1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910476910503321

Titolo

Narratives and Comparisons : Adversaries or Allies in Understanding Science? / Martin Carrier, Rebecca Mertens, Carsten Reinhardt

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Bielefeld, : Bielefeld University Press, 2021

ISBN

9783839454152

3839454158

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (206 p.)

Collana

BiUP General

Disciplina

401.41

Soggetti

Comparison

Narrative

Explanation

History of Science

History of Art

Science

Philosophy of Science

Sociology of Science

Literary Studies

Bielefeld University Press

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter    1 Contents    5 Introduction    7 Does Narrative Matter?    29 Historical Narrative versus Comparative Description?    63 On the Narrative Order of Experimentation    85 The Flower People of Shanidar    99 Narrating and Comparing in the Organization of Research Projects    123 Seeing, Comparing, Narrating    145 Narrating Art History    175 Authors    203

Sommario/riassunto

As a powerful tool in the production of knowledge, comparing plays a crucial part in the sciences and the humanities. This volume explores the relationship between comparing and narrating in epistemic practices and clarifies the ways in which narratives enable or impede practices of comparing. It takes into account related activities, such as measuring and classifying, modeling, establishing norms and



categories, as well as organizing and popularizing knowledge, to analyze the ambivalent relationship between narratives, scientific explanation, and understanding. The contributions bring out the epistemic role of narratives, and elucidate how narratives are connected to comparisons and scientific explanations.