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науки — социальной, культурной, образовательной, институциональных и интеллектуальной истории и истории медицины, биологии, химии, фармации, психологии и географии. Вступительную речь произнес Франц Хойзер, вице-декан медицинского факультета Саксонской академии. Два последующих дня были разбиты на несколько объединенных общей темой сессий. Без сомнений, эта конференция открыла новые горизонты дальнейшему международному сотрудничеству и междисциплинарному общению.
Historiae Scientiarum Baltica, 2010
MaitTalts, Mall Kulasalu
Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia;
Mait.Talts@tseba.ttu.ee, Mall.Kulasalu@tseba.ttu.ee
In the fall of 2010, on 8—9 October the 24th International Baltic Conference on the History of Science was held in the new building of the Tallinn School of Economics and Business Administration and the Faculty of Social Sciences of Tallinn University of Technology (at 3 Akadeemia tee, Tallinn). Conferences on the history of science have been held, usually in every two years, in one of the Baltic States for more than 50 years, and it is hard to overestimate the importance of these conferences in uniting the Baltic science historians. The First Baltic Conference on the History of Science was summoned in Riga under the leadership of a well-known Latvian physician and medical historian Professor Pauls Stradins already in 1958. It was the period of the so-called Khrushchev Thaw which enabled such initiatives. Up to the present day, in addition to Riga, conferences on history of science have been held mainly in Vilnius, Lithuania, and Tartu, Estonia; in parallel with Riga sometimes also in Jelgava and Jürmala. When the conferences have been held in Lithuania, it has been a common practice to run the section of the history of medicine in Kaunas. In Estonia the conference has been held for 8 times, and up to the present Tartu University has been the only organiser, primarily owing to the fact that the majority of Estonian science historians reside in Tartu. Now, for the first time, the conference was organised in Tallinn, and hosted by Tallinn University of Technology (TUT). Under these circumstances the main practical arrangements related to the conference became the responsibility of TUT Department of International Relations, first of all due to the fact that the head of the Department, a distinguished philosopher of science, Prof. Peeter Müürsepp served as a head of the conference’s organising committee.
Over the past two decades the Baltic conferences on the history have been summoned by the Baltic Association of the History and Philosophy of Science (BAHPS)2. Actually, any particular conference is organised under the leadership of the relevant national union
2 Stradins J. Twenty Years of the Association of the History and Philosophy of Science of the Baltic States // Historiae Scientiarum Baltica 2010: Tallinn, October 8-9, 2010: Abstracts ofXXIV International Baltic Conference of the History of Science. Tallinn: Department of International Relations, Tallinn University of Technology, 2010. P. 10-11; see also http://www.bahps.org/
within the Association. In Soviet times Russian was a common language of communication in the Baltic States; therefore the conferences on the history of science were also held in Russian. After the Baltic States restored their independence, English has become, step by step, a lingua franca of Baltic conferences on the history of science; although even at the last conference some talks were given in other languages (i. e. Russian and German). The geographic scope of participation has also widened in the course of time. In 2010, for the first time, there were a lot of speakers from Finland, which was not a surprise considering the short distance and excellent transportation facilities between Tallinn and Helsinki. In addition, some prominent science historians from Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, Germany and France also participated in the conference. Unfortunately, perhaps the most exotic participant — a philosophy PhD student from Iran — could not arrive at Estonia due to visa problems3.
A traditional structure of the conference has been developed during the years. Conference talks in Tallinn were divided into plenary sessions, and in addition, there were five sections held in parallel to them. The number of participants in the section of philosophy and methodology of science was not very high, but unarguably the talks were of the highest level and the whole section thematically the most compact. Philosophy of science and methodology should be considered actually as a sister discipline of the history of science, though a very important sister discipline, which has, of course, historical development of its own. Let us remember a distinguished philosopher of science Imre Lakatos who said that “philosophy of science without history is empty, history of science without philosophy of science is blind”. That was the reason why several conference talks dealt with the confines of the natural science to describe an objective reality. The topic of the so-called ‘practical realism’ was also thoroughly discussed. It is the field in philosophy of science which has given rise to active discussions and originates, on the one hand, from the American pragmatism, but on the other hand, it can be immediately derived from the Marxist postulate, which states that practice is the ultimate criterion of truth. The publications of a British philosopher of science Nicholas Maxwell, according to who the goal should be set to move from ‘knowledge inquiry’ to ‘wisdom inquiry’, turned out to be the connecting link between those two approaches. The paper by Prof Peeter Muursepp (Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia)4 dwelt most explicitly upon the latter issue. The papers by Katrin Velbaum (University of Tartu, Estonia)5 and Sami Pihlstrom (Jyvaskyla University, Finland)6 were also dedicated to certain aspects of Maxwell’s philosophy. As a matter of fact, some of the plenary session presentations (i.e. those by Frenchman Claude Debru7 and Estonian professor Eero Loone8) also concentrated on the questions of philosophy of science.
The coherence between the talks given on the philosophy of science and the history of science could certainly have been stronger. As earlier, in their talks on the history of science, the speakers of the most recent conference also quite often focused on the activities of a single scientist or his/her specific role in the history of the field, however more and more frequently
3Alasti K. Incommensurability and Causal Theory of Reference: Phlogiston Case // Ibid. P. 14—15.
4 Muursepp P. Knowledge in Science and Non-Science // Ibid. P. 18-19.
5 Velbaum K. Is it Possible to Assess the Adequacy of Standard Empiricism by Referring to the History of Science? // Ibid. P. 25.
6 Pihlstrom S. A Pragmatist Perspective on the History of Scientific Realism // Ibid. P. 21-22.
7 Debru C. Science and Human Normativity // Ibid. P. 7.
8 Loone E. Functions of History of Science for Philosophy of Science // Ibid. P. 9-10.
the historical development of a certain field or discipline, or some specific problems have been observed. That, in turn, has sometimes led to revising the viewpoints which have earlier been generally accepted. In the recent conference, also the need for re-evaluating the real contribution of some well known scientists was dealt in several conference papers (e.g. Jarmo Pulkki-nen9, the paper by Laima PetrauskienS and Jadvyga Olechnovicienfc10). Some of the talks given in the section of social sciences and humanities already exceeded the strict limits of “pure” history of science, and tried to establish contact both with general and more specific issues, such as the history of ideas, the development of historical conscientiousness, or for example, the history of publishing activities.
In the section of the history of medicine and museums the main emphasis was put on the museums of the history of medicine, or other historical records and collections. Juri Duplenko and Nina Kochubey11 from Ukraine, Kaarina Rein12 from Estonia and Dalia Triponiene13 from Lithuania delivered traditional person-oriented talks; era specific medical treatments and availability of drugs and remedies were also dwelt upon. Vilma Gudiene14 from Vilnius concentrated on 18th century of the Vilnius University pharmacy, which had already been founded in the year 1600; it served as a research institution but also trained the people working in the field of medicine. Ramunas Kondratas (Vilnius University Museum)15 carried on with introducing the history of the Medical School, which operated in Vilnius in the 18th century, and was also the predecessor to the Faculty of Medicine of Vilnius University. Due to their contribution to the medical collection of the university, foreign scientists played an essential role in the development of the collection, which actually was initiated in the Medical School. Vladimirs Kuzn-ezovs’s16 paper, which was one of the most exciting ones, dwelt upon the changes which took place in treating the residents of the asylum for mentally ill at Riga Citadel during the Crimean War. Ave Tupits’s17 paper on gathering knowledge on folk healing techniques in 1920—1930s was one of the most thorough and comprehensive among the talks covering the 20th century. Talks on the activity of pharmacies by Baiba Maurina18, the treatment of schizophrenia in Latvia by Ieva Llbiete19, and medical studies in Vilnius by Aistis Zalnora20, shared the same context. Sergei
9 Pulkkinen J. Historical Study of Scientific Discovery: the Case of A.I. Virtanen // Ibid. P. 80—81.
10 Petrauskiene L., Olechnoviciene J. The Fame of Scientists: Does it Reflect their Real Contribution to Science? // Ibid. P. 78-80.
11 Duplenko J. K., Kochubey N.V. “He returned...” Z.G. Frenkel’s (1869-1970) Years of Study at Dorpat University // Ibid. P. 37-38.
12 Rein K. Johannes Raicus and his 1631 Medical Topography about Tartu // Ibid. P. 53-54.
13 Triponiene D. Robert Koch, M.D. (1843-1910) — Honorary Member of the Vilnius Medical Society // Ibid. P. 58-59.
14 Gudiene V. Anatomy and Surgery Texts in the 1774 Registry of the Library of the Vilnius University Pharmacy // Ibid. P. 39-40.
15 Kondratas R. The Medical Museums of Vilnius University (1775-1842) // Ibid. P. 45.
16 Kuznecovs V. Abolishment of the Military Guard at the Riga Alexander Heights Asylum in 1856: War as a Monitor of Humanization? // Ibid. P. 46-47.
17 Tupits A. The Folk Medicine Collection of the Estonian Healthcare Museum in the 1920s and 1930s // Ibid. P. 59-60.
18 Maurina B., Sidlovska V., Smiltena I. Drogeries as One of Fields of Activity for Pharmacists in Latvia in the First Half of the 20th Century // Ibid. P. 48-50.
19 Lïbiete I. Fighting Schizophrenia: Beginnings of Somatic Treatments in Riga Sarkankalns Hospital in the 1930s // Ibid. P. 47-48.
20 Zalnora A. Anthropology, Anatomy and Histology Studies at the Stephen Bathory University in Vilnius, 1919-1939 // Ibid. P. 64-65.
Savenko21 treated the activities of medical professorships in Latvia over the last two decades; Juris Salaks22 introduced the recently opened exhibition at the Pauls Stradins Museum of the History in Riga, which was dedicated to the 200th anniversary of a prominent Russian surgeon professor Nikolay Pirogov.
The number of papers presented in the section of history of natural sciences and mathematics was almost equal to those presented in the section of medical history. Many papers in this section made an effort to re-evaluate some earlier generally accepted viewpoints. For example, it was very interesting to follow Laima Petrauskien6 and Jolanta Olechnoviciene’s discussion about the correlation between a scientist’s fame and his/her actual scientific achievements. The speakers had analysed the activities of two prominent Lithuanian zoologists — a well-known scientist Tadas Ivanauskas (in Vilnius there is a zoological museum named after him), and a less known scientist Pranciskus Baltrus Sivickis. Due to the political reasons and personality traits, even in present day Lithuania the scientist, who collaborated with the Soviet authorities, and who was considerably more superficial in his research, is much more known than a religious and more modest personality Sivickis, who made a significant contribution to the history of zoology. A Finnish speaker Jarmo Pulkkinen delivered interesting facts about the activities of Artturi Ilmari Virtanen (publicly known as “fodder Virtanen“) — a Finnish chemist and recipient of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In his paper Pulkkinen tried to re-evaluate Virtanen’s personal contribution, which according to him was somewhat doubtful; he associated Virtanen’s achievements mostly with the research activities of his workgroup, therefore his personal contribution appeared to be to some extent disputable.
Leiu Heapost23 from the Institute of History of Tallinn University gave an overview on the history of anthropological research in Estonia, starting with the discoveries of Karl Ernst von Baer, and finishing with the works of Richard Villems which were already based on genetic markers. The founder of systematic anthropology Juhan Aul, definitely, takes a very special position: thanks to his extensive research Estonians became one of the somatologically most profoundly researched nations already in 1930s. Tuomas Rasanen24 from Turku University, Finland, in his paper, compared environmental perceptions of Finnish and Estonian Marine scientists, who studied the Baltic Sea from 1960s until the end of the Soviet era. The different sets of values behind the actual research were drawn explicitly out.
Reports on three astronomers were also very interesting and well illustrated: Toomas Pung25 from Estonia talked about the life and fate of Konstantin Pokrovski — the director of Tartu Observatory in 1908-1915; Tonu Viik26 from Estonia dwelt upon Heinrich Christian Schumacher, and Prof Libertas Klimka27 from Lithuania gave an overview on the life and work of Georg Sabler — an eminent director of Vilnius Astronomical Observatory. Anastasia Fedotova28 from St. Petersburg branch of the Institute for the History of Science
21 Viksna A., Savenko S. Medical Professorships in Latvia // Ibid. P. 62—64.
22 Salaks J. The Collection of the Professor Nikolay Pirogov at the Pauls Stradins Museum of the History of Medicine in Riga // Ibid. P. 56-57.
23 Heapost L. On the History of Anthropological Research in Estonia // Ibid. P. 72-73.
24 Räsänen T. Gulf of Values: Comparing Environmental Perceptions of Finnish and Estonian Marine Scientists // Ibid. P. 83-84.
25 Pung T. Konstantin Pokrovski — Director of Tartu Observatory in 1908-1915 // Ibid. P. 81-83.
26 Viik T. Heinrich Christian Schumacher - from Lawyer to Astronomer // Ibid. P. 89-90.
27 Klimka L. Georg Sabler (1810-1865), Eminent Director of Vilnius Astronomical Observatory // Ibid. P. 75-76.
28 Fedotova A.A. The Encyclopedia “Biology in St. Petersburg 1703-2008” // Ibid. P. 70-71.
and Technology of Russian Academy of Science reviewed the compilation of the encyclopaedia “Biology in St. Petersburg 1703-2008.” A lot of original research had to be done in compiling such an extensive reference source, which summarises the earlier known and unpublished information. The research process sometimes revealed quite unexpected facts: for example, the compilers re-discovered several ‘forgotten’ institutions from the Czarist Russia and earlier Soviet times, not even speaking about the biologists, who had fallen into oblivion for ideological reasons. An interesting tendency became evident — the contribution of a few St. Petersburg secondary schools to the development of the whole generation of biologists has been decisive. The strong relationships between Russian (St. Petersburg) and the Baltic (above all the Baltic-German) scientists also popped up during the process of compiling the encyclopaedia.
Natalia Beregoy29 from the same institution took a more thorough insight into the actual contribution of Prof Peter Jessen, the first head of the Veterinary School in Tartu, to the history of science. Ukrainian Oksana Zabuga30 gave a talk on the life and activities of the Polish zoologist Benedikt Dybowsky, who studied at Tartu University. He was also politically active and went down in history as a researcher of Siberian fauna.
Several talks in the section of history of natural sciences and mathematics involved well-known and less well-known mathematicians. Prof Tônu Kollo31 from Tartu University gave a talk on the life and activities of the two pioneers of statistics, who both worked at Tartu University — Etienne Laspeyres and Wilhelm Lexis - and their contribution to the history of their specific field. Prof Karin Reich and Elena Roussanova32 from the University of Hamburg talked about Carl Friedrich Gauss’s ties with the Baltic States; Juozas Banionis33 delivered a talk on Lithuanian mathematician Zigmas Zemaitis’s contribution to teaching and popularization of mathematics in Lithuania. Mudis Salkauskas34 from Lithuania concentrated on a quite narrow, but interesting topic - the first conference of Lithuanian chemists, which was held in 1959 during the Khrushchev Thaw. The follow-up event, the second conference was not held until 1993, after Lithuania had restored its independence.
Unfortunately the section of the history of technology and engineering had the lowest number of speakers, though in the University of Technology it could have attracted more attention. However, it was fully compensated by the enthusiasm which some speakers could put into their talk. One of the most interesting talks was delivered by a Finn Mikko Kylliainen35 — he introduced the history of a bicycle in Estonia in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The same applies to the paper of the moderator of the section, a renowned Finnish researcher of the history of technology Sampsa Kaataja36, who focused
29 Beregoy N. Peter Jessen: the First Head of the Veterinary School in Tartu (1848-1918), the Scientific Centre for Veterinarian Studies and Education for the Russian Empire // Ibid. P. 68-69.
30 Ruda S., Zabuga O. The Famous Polish Zoologist Benedikt Dybovsky // Ibid. P. 87-88.
31 Kollo T. Pioneers of Modern Statistics - Etienne Laspeyres and Wilhelm Lexis // Ibid. P. 76-77.
32 Reich K., Roussanova E. Carl Friedrich Gauß’ Correspondents in the Baltics // Ibid. P. 85.
33 Banionis J. Mathematician Zigmas Zemaitis (1884-1969) as a Man of Lithuanian Science // Ibid. P. 66-68.
34 Salkauskas M. The First Conference of Lithuanian Chemists in 1958 // Ibid. P. 88.
35 Kylliäinen M. The Bicycle in 19th Century Estonia: Comparisons with other European Countries // Ibid. P. 92.
36 Kaataja S. Finnish University Researchers Developing Technology for Commercial Markets 1900-2000 // Ibid. P. 91.
on the relations of universities and commercial markets. A paper on the history of the Riga porcelain presented by Latvians Ingunda Sperberga37, and the paper on the Latvian contribution to the gas mask by Augusts Ruplis38 were also of great interest. Regrettably a very productive Estonian historian of technology Vahur Magi39, who is the editor of regularly published TUT annual publication called TTUAastaraamat, could not participate as a conference speaker.
The talks delivered in the section of the history of social sciences, humanities and education could still be considered the most interdisciplinary ones at the 24th Baltic Conference on History of Science. The section involved the highest number of participants, although there were more announced talks in the section of the history of medicine. The topics under discussion included issues such as how, and which way have the changes of political regime influenced the answer to the question who actually discovered Antarctica (Erki Tammik-saar40); what has been the role of non-fiction (popular science) literature in developing the Estonians’ rational-critical outlook (Mait Talts41), but also the spread of the Enlightenment ideas in the 18th century here and beyond the Atlantic Ocean (Epi Tohvri42). Andris Veis-bergs43 from Latvia dwelt upon the historical comparison of lexicography of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and pointed out some well known and also some surprising factors which have influenced compiling, or (in some cases) incompletion of big monolingual dictionaries or national encyclopaedias of one or another Baltic nation. Jan Radler44 from Frankfurt (Oder) described the development of the ideas of the Norwegian eco-philosopher Arne Naess, and brought out the connection between his two periods of creation, which had not been identified so clearly before.
In addition, talks were given on the production of scholarly books in Estonia at the beginning of the 20th century (Aile Moldre45), on re-evaluation of the Latvian history in the context of changing ideologies (Toms Kikuts46), and relations of the leading figure in Estonian archaeology Harri Moora and Finnish archaeologist Eila Kivikoski with Norway (Timo Salminen47 from Finland). Several education-related topics were also discussed (Iveta Kestere, Iveta Ozola48 and
37 Sperberga I., Grosvalds I., Alksnis U. The Riga Porcelain // Ibid. P. 99-100.
38 Ruplis A. The Contribution of N. Shilov and L. Liepina in the Theoretical and Practical Application of the Zelinsky Gas Mask // Ibid. P. 97-98.
39 Mägi V. The Estonian Language of Technology as a Driving Factor in the Evolution of Engineering Thinking // Ibid. P. 95-96.
40 Tammiksaar E. Antarctica and the Problem of its Discovery in the Scholarly Literature of the 19—20th Centuries // Ibid. P. 130-131.
41 Talts M. The role of Non-Fiction Literature in Shaping Estonians’ World Outlook // Ibid. P. 128-130.
42 Tohvri E. Georges-Frederic Parrot as the Creator of an Innovative Statute of Tartu University in the Early 19th Century // Ibid. P. 131-132.
43 Veisbergs A. Historical Comparison of Lexicography of the Three Baltic Nations // Ibid. P. 134-135.
44 Radler J. Arne Naess’ Meta-Philosophy: from “Empirical Semantics” to Deep Ecology // Ibid. P. 120-121.
45 Möldre A. The Advent of Estonian-Language Scholarly Book Publishing in 1901-1917: an Overview // Ibid. P. 119-120.
46 Kikuts T. Different Approaches or History as a Political Instrument? Historical Research in the Discussions of Latvian National-Romantic and Left-Orientated Intellectuals (1890s-1910s) // Ibid. P. 112-113.
47 Salminen T. Harri Moora, Ella Kivikoski, and Scandinavia (1930s until 1950s) // Ibid. P. 124-125.
48 Kestere I., Ozola I. Pedagogy: a Discipline under Diverse Appellations // Ibid. P. 109-111.
Ineta Strautina49), and some light was shed on the origin of the ideas of an Estonian language reformer Johannes Aavik (Helgi Vihma50).
In the context of the 19th century even the foreign speakers repeatedly included the University of Tartu and its scholars in their talks. Moreover, several conference talks revealed the historically progressive role of the University of Tartu. For example, Natalja Beregoy from St. Petersburg asserted that veterinarian Jessen’s ideas were so much ahead of his time that his activities had to be supported by the management of the University, not by the “academic community” of his era. A faculty member of the TUT Tartu College Epi Tohvri drew attention to the progressive ideas of the first Rector of the re-opened University of Tartu - an ethnic Frenchman Georges-Frederic Parrot, and to the similarity of his ideas to the USA 3rd President Thomas Jefferson’s ideas at the time. The principle of academic freedom expressed by those two historical figures has remained topical until the present day.
In conclusion it should be admitted that the 24th Baltic Conference turned out to be a high level, wide-ranging scientific event, an excellent forum of the exchange of ideas. It was also positive that the recent conference held in Tallinn revealed clear signs of generational shift among the Baltic historians. One could notice much younger presenters from Latvia and Lithuania, but also from Finland and Russia. Many of them enjoyed their first chance of giving a talk at a Baltic Conference, and at least for one of them the 24th Conference on Baltic History was the very first big international event at all. Therefore it could be expected that in the future the Association of the Baltic History and Philosophy will not confine itself only to organising conferences in every two or three years. As one of the similar and expected events, two months later, on 17 December 2010 a seminar dedicated to the history of natural sciences was arranged in Tallinn with participants from Russia, Finland and Estonia51. During the conference it was decided to publish a collection of articles in 2011, which will be based on the conference talks delivered at the 24th Baltic Conference on the History of Science. Actually, it is a special issue of the scientific journal “Baltic Journal of European Studies / Proceedings of the Institute for European Studies” regularly published by TUT Department of International Relations. To some extent, one must even state that in many respects the recent conference was a truly historical event.
Historiae Scientarum Baltica, 2010
М. Тальтс, М. Куласалу
Таллиннский технический университет, Таллинн, Эстония; Mait.Talts@tseba.ttu.ee, Mall.Kulasalu@tseba.ttu.ee
Осенью 2010 года, с 8 по 9 октября, в новом здании экономического факультета и факультета социальных наук Таллиннского технического университета была проведена 24-я Международная Балтийская конференция по истории науки. Конференции
49 Strautina I. Who is a Comprehensive Teacher? // Ibid. P. 125-127.
50 Vihma H. The Origin of the Ideas of Estonian Language Reformer Johannes Aavik (1880-1973) // Ibid. P. 135-137.
51 http://www.bahps.org/tallinn-seminar
по истории науки проводятся, как правило, раз в два года в одной из стран Балтии на протяжении более 50 лет, и трудно переоценить значение этих конференций в объединении балтийских историков науки. На данной конференции программа состояла из нескольких блоков: история образования и музеев; история биологических наук и математики; история гуманитарных наук; история инженерной деятельности и др. По итогам конференции было принято решение о публикации лучших докладов в отдельном номере журнала “Baltic Journal of European Studies” (ранее издавася как “Proceedings of the Institute for European Studies”).52 Встреча ученых стран Балтии внесла существенный вклад в установление эстонско-финских и эстонско-русских научных связей.
52 Baltic Journal of European Studies. No. 1 (9). June, 2011.
