Techniques of Mediation. Chemistry as a Combination of Work, Teaching and Research: the Case of J. F. A. Göttling
A typical career of a chemist in Germany around 1800 consisted of being trained as an apothecary, followed by an occupation as a professor at a university or another institution of higher education. These conditions deeply influenced the concept and the practice of chemistry as a science. Johann Friedrich August Göttling is an intriguing example for merging education and daily duties of teaching with the self-image of a scientific chemist. He linked chemical teaching, work, and research by using different hybrid media, such as the Almanach oder Taschenbuch für Scheidekünstler und Apotheker, a stove specifically designed for the narrow student’s room, portable laboratories, a pharmaceutical boarding school and textbooks. This allowed him to practice three different forms of chemistry as a science. A “socio-epistemological diagram” of German chemistry around 1800 shows that these forms neatly corresponded to the then predominant three-level epistemology. In particular, the concept of a chemical fact served to link pharmaceutical practice with teaching practice, while granting only the chemistry done by professors the status of a science.
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Frercks, J. Techniken der Vermittlung. N.T.M. 16, 279–308 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00048-008-0307-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00048-008-0307-0