Measuring and Understanding the World Through Science
All sciences share the common goal of seeking to understand the world. However, the methodological approaches chosen to achieve this goal vary greatly. This is evident in the differing importance attached to quantification and empirical evidence across the various branches of science. What is the potential and where are the limits of an approach oriented toward numbers and measurements, or, conversely, of an approach that adopts a non-quantifiable perspective? How do these methodological approaches influence the models and representations that the sciences construct of the world?
The projects of the 6th subprogram focus their research on these various aspects of measuring and assessing the world.
Sponsored by
Scope and Correlations of Quantitative and Qualitative World-Understanding
The expansion of the project’s approach (2017–2019) builds on three findings from the first funding phase (2015–2017): 1. quality and quantity do not represent scientific methods but rather categories of analysis; that 2. “quantifying” and “interpreting” have always been interrelated in the process of analyzing texts; and 3. the dichotomous view of the humanities as qualitative/subjective and the natural sciences as quantitative/objective must be more strongly questioned. Building on this, the underlying epistemological question is formulated: Is the scientific object itself not already both qualitative and quantitative, and is every scientific discipline therefore compelled to rely on both approaches if it is to contribute to the understanding of this object? In addition, to complement quality and quantity, the little-noticed analytical category of “relation” is to be introduced into the methodological discussion.
Publications resulting from the project:
- Jana Pacyna: (Re)counting History. Anselm of Canterbury and the English Investiture Conflicts. Perspectives of Historical Network Analysis. (A volume to be published by Brill in connection with the conference “Reading Anselm: Context and Criticism,” Boston College, July 27–30, 2015; expected publication in 2020).
- Claudia Lauer: The Art of Intrigue. Studies in 12th-Century Courtly Epic. Heidelberg 2020.
- Claudia Lauer: Literary Narrative. A Theoretical Experiment on Medieval Narrative at the Intersection of Quantity and Quality. In: E. Feistner (ed.): Narration and Calculation as a Paradigm of Historical Narratology? Medieval Studies on the Interaction of Two Unequal Narrative Practices. Oldenburg 2018 (BmE Special Issue 2), pp. 65–89 (online).
- Claudia Lauer/Jana Pacyna: Counting and Narration. Medieval Literary and Historical Studies in Methodological Dialogue. In: M. Schweikert et al. (eds.): Measuring and Understanding in Scholarship. Interdisciplinary Approaches. Wiesbaden 2017, pp. 23–41.
- Jana Pacyna/Michael Ott: Visualization as Provocation? Network Analyses in Medieval Studies and Classical Studies. In: Blog of SFB 933 Material Text Cultures: Materiality and Presence of the Written Word (https://sfb933.hypotheses.org/1211).
- Jana Pacyna/Rodney Ast/Clementina Caputo/Michael Ott: Nodes, edges, and diagrams. In: Blog of the SFB 933 Material Text Cultures: Materiality and Presence of the Written Word (https://sfb933.hypotheses.org/782)
Conferences, workshops, and seminars organized as part of the project:
- Interdisciplinary and international conference: “Visualization as Provocation? Network Analyses in Medieval Studies and Classical Studies” (April 3–4, 2019, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and SFB 933 “Material Text Cultures,” Heidelberg University).
- Interdisciplinary and International Workshop: “Counting and Narrating. Quantitative and Qualitative Methodologies in the Humanities” (November 27–28, 2015, Heidelberg).
- Proseminar: “The Investiture Controversy: A Comparison of England and the Holy Roman Empire” (3 SWS, Winter Semester 2018/19, University of Tübingen) Including 2 sessions: “Digital History, Historical Databases, Historical Network Analysis”
- Introductory Seminar: “A Comparison of Investiture Conflicts: England and the Holy Roman Empire, 1076–1122” (4 SWS, Summer Semester 2018, University of Heidelberg) Including 2 sessions: “Digital History, Historical Databases, Historical Network Analysis”
- Source-based seminar: “Anselm of Canterbury Between Monastic Life and Investiture Conflicts in the Anglo-Norman Empire of the 11th Century” (2 SWS, Winter Semester 2017/18, Heidelberg University) Including 3 sessions: “Digital History, Historical Databases, Historical Network Analysis”
Faculty Members:
- Dr. Jana Pacyna
- Assistant Professor Dr. Claudia Lauer (part-time)