Science without Frontiers? Cosmopolitanism and national interests in the sciences in times of peace and in times of war
DIPC Seminars
- Speaker
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Robert Fox, Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, University of Oxford
- When
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2022/10/20
15:00 - Place
- Donostia International Physics Center
- Add to calendar
-
iCal
Shortly before the Great War, the pioneering historian of science George
Sarton articulated his view of science as a pursuit that knew no political
frontiers. Events were soon to show how fragile his universalist vision was.
The new scientific unions that were established after the war (including the
International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, in 1922) were an Allied
creation that had no place
for Germany and the other Central Powers. Since then, the century has been one
of recurring tension between Sarton’s cosmopolitanism ideals and the
realities of a pursuit increasingly dependent on governmental support and
vulnerable to international events. In tracing this tension, I shall point to
its persistence in our own day, as scientists struggle to fashion their
response to a resurgence of
challenges, extending in IUPAP's centenary year to warfare at the heart of
Europe.
Host: Geza Giedke