Hermann Hunger
ist em. Professor am Institut für Orientalistik der Universität Wien
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In 1994, the late Alistair Crombie
published his monumental work
“Styles of Scientific Thinking in the
European Tradition”. As it reads
in the publisher’s prospectus, he
distinguished between six “styles
of inquiry, demonstration and
explanation diversified by their
subject-matters, by their general
conceptions of nature, and by scientific experience”. These
inquiry styles included postulation, experimental argument,
hypothetical modelling, taxonomy, probabilistic and
statistical analysis, and historical derivation. Reconsidering
this fascinating subject fourteen years later, this volume
expands on the original Euro-centric viewpoint. Which
philosophical, cultural, religious, political, economic
influences can be identified that led to certain styles of
thinking in science and technology in various parts of the
world, and what determined their further development?
Of special interest in this regard are cross-cultural
influences and interrelations. How are traditions of
thinking transmitted to later generations or to other
cultures? How are they modified through the course of
history? The “Third Conference of the European Society for
the History of Science” was an opportunity for historians
and philosophers of science and technology to examine
these and other questions.
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