Abstract:

Mary Somerville (1780-1872) and William Whewell (1794-1866) both contributed to the disciplinary formation of the sciences in Great Britain in the nineteenth century: she as a synthesizer who connected the various branches of knowledge in the emerging physical sciences, and he as the first person who used the history of all branches of science to define what distinguished scientific knowledge from other kinds. Both published bodies of scholarly work whose volume and breadth astounded their contemporaries and seem almost unimaginable today. Neither is included in standard histories of science because neither made the kind of original discovery around which those histories are organized. They become much easier to comprehend in the context of polymathy, which recognizes discerning and illuminating coherence in large bodies of knowledge as an exceptional but essential creative act. Their writings reveal the adeptness of the polymathic mind in framing large bodies of knowledge through two rhetorical moves: (1) association, which connects the subject with commonly held assumptions and values and draws on aesthetic traditions that have emotional resonance; and (2) orientation, which provides organizing ideas and conceptual frameworks that establish the coherence of the subject matter and guide the reader through the text. The distinctively anti-disciplinary approach of Somerville and the fluid nature of the disciplinary categories Whewell used to organize his history suggest that the world of knowledge, including science, has never been divided into the territorial disciplinary structures that dominate higher education. Like polymaths collectively, Somerville and Whewell are apparent anomalies whose very existence challenges our notions about the role and value of specialization.

摘要：

玛丽·萨默维尔（Mary Somerville，1780-1872）和威廉·休厄尔（William Whewell，1794-1866）都对 19 世纪英国科学学科的形成做出了贡献：她作为综合者，将新兴物理科学的各个知识分支联系起来，并且他是第一个利用所有科学分支的历史来定义科学知识与其他知识的区别的人。这两部著作都出版了学术著作，其数量和广度令同时代人震惊，在今天看来几乎是不可想象的。两者都不包含在标准科学史中，因为它们都没有做出那些历史组织所围绕的原始发现。在博学的背景下，它们变得更容易理解，博学认识到在大量知识中辨别和阐明连贯性是一种特殊但必不可少的创造性行为。他们的著作揭示了博学的头脑通过两种修辞手法构建大量知识的能力：（1）联想，将主题与普遍持有的假设和价值观联系起来，并借鉴具有情感共鸣的美学传统；(2) 方向，提供组织思想和概念框架，建立主题的连贯性并引导读者阅读文本。萨默维尔独特的反学科方法和休厄尔用来组织他的历史的学科类别的流动性表明，包括科学在内的知识世界从未被划分为主导高等教育的地域学科结构。就像博学的人一样，萨默维尔和休厄尔是明显的异常者，他们的存在挑战了我们对专业化的作用和价值的观念。