Our knowledge also has a history.First professorship for the new degree program Liberal Arts and Sciences filled“Welcome Aboard!” Prof. Dr. Matthias Schemmel

3 February 2022, by Schemmel / newsroom

Photo: Toshihito Schemmel

Prof. Dr. Matthias Schemmel has taken up his professorship for historical epistemology and is offering his first seminar and practical course in the Liberal Arts and Sciences program in the upcoming summer semester.

Every year, Universität Hamburg welcomes numerous new researchers. Prof. Dr. Matthias Schemmel will help build the Liberal Arts and Sciences degree program set up within the context of the Excellence Strategy of the Federal and State Governments.

Prof. Dr. Matthias Schemmel left the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin to join the University in Winter Semester 2021/22, where he now holds the professorship for historical epistemology.

My research area in 3 sentences:

I study structural changes in knowledge systems, from long-term and global perspectives and with particular focus on specific areas of knowledge. The goal is to better understand the epistemological place of scientific knowledge and its role in human societies. I pursue this goal with the help of empirical, meaning source-based research on historical processes of knowledge transformation, for example on the emergence of theoretical science in antiquity, the evolution of the European knowledge system in the Early Modern Period, knowledge transfer between China and Europe, and the upheavals in physics and its related disciplines in the twentieth century.

This is how I explain my research to my family:

Knowledge also has a history. Even things that now seem self-evident to us, such as numbers or our concepts of space and time, have changed over time. What does this all me for the legitimacy of knowledge? If it changes, then to what extent is it true? What is the relationship between legitimacy and genesis?

When human beings study what other human beings once wrote, calculated, or drew, from the first drawings by the Babylonians to Albert Einstein’s notes as he worked towards his theory of relativity, then they can find out how those in the past understood the problems in question and the solutions to them; how their understanding differs from ours today and where there are similarities. This is how we learn about approaches to thinking in other times and cultures, but also about our thinking today and our common foundations. We can then draw conclusions about the relationship between scientific knowledge and other areas of knowledge, such as practical knowledge or philosophy, and changing social conditions throughout history.

In Hamburg, the city and the University, I am looking forward to:

As a Hamburg native and former student of Universität Hamburg, I am looking forward to returning. Today’s University makes an incredibly lively impression. At the moment, a lot is happening here; above all, I see unusually strong commitment to inter- and transdisciplinary work, also especially between the humanities and social and natural sciences; I am very happy about that.

I would like to initiate or strengthen these projects, for example with regard to knowledge exchange, teaching, etc.

For me, the first point of order will be to build up the new Liberal Arts and Sciences degree program with my colleagues. This is an exciting responsibility, the fulfillment of which requires the very interdisciplinarity that I see here.

The degree program will be set up within the context of the Excellence Strategy. What does this mean exactly?

One of the Excellence Strategy’s sub-strategies is to strengthen and expand innovative, research-oriented, and multiperspective teaching. The program is being introduced to offer students methodologically innovative studies that address the global challenges of the twenty-first century and foster awareness of historical developments.

This is why students should come to my lectures:

In my seminars, I wish to invite students to critically reflect together upon science and scholarship with regard to content as well as to cultural and social context. And naturally, I wish to impart the joy of doing so. Classes should enable students to work on the foundations necessary to soundly addressing problems and challenges at the junction of scientific knowledge, society, culture, and politics.

In my research on the long-term history of space, for example, I look at the perspectives and findings of various disciplines, such as developmental psychology, ethnology, and the history of science, to gain a closer understanding of the philosophical question of the epistemological value of our understanding of space. In my courses, I wish to introduce this kind of interdisciplinary approach to current issues in research.

Reaching out to the world: I work with the following international and federal institutions and universities:

I would name the Ca’ Foscar University in Venice, the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, and the University of Notre Dame in the United States, where I have colleagues with whom I collaborate on the history of the interplay between nature and culture, on knowledge exchange between Europe and China, and on digital tools for working with manuscripts.

My research is important to society, or to help resolve the following issues:

With regard to today’s global problems and crises, modern scientific pursuit plays an ambivalent role: science and technology have created conditions that have in part brought forth or exacerbated these very problems, but they are also the means by which we can find solutions to these problems. Thus, understanding the way scientific pursuit works and the interplay of scientific and societal developments is necessary for shaping the future. I hope to contribute to this understanding with my research.