Epistemologies of the Knowledge of Man: Forms of Observing, Ways of Describing and the Material Culture of the Knowledge of Man ca. 1800

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Moritz Epple
• Subject Area: History of Science
• Term: from 2012 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 204218061

In the second period of our research project, our objective is to investigate the political functions and the disciplinary dynamics of the various conceptions of the science(s) of man advocated in the circles of the short-lived French Société des observateurs de l'homme at the beginning of the 19th century. Our previous research has shown that the Societé's program for a new empirical science of man and its leading actors stood in close relations with the efforts to form a new French state apparatus. Therefore, the main focus will now be on a close analysis of the ways in which the science(s) of man and the new French nation state mutually provided resources for each other. To this end, one case study will analyze the gathering of statistical knowledge about man in post-revolutionary France, shown by our previous work to be a crucial form of organizing the science of man pursued by the Observateurs. A second case study will analyze the epistemic object of language and the political functions of the practices of language research, also re-conceptualized by the Observateurs. By investigating the linkages between the epistemic and political configurations in which the knowledge of man played a role in France after 1800 we not only hope to deepen our understanding of the gradual reshaping of the disciplinary structure of this knowledge, but also to contribute to a clarification of the meaning of the human sciences for European society in the early 19th century.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France
• Participating Person: Jean-Luc Chappey