Wissenschaft and Kunde: The General and the Special in Modern Science

Abstract

In this article I argue that the general and the particular (or “special”) have been fundamental categories in the conceptual organization of modern science. Using nineteenth-century German zoology as a case study, I argue for the importance of two basic relationships between them. One was incorporated into the dominant concept of Wissenschaft and became an international paradigm for academic, disciplinary science. The other is best captured in the term Kunde (knowledge), often used as a suffix (-kunde) to mean “studies”; it flourished especially outside the universities. Attending to these two approaches offers new insight into understanding conceptual change in science. I further suggest that the Kunde approach represents a way of knowing much more widespread than we have hitherto recognized; moreover, it bears intriguing parallels to certain kinds of interdisciplinary studies today.

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