Forms of meteorological knowledge 1750–1850 in German countries and beyond

  • The complexity of atmospherical processes has always yielded a multitude of ways of knowing about the weather. What has been lacking in the historiography of meteorology so far is a way to formulate differences between forms of knowledge in a way that does not privilege modern scientific structures, but focuses instead on the epistemological category of causality. Using causality as ground of comparison for different knowledge claims, I shall argue, may enable researchers to investigate meteorological knowledge across time periods, perhaps even geographical regions, in a more symmetrical manner. This review demonstrates this approach as a means to organize a large set of historical meteorological writings from German countries between 1750 and 1850. Three distinct forms of knowledge (Semiotics, Physics, and Organics of the weather) during that time and in that region are suggested and will be described. While a bibliography with a national perspective from the 1880s was the basis for the selection of historical sources, such a setup proved awkward even to contemporaries. In addition, the bibliography came with a number of biases and shortcomings that will be critically reviewed.

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Author:Linda Richter
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-564819
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.651
ISSN:1757-7799
ISSN:1757-7780
Parent Title (German):Wiley interdisciplinary reviews : WIREs. Climate change
Publisher:Wiley-Blackwell
Place of publication:Malden, MA
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2020/06/11
Date of first Publication:2020/04/28
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2020/11/11
Tag:Germany; causality; forms of knowledge; history of meteorology; history of science
Volume:11
Issue:4, art. e651
Page Number:13
HeBIS-PPN:476179084
Institutes:Philosophie und Geschichtswissenschaften / Geschichtswissenschaften
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 55 Geowissenschaften, Geologie / 550 Geowissenschaften
9 Geschichte und Geografie / 94 Geschichte Europas / 943 Geschichte Mitteleuropas; Deutschlands
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung-Nicht kommerziell - Keine Bearbeitung 4.0