DDRIG: An Historical Study of Science and Scientific Culture

本博士论文研究改进基金支持科学史研究，重点关注科学革命后科学和科学文化的发展。在整个19世纪，科学并不是一门统一的学科或实践——有许多方法来研究和参与自然，并不是所有的方法都被认为是在今天现代科学的范围内，但它们仍然塑造了现代科学的目标和实践。通过拓宽科学是什么以及科学是如何发展的概念，该项目调查了在非传统地点进行的科学活动，包括修道院社区、贸易转运港口和制造业综合体。通过与更熟悉的机构（如科学院）一起研究这些遗址，该项目扩大了科学活动的范畴，将工业化前的过程和技术包括在内，并为科学文化的发展奠定了必要的先决条件。在此过程中，它重新评估了科学理论与实践之间的关系，并考虑了宗教与自然观的物质关系。通过对自然哲学家、博学多才和科学普及者米哈伊尔·罗蒙诺索夫（Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, 1711-1765）的生平和学术的档案研究，本项目探讨了三个核心问题：(1)是什么刺激了18世纪科学的快速发展？(2) 18世纪的科学应该如何被描述？谁是科学的合法和非合法的实践者？(3)科学方法和科学权威是如何在日常话语中被编纂、呈现和规范的？罗蒙诺索夫的一生形成了一个镜头，通过它，整个科学史变得更加清晰。此外，这项研究还揭示了罗蒙诺索夫在培养科学素养的公众和培养对科学和科学权威的信任方面所做的努力。因此，这种描述有助于将今天对科学信任的促进历史化。该项目的成果将通过学术和流行场所的出版物以及教学来分享。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant supports a study in the history of science that focuses on the development of science and scientific culture in the immediate aftermath of the Scientific Revolution. Up through the 19th century, science was not a uniform discipline or practice—there were many ways to investigate and engage with nature, not all of which are considered within the ambit of modern science today, but which nevertheless shaped the objectives and practices of modern science. By broadening the conception of what science is and how it developed, this project investigates the scientific activities that were carried out at non-traditional sites, including monastic communities, trade transshipment ports, and manufacturing complexes. By studying these sites alongside more familiar institutions, such as scientific academies, this project widens the category of scientific activities to include pre-industrial processes and technologies and lays the essential preconditions for the development of a scientific culture. In doing so, it re-evaluates the relationship between theory and practice in science and considers the relationship of religion and a material conception of nature. Through archival research on the life and scholarship of natural philosopher, polymath, and popularizer of science Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711-1765), this project examines three central questions: (1) what stimulated the rapid growth of science in the 18th century? (2) How should science be characterized in the 18th century, and who were its legitimate and extra-legitimate practitioners? (3) How were scientific methods and scientific authority codified, presented, and normalized in everyday discourse? Lomonosov’s life forms a lens through which the full history of science comes into sharper focus. Additionally, this study reveals Lomonosov’s efforts to create a science-literate public and cultivate trust in science and scientific authority. This account thus helps to historicize the promotion of scientific trust today. The results of this project will be shared through publications in scholarly and popular venues as well as through teaching.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.