Fermentation: A Cultural History of Knowledge

• Applicant: Carmen Bartl-Schmechel, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: History of Science ; History of Philosophy
• Term: from 2020 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 432256662

Fermentation is one of the most contested phenomena in the history of scientific and medical thought. One of the oldest food processing technologies, it has also awoken the interest of philosophers, physicians, and alchemists, who have assigned fermentation a role in realms as disparate as the production of gold, blood formation, or the formation of the embryo. Despite the ubiquity of fermentation in Western thought, there is no encompassing historical study covering these strikingly diverse fermentation theories. Without attempting to be exhaustive, the present project aims at a reconstruction of some of these manifold histories, whose various aspects – like, for instance, the relationship of fermentation and putrefaction with contagion, disease and health – continue to resonate in our contemporary world.The overarching goal of my research project is to draw attention to the broader relevance of fermentation theories for our understanding of both the natural world and the human self within Western medical and scientific thought. This project contributes to reconfiguring the divide between the two cultures by highlighting the sharing of explanation models among various realms of knowledge. In this way, it participates in the ‘rapprochement’ of the history of sciences and the history of humanities called upon in recent years by leading historians of science and of philosophy.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants