Edward Grant (historian)

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Edward Grant (born April 6, 1926 - June 21, 2020 ) was an American historian specializing in the history of science and philosophy . From 1992 he was Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the chair for "History and Philosophy of Science" at Indiana University in Bloomington .

Life

Edward Grant was born on April 6, 1926. From January 28, 1951 he was married. The couple has three children.

military service

Grant served in the United States Navy from July 1943 to April 1946 . He was stationed on the USS San Jacinto (CVL-30), an Independence-class light aircraft carrier that operated in the Pacific during World War II from 1944 to the end of hostilities in August 1945 . For his participation in the fighting in the Asia-Pacific region, he received six Battle Stars (campaign award ) and two more Battle Stars for the liberation of the Philippines from Japanese occupation.

academic education

1951 ended Edward Grant his studies at the City College of New York as a member of the academic community Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Social Science (BSS) ( Social Science ). He then moved to the University of Wisconsin – Madison . Here he earned his MA in 1953 and obtained his Ph.D. in 1957. Each in the History of Science and Medieval History (History of Science and Medieval History). In the meantime he made a guest appearance as a Fulbright student at the Dutch University of Utrecht in 1955/56 .

Scientific career

Grant received his first job during his training in 1952 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a teaching assistant (Ph.D. Candidate ) for the history of science, which he held until 1954. In 1955 he was teaching assistant for medieval history here. In 1957 he went to the University of Maine as a lecturer (instructor) in history and in 1958 as an instructor in the history of science at Harvard . His first assistant professorship ( Assistant Professor ) followed in 1959 at Indiana University in history, which was expanded to include the subject of Logic of Science in 1960. In 1962, he took one at the University of Wisconsin-Madison visiting professor true (visiting professor) History of Science. In 1963 Indiana University awarded him "tenure", ie the permanent termination of his assistant professorship, which was accompanied by a promotion to associate professor. His specialty remained the history of science and the theory of science (History and Philosophy of Science). In 1964 he was promoted to full professor for history, the history of science and the theory of science. In 1983 he received his own chair (Distinguished Professor) for History and Philosophy of Science. Edward Grant held this position until his retirement in 1992. He was then Distinguished Professor Emeritus for History and Philosophy of Science and Professor Emeritus for History.

He was also chairman of the History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University from 1973 to 1979 and from 1987 to 1990.

Scientific work

Medieval Universities Map

The focus of the grant's scientific research is the development of thought in the Middle Ages . In his older work, he primarily examined the influence of the physical worldview on mental development. Grant confirmed Pierre Duhem's analysis for the time before Nicolaus Copernicus , that in the premodern, fictionalism was widespread in the description of astronomical phenomena and that scholasticism was the predominant way of thinking in astronomy .

In his work The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional and Intellectual Contexts , published in 1996, he discusses the developments and discoveries that led via the Copernican turn to the Scientific Revolution with its climax in the late 17th century. It shows that the roots of modern science were already laid in the ancient and medieval Greek , Latin and Islamic world and that the Christian civilization of Western Europe is the result of continuous intellectual development. He sees the founding of medieval universities around 1200 as an essential factor for the development of Christianity in the West .

honors and awards

Edward Grant was a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1956/66 and of the American Council of Learned Societies in 1975/76 and was a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America from 1982, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science from 1983 and of the American Academy from 1984 of Arts and Sciences . He was also a member of numerous scientific associations, including the Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences , Paris ; the Institute for Advanced Study , Princeton, New Jersey ; of the Council of the Midwest Center of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1992 Grant was awarded the George Sarton Medal , the highly prestigious prize for the history of science from the History of Science Society (HSS) founded by George Sarton and Lawrence Joseph Henderson . 1985/86 he was also President of the HSS.

Publications (selection)

Edward Grant has published over ninety professional articles and twelve books, including:

  • Physical Science in the Middle Ages , Wiley History of Science Series, New York / London: John Wiley 1971.
  • (Ed.): A Sourcebook in Medieval Science . Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Pr. 1974. ISBN 0-674-82360-5
  • The physical world view of the Middle Ages. Zurich 1980.
  • Much Ado About Nothing: Theories of Space and Vacuum from the Middle Ages to the Scientific Revolution . 1981.
  • "1987 Sarton Medal Citation: Geoffrey Lloyd ." In: Isis , 79, 243/4 (1988).
  • Planets, Stars, & Orbs: The Medieval Cosmos, 1200-1687 . 1994.
  • La Nature a horreur du vide . In: Les Grandes Expérience de la Physique Blaise Pascal: Comment at-il démontré l'existence de la pression atmospheric? . Les Cahiers de Science et Vie, No. 27, June 1995, pp. 26-33.
  • The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional and Intellectual Contexts . Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1996. ISBN 0-521-56762-9
  • God and Reason in the Middle Ages . 2001.
  • Science and Religion From Aristotle to Copernicus 400 BC - AD 1550 (2004).
  • A History of Natural Philosophy from the Ancient World to the Nineteenth Century . 2007.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edward Grant (1926-2020). Indiana University Bloomington, Department of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine, June 22, 2020, accessed July 5, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Homepage Edward Grant, Curriculum Vitae ( Memento from December 14, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  3. ↑ among others in Late Medieval Thought, Copernicus, and the Scientific Revolution , in: Journal of the History of Ideas 23 (1962), 197-220; Scientific Imagination in the Middle Ages , Perspectives on Science 12/4 (2004), 394-423.
  4. ^ Pierre Duhem : Le Système du Monde, histoire des doctrines cosmologiques de Plato à Copernic . A. Hermann, Paris 1913, engl. Translated to Save the Phenomena : An Essay on the Idea of ​​Physical Theory from Plato to Galileo, Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1969.
  5. ^ Cambridge University Press, Catalog Brief Review of Grant's 1996 book: The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional and Intellectual Contexts
  6. ↑ Homepage of Eward Grant, Honors and Awards ( Memento from June 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  7. ^ Sarton Medal - History of Science Society. In: hssonline.org. Retrieved February 12, 2016 .
  8. ^ History of Science Society (HSS) ( Memento December 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) The Society: Past Presidents of the History of Science Society
  9. ↑ php.indiana.edu/~grant/publicat.html ( Memento from June 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Homepage of Eward Grant, Publications, Books
  10. ↑ Harvard University Press Abstract of the book: A Sourcebook in Medieval Science .
personal data
SURNAME Grant, Edward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American historian of science
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1926
DATE OF DEATH June 21, 2020