1.)
As per September 1, 2019, the Leiden University Institute for History will be appointing a postdoc researcher within the NWO-funded VICI project Scholarly Vices: A Longue Durée History, supervised by Professor Herman Paul.
Although the history of dogmatism is usually framed in epistemological terms, as ranging from Glanvill’s criticism of Hobbes to Locke, Hume, and Kant, the history of dogmatism as “a weapon of offence” can also be written from a rhetorical point of view, with particular attention to the historical connotations invoked by the term. Why was dogmatism so often presented as a “relapse” (Rückfall) into pre-critical thinking? Was dogmatism, notwithstanding Kuhn’s attempt at rehabilitation, an effective charge mainly because it relegated opponents to a superseded stage in the development of science? And why was dogmatism often associated with phrases such as Glanvill’s “vanity of dogmatizing,” Kant’s “dogmatic slumber,” and Huxley’s “history records that whenever science and dogmatism have been fairly opposed, the latter has been forced to retire from the lists, bleeding and crushed”? This sub-project traces how, why, and under what circumstances 19th- and 20th-century scientists invoked the trope of “dogmatism,” especially though not exclusively in controversies. What does in-depth analysis of such controversies reveal about the rhetorical power of dogmatism and to what extent does this help explain the persistence of dogmatism over time?
Key responsibilities
- Conducting research on the history of scholarly dogmatism;
- Writing one or more articles for publication in peer-reviewed journals;
- Together with the PI: co-authoring a monograph on the history of dogmatism;
- Co-organizing one or more of the workshops envisioned within the project;
- Contributing actively to the project as a whole (e.g., serving as a peer reviewer for other team members, contributing to the project website).
Selection criteria
- PhD degree, preferably in the history of science;
- One or more relevant publications (journal articles, book chapters);
- Fluency in English (passive command of German and/or French would be advantageous);
- Broad familiarity with the history of science (preferably including the history of the social sciences);
- Experience in working with 19th- or 20th-century source material;
- Excellent writing skills;
- Proven ability to work both independently and as part of a team;
- Proven ability to work in an international and highly competitive environment.
More information: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/vacancies/2019/q2/19-145-postdoc-position-scholarly-dogmatism
2.)
As per September 1, 2019, the Leiden University Institute for History will be appointing a PhD candidate within the NWO-funded VICI project Scholarly Vices: A Longue Durée History, supervised by Professor Herman Paul.
Although “Baconianism” was initially synonymous with inductive methods of a kind regarded as constitutive of British empiricism, Bacon’s idola mentis – idols of the tribe, cave, marketplace, and theater – began to attract major attention only when inductivism lost its epistemic authority under the influence of, mainly, Hume and Stuart Mill. They were picked up by a broad range of 19th- and early 20th-century thinkers, including Alexander Herzen, Thomas Huxley, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Emile Durkheim, John Dewey, and Max Scheler. Why did these mostly anti-positivist critics hark back to Bacon’s idols, despite “Baconianism” increasingly being associated with epistemic naivety? From where did they derive this commonplace and why was it attractive to them? Drawing on a broad array of mostly digitized sources, this sub-project examines modern retrievals of Bacon’s idols, thereby testing Justus von Liebig’s intriguing observation, back in 1863, that Bacon’s name lived on mainly in mottos or stereotypical phrases. More importantly, it examines the rhetorical purposes served by these phrases. To what extent did the classic status of Bacon’s idola add rhetorical power to epistemological criticism of “flawed,” “biased,” or “impure” scholarship?
Key responsibilities
- Conducting research on “Idols of the Mind: Modern Variations on a Baconian Theme, 1800-2000”;
- Writing an English-language PhD thesis within four years;
- Writing two (single- or co-authored) articles for publication in peer-reviewed journals;
- Presenting draft articles or thesis chapters at conferences or workshops;
- Co-organizing one of the workshops envisioned within the project;
- Contributing actively to the project as a whole (e.g., serving as a peer reviewer for other team members, contributing to the project website);
- If possible: contributing to undergraduate teaching.
Selection criteria
- MA degree in History or a related field;
- Fluency in English and good passive command of German and French;
- Demonstrable interest in the history of the humanities and/or the history of science (familiarity with late 19th-century philosophy is an advantage);
- Experience in working with 18th- or 19th-century source material;
- Excellent writing skills;
- Ability to work both independently and as part of the team;
- Ability to work in an international and highly competitive environment.
More information: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/vacancies/2019/q2/19-148-phd-position-idols-of-the-mind
3.)
As per September 1, 2019, the Leiden University Institute for History will be appointing a PhD candidate within the NWO-funded VICI project Scholarly Vices: A Longue Durée History, supervised by Professor Herman Paul.
In the German lands, an unbroken tradition of student advice literature known as Hodegetik existed from the late 17th to the late 19th century. It offered encyclopedic surveys of the fields of knowledge, while also teaching first-year students how to develop studious habits. Given the popularity of hodegetical courses, especially in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and the wide circulation of hodegetical textbooks, many 19th-century scholars in Europe must have been at least moderately familiar with the hodegetical tradition. Drawing on a selection of key titles, including H. A. Mertens’s Hodegetischer Entwurf (1779) and K. H. Scheidler’s Grundlinien der Hodegetik (1832), this sub-project examines how hodegetical textbooks relied on each other in warning their readers against vicious habits, how much continuity their catalogs of vice displayed, and to what extent vices that persisted throughout the 18th and 19th centuries were associated with easy-to-remember commonplaces (“the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”), anecdotes (absent-minded professors), or stereotypical images (dogmatic scholasticism).
Key responsibilities
- Conducting research on “Hodegetics: Language of Vice in Student Advice Literature, 1700-1900”;
- Writing an English-language PhD thesis within four years;
- Writing two (single- or co-authored) articles for publication in peer-reviewed journals;
- Presenting draft articles or thesis chapters at conferences or workshops;
- Co-organizing one of the workshops envisioned within the project;
- Contributing actively to the project as a whole (e.g., serving as a peer reviewer for other team members, contributing to the project website);
- If possible: contributing to undergraduate teaching
Selection criteria
- MA degree in History or a related field;
- Fluency in English and good passive command of Latin and German;
- Demonstrable interest in the history of the humanities and/or the history of science (familiarity with German Enlightenment culture is an advantage);
- Experience in working with 18th- or 19th-century source material;
- Excellent writing skills;
- Ability to work both independently and as part of the team;
- Ability to work in an international and highly competitive environment.
More information: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/vacancies/2019/q2/19-147-phd-position-hodegetics-language
4.)
As per September 1, 2019, the Leiden University Institute for History will be appointing a PhD candidate within the NWO-funded VICI project Scholarly Vices: A Longue Durée History, supervised by Professor Herman Paul.
Emblematic stories about scholarly vice such as codified in William Whewell’s History of the Inductive Sciences (1837) found their way into countless 19th- and 20th-century histories of science. This is true not only for Whewell’s image of the dark Middle Ages – the “barren period, which intervened between the scientific activity of ancient Greece, and that of modern Europe” – but also for anecdotes such as Vergilius of Salzburg being censured by Pope Zachary and Galileo being condemned by the Inquisition. Whewell in turn borrowed these story elements from Diderot’s and d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie, just as his “emplotment” of the history of science as a gradual triumph of virtue over vice was indebted, more generally, to 18th-century histories of science, dictionaries of arts and science, and historia literaria. In comparing a selection of 18th-century histories to a representative sample of 19th-century histories of science, this sub-project examines to what extent anecdotes, commonplaces, and stereotypical images contributed to the long-term persistence of early modern vices such as dogmatism.
Key responsibilities
- Conducting research on “The Dark Middle Ages: Language of Vice in Histories of Science, 1700-1900”;
- Writing an English-language PhD thesis within four years;
- Writing two (single- or co-authored) articles for publication in peer-reviewed journals;
- Presenting draft articles or thesis chapters at conferences or workshops;
- Co-organizing one of the workshops envisioned within the project;
- Contributing actively to the project as a whole (e.g., serving as a peer reviewer for other team members, contributing to the project website).
- If possible: contributing to undergraduate teaching
Selection criteria
- MA degree in History or a related field;
- Fluency in English and good passive command of German and French;
- Demonstrable interest in the history of the humanities and/or the history of science (familiarity with Enlightenment historiography is an advantage);
- Experience in working with 18th- or 19th-century source material;
- Excellent writing skills;
- Ability to work both independently and as part of the team;
- Ability to work in an international and highly competitive environment.
More information: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/vacancies/2019/q2/19-146-phd-position-the-dark-middle-ages