Schools of Empiricism
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Andreas Friedolin Lingg
Andreas Friedolin Lingg (M.A.) Research assistant at the University Witten/Herdecke. Currently working on his PhD-Thesis which involves economic history, the history of knowledge and economic philosophy. B.A. in Political and Cultural Management (Friedrichshafen and Berlin) and Master’s degree in Philosophy of Science and Technology (Munich). Most recent publication: Die Zeit der Entscheidung, in:V.Rauen/B.P.Priddat (Eds.) : Die Welt kostet Zeit, Marburg 2017.
Abstract
Recent research emphasizes that empiricist approaches already emerged long before the seventeenth and eighteenth century. While many of these contributions focus on specific professions, it is the aim of this article to supplement this discourse by describing certain social spaces that fostered empiricist attitudes. A particularly interesting example in this respect is the mining region of the Erzgebirge (Saxony) in the fifteenth and sixteenth century. The following article will use this mining district as a kind of historical laboratory, as a space not only for scientific observation but also as a structure within which specific forms of knowledge were socially tested, to show how the economic transformation of this region supported the rise of characteristic elements of empiricist thinking. It is common practice to link the appraisal of useful knowledge, (personal) experience and the distrust towards (scholastic) authorities in those days with only small minorities. By addressing not only the struggles of the commercial elites but also the challenges faced by the average resident of a mining town, this paper tries to add to this view by demonstrating how entire masses of people inhabiting the late medieval Erzgebirge were affected by and schooled to think in empiricist ways.
About the author
Andreas Friedolin Lingg (M.A.) Research assistant at the University Witten/Herdecke. Currently working on his PhD-Thesis which involves economic history, the history of knowledge and economic philosophy. B.A. in Political and Cultural Management (Friedrichshafen and Berlin) and Master’s degree in Philosophy of Science and Technology (Munich). Most recent publication: Die Zeit der Entscheidung, in: V.Rauen/B.P.Priddat (Eds.): Die Welt kostet Zeit, Marburg 2017.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Abhandlungen
- Fertilisers in the Long 19th Century and Beyond: Usage, Commercialisation and Production (c 1800–1939)
- Management of Soil Fertility and Agricultural Intensification in NW Iberia, 1750–1900
- The Price of Nitrogen at the End of the Nineteenth Century
- The British Fertiliser Manufacturers’ Association: Struggle for Survival 1870‒1930
- The Super State: The Political Economy of Phosphate Fertilizer Use in South Australia, 1880–1940
- Oilseed Cakes in Italy and France: Opportunities and Difficulties of a Market (late 19th and first half of the 20th Century)
- Nitrogenous Fertilisers in Germany – Paths of Distribution from Chile Saltpetre to Haber-Bosch-Ammonia and Cyanamide (ca 1914–1930)
- The French Nitrogen Industry during the Interwar Period: The Ambiguous Relationship between the State and Manufacturers
- Forschungs- und Literaturbericht
- Die Gauwirtschaftsberater der NSDAP
- Schools of Empiricism
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Abhandlungen
- Fertilisers in the Long 19th Century and Beyond: Usage, Commercialisation and Production (c 1800–1939)
- Management of Soil Fertility and Agricultural Intensification in NW Iberia, 1750–1900
- The Price of Nitrogen at the End of the Nineteenth Century
- The British Fertiliser Manufacturers’ Association: Struggle for Survival 1870‒1930
- The Super State: The Political Economy of Phosphate Fertilizer Use in South Australia, 1880–1940
- Oilseed Cakes in Italy and France: Opportunities and Difficulties of a Market (late 19th and first half of the 20th Century)
- Nitrogenous Fertilisers in Germany – Paths of Distribution from Chile Saltpetre to Haber-Bosch-Ammonia and Cyanamide (ca 1914–1930)
- The French Nitrogen Industry during the Interwar Period: The Ambiguous Relationship between the State and Manufacturers
- Forschungs- und Literaturbericht
- Die Gauwirtschaftsberater der NSDAP
- Schools of Empiricism
