The Laboratory Ethos, 1850–1900

Routledge eBooks, pp. 65–98

Abstract

This essay discusses the new pedagogical regimes and the associated values that accompanied the nineteenth-century rise of the university laboratory. Although these pedagogical practices and the related epistemic virtues differed for different scientific fields, there was a general trend towards a stronger emphasis on discipline, accuracy, and persistence. It is argued that this process helped to shape the emerging scientific disciplines and to create a new scientific persona that embodied these virtues. In the late nineteenth century, diligent, meticulous, disciplined work rather than genius characterized the ideal scientist. These claims are illustrated for the new laboratory sciences of chemistry, physiology, and physics.

Authors 1

1. Frans H. van Lunteren corresponding Aachen

   Leiden University · Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

   Affiliation as printed

   Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam & Leiden University