Evolution Knowledge The of T h e Evolution o f Knowledge R e t h i n k i n g S c i e n c e f o r t h e A n t h r o p o c e n e Jürgen Renn PRINCE TON UNIVERSITY PRESS Prince ton & Oxford Copyright © 2020 by Prince ton University Press Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to permissions@press . princeton . edu Published by Prince ton University Press 41 William Street, Prince ton, New Jersey 08540 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR press . princeton . edu All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Renn, Jürgen, 1956– author. Title: The evolution of knowledge : rethinking science for the Anthropocene / Jürgen Renn. Description: Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019016246 | ISBN 9780691171982 (hardcover) Subjects: LCSH: Science—Philosophy. | Science—History. Classification: LCC Q175 .R39275 2020 | DDC 500—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019016246 ISBN (ebook): 9780691185675 British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available Editorial: Eric Crahan, Thalia Leaf Production Editorial: Terri O’Prey Text Design: Pamela L. Schnitter Jacket/Cover Design: Pamela L. Schnitter Production: Jacqueline Poirier Publicity: Sara Henning- Stout, Katie Lewis Copyeditors: Zachary Gresham, Beth Gianfagna This book has been composed in Adobe Text Pro Printed on acid- free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of Amer i ca 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Kathrin and Erika, Leonardo, Eleonora, and Louis Contents List of Explanatory Boxes viii The Story of This Book ix Part 1: What Is Science? What Is Knowledge? Chapter 1: History of Science in the Anthropocene 3 Chapter 2: Ele ments of a Historical Theory of Human Knowledge 23 Part 2: How Knowledge Structures Change Chapter 3: The Historical Nature of Abstraction and Repre sen ta tion 37 Chapter 4: Structural Changes in Systems of Knowledge 65 Chapter 5: External Repre sen ta tions at Work 87 Chapter 6: Mental Models at Work 103 Chapter 7: The Nature of Scientific Revolutions 118 Part 3: How Knowledge Structures Affect Society and Vice Versa Chapter 8: The Economy of Knowledge 145 Chapter 9: An Economy of Practical Knowledge 170 Chapter 10: Knowledge Economies in History 190 Part 4: How Knowledge Spreads Chapter 11: The Globalization of Knowledge in History 247 Chapter 12: The Multiple Origins of the Natu ral Sciences 280 Chapter 13: Epistemic Networks 301 Part 5: On What Knowledge Our Future Depends Chapter 14: Epistemic Evolution 323 Chapter 15: Exodus from the Holocene 355 Chapter 16: Knowledge for the Anthropocene 377 Chapter 17: Science and the Challenges of Humanity 408 Glossary 417 Notes 435 References 469 Index 543 Explanatory Boxes Forgotten Traditions in the History of Science 53 How the Practical Roots of Mathematical Knowledge Were Suppressed 94 La querelle des anciens et des modernes (Battle of the Books) 116 Kuhn versus Fleck 119 Special Relativity 133 The Metric Tensor 137 Heisenberg’s Matrix Mechanics as a Transitional Synthesis 140 Marx’s Value Theory and Its Counterpart in the Information Society 156 Representations, Power, and Transcendence 166 Three Dimensions of Knowledge in Anthropology 191 An Imaginary Global Past: The “Axial Age” 201 Sovereignty, Representation, and the Emergence of the Modern State 218 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 253 An Even Shorter History of Time 337 The Emergence of Language in Recent Times 345 The Onset of the Anthropocene 359 Geoanthropology 375 Knowledge as a Common Good 395 The Story of This Book I can see no other escape from this dilemma (lest our true aim be lost for ever) than that some of us should venture to embark on a synthesis of facts and theories, albeit with second-h and and incomplete knowledge of some of them— and at the risk of making fools of ourselves. — Erwin Schrödinger, What Is Life? A Long- Term Research Proj ect and Its Roots This book covers a time span from the origins of h uman thinking to the modern chal- lenges of the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene is regarded h ere as the new geological epoch of humankind, defined by the profound and lasting impact of human activi- ties on the Earth system. The Anthropocene is thus the ultimate context for a history of knowledge and the natu ral vanis hing point for an investigation of cultural evolu- tion from a global perspective. From this perspective, I have tried to bind multiple historical and geo graphi c al horizons together. This book deals with both the longue durée aspects of the evolution of knowledge and the accelerated changes in the de- velopment of knowledge that have brought us into the Anthropocene. The foundation of the book is research pursued at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science since 1994.1 My studies and t hose of my colleagues have been dedicated from the beginning to an investigation of the history of science as part of a larger history of h uman knowledge. We have consistently emphasized the role of practical knowledge and historical continuity, even when focusing on the turning points of modern science. Our investigations include cross- cultural comparisons, in par tic u lar between Western, Chinese, and Islamic science, and a research program on the globalization of knowledge in history. The research on which this book is based has been (and continues to be) a joint endeavor. It was born from a conceptual framework for a historical epistemology— understood as a historical theory of knowledge— developed with Peter Damerow, Peter McLaughlin, and Gideon Freudenthal on the basis of earlier work by Peter Damerow and Wolfgang Lefèvre on science and its relation to h uman labor and its societal organi zation. Wolfgang Lefèvre, Klaus Heinrich, and Yehuda Elkana taught me to see science within the broadest contexts of human history and to critically rethink the promises of its Enlightenment ideals and its potential to contribute to humanity’s self- awareness. The pre sent work owes much to the thinking of Peter Damerow, to his leading role in our research team, and to our friendship and collaboration over more than thirty years. It also builds on the fundamental theoretical insights (drawing from phi- losophy, educational research, psy cholo gy, and cognitive science) collected in his 1996 book, Abstraction and Repres ent at ion.2 I have incorporated here some of the