leeds’s Institute of Communication Studies.
After completing his postgraduate studies at Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, Dr Gregory Radick was appointed as lecturer in the HPS Division in 2000 during Professor Cantor’s sabbatical, becoming a permanent member of staff in 2003. His research and teaching specialties are in the history of the life sciences and the human sciences, with special emphasis on questions of Darwinism and genetics. He has published and contributed to two co-edited volumes, including, with colleague Jonathan Hodge, The Cambridge Companion to Darwin (2003), which was recently issued as a second edition. Radick’s research work has concentrated on three themes in particular: scientific studies of animal mind and animal language; the role of social context and historical contingency in the development of modern biology; and the new genetic technologies in historical and philosophical perspective, concentrating especially on patenting and genetic testing. An interest in the relations between changing technology and changing knowledge runs throughout his work and was demonstrated in his first book, The Simian Tongue: The Long Debate About Animal Language (2008).
Notable postgraduate students at Leeds during and since the 1990s include:
- James Ladyman – supervised by Steven French and now a Professor at the University of BristolUniversity of BristolThe University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...
. - Otavio Bueno – supervised by French and now Professor of Philosophy at the University of MiamiUniversity of MiamiThe University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
. - Dean Rickles – supervised by French and now a lecturer at the University of SydneyUniversity of SydneyThe University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
. - Juha Saatsi – supervised by French and now, after holding a postdoctoral position at the University of Manchester, is now a lecturer in the department of philosophy. His research expertise covers various areas in general philosophy of science. He is particularly interested in various aspects of the scientific realism debate.
- James Sumner – supervised by Gooday and now lecturer in the history of Technology at the University of Manchester.
Further information
- Graeme Gooday, 'History and Philosophy of Science at Leeds', Notes and Records of the Royal Society 60 (2006), 183–192.