Science and Austrian Contemporary History

Methodological and Metatheoretical lnvestigations on a Historical Science of Science

Abstract

The author starts by pointing to a problematic gap in Austrian historiography, the history of science, which in spite of its temporary importance never became the subject of systematic historiographic research in this country. He then argues for a historical research of science as a mediator between what he sees as the two complementary fields of theory of science and social and cultural history. The article finishes by discussing an extensive thematic catalogue which applies the depicted concept of a historical research of sciences to the Austrian scene of the First and Second Republic.