Abstract
Traditional history of science consists mainly of the history of discoveries. Especially in some particular fields of science and their respective disciplines, it proceeds from a generally acknowledged and presently valid doctrine of its subject matter and poses questions leading back into the past: How did such a body of knowledge come about chronologically? History thus prefers to ask at what time, in which place, in which country, by what person a certain observation was made for the first time; when, where and by whom an experiment was undertaken, a theory outlined or a technique first applied, in short, a discovery or an invention first made. The criterion for the importance of a discovery is in any case the relative significance that is attributed to the ‘fact’ or technique discovered or the theory outlined within the framework of science that the historian works from.1
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Toellner, R. (1981). Logical and Psychological Aspects of the Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood. In: Grmek, M.D., Cohen, R.S., Cimino, G. (eds) On Scientific Discovery. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 34. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1284-3_12
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