History of Science in the Age of Enlightenment

The Enlightenment is a particularly significant era in the history of science. In fact, it was toward the end of the 18th century that our modern understanding of science – as a domain of specialists – began to take shape. In the 17th century, by contrast, a ‘scientist’ was characterised by general scholarly knowledge. A pre-Enlightenment scholar engaged with all new fields of knowledge. He might have been a philosopher, physician and theologian all at once – without identifying as such, because academic disciplines only began to emerge during the Enlightenment.

In the 18th century, Göttingen was one of the key centres of science in Europe. A university had been founded there in 1737, followed by the Royal Society of Sciences in 1751. As was common at the time, universities were primarily focused on teaching. However, it was already expected that instruction reflect the latest state of knowledge and, ideally, that scholars would publish leading work in their fields. With the founding of the Academy, Göttingen also gained an institution dedicated to research. The connection between research and teaching was pioneering. A number of the most prominent intellectuals of the time taught in Göttingen. The university and its faculty were committed to being at the forefront of scientific advancement, which led to the systematic acquisition of current and significant works from around the world. As a result, a library was built that was unrivalled in Europe. Today, one might say that Göttingen as a centre of science was ‘booming’ during the Enlightenment.

It is therefore no surprise that professors at the University of Göttingen and members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences were among those who took the initiative to explore the emergence and development of the sciences during this era. The archival and library holdings in Göttingen are vast. The commission on the History of Science in the Age of Enlightenment aimed to explore how to approach this wide-ranging subject both methodologically and thematically.

The Göttingen Academy has already overseen three research projects on the Enlightenment period: Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Online, the Edition of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg’s Scientific Writings, and Scholarly Journals as Knowledge Networks in the Age of Enlightenment. Brought together by the new commission, Enlightenment scholars from the Academy and the University of Göttingen could now collaborate more closely and gain fresh momentum for advancing Göttingen’s role in Enlightenment studies and its history.

Commission Members

Chair: Dr Dr h. c. Hans Erich Bödeker

Prof Dr Marc Föcking / Prof Dr Marian Füssel / Prof Dr Martin van Gelderen / Prof Dr Thomas Kaufmann / Prof Dr Martin Laube / Prof Dr Gerhard Lauer / Prof Dr Reinhard Lauer / Prof Dr Joachim Ringleben / Prof Dr Kurt Schönhammer / Prof Dr Stefan Tangermann