ESSAY

B E YO N D T H E I VO RY TOW E R
This year's essay series highlights

What Kind of Science the benefits that scientists, science,

and technology have brought to
society throughout history.

Is Experimental Physics?
H. Otto Sibum

n 1923, the German theoretical physicist as not belonging to the scholarly tradition, The main challenge to traditional text-

I Felix Auerbach told his readers that ex-

perimental physicists, unlike botanists or
geologists, do not observe nature but rather
in which a clear distinction between doing
and knowing still predominated. In 1764,
the philosopher Christian Wolff argued (2):
based scholarship was that experimentalists’
had to develop and study instruments to in-
vestigate nature’s effects.
artificially create physical phenomena in The new fields of electricity and magnet-

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their laboratories. He made what would to- In such circumstances, a third man ism within experimental physics were partic-
day be regarded as a contentious claim (1): would be needed, who could in himself unite ularly challenging, because nearly all phe-
science and art, in order to correct the theo- nomena connected with these fields were ob-
X-rays are not a ‘natural phenomenon’, rists’ infirmities and to combat the prejudice servable only with the assistance of instru-
until Röntgen there weren’t such, they have of the lovers of the arts, as if they could be ments or apparatus. Artificially created illu-
been invented by him (this expression is therein complete without the theory, and minations in an electrified vacuum tube were
more appropriate than the conventional ‘dis- leave [theory] to the idle heads good-for- regarded as models of the Aurora Borealis.
covered’); and in case it turns out that there nothing in the world.... Hence ... [the engi- But experimenters did not only equate artifi-
will be such rays in nature, this does not neer] compared himself to a bat, tolerated cially created phenomena with macroscopic
change the issue essentially. among neither birds nor quadrupeds, and he phenomena. In the late 18th century, the
complained that he was hated by the practi- Italian physicist Alessandro Volta succeeded
Reflections like this on the artificial tech- tioners of art as well as despised by the the- in detecting and explaining microphysical
nological character of experiment—or, more orists, for he wanted by his nature to be cel- phenomena. He constructed a model of the
precisely, the kind of scientific experience ebrated as a remarkable man by both, and to electric fish, today known as the first electric
gained through the use of human devices—is share fame in the learned world with the lat- battery, which for the first time demonstrated
not just an important expression of Auer- ter and happiness at court with the former. the existence of an electric current. At the end
bach’s time. It is an integral part of a long his- of the 18th century, different knowledge
torical debate, going back at least to the 17th In establishing experimental physics claims based on experiences made in those
century, about the epistemological status of within academia, experimentalists were ex- artificially created local settings often led to
experiment and experience. In this essay, I periencing the advantages and disadvan- controversies about the true meaning and
concentrate on the mid-18th to the early 20th tages of the third man’s position. Like bats, scope of these experiences.
century, a time period in which a “third man” they were difficult to classify. Did their Despite the immense practical achieve-
was sought to bridge the divide between the- studies of nature, practiced with head and ments in creating “new physical truth,” this
orists and practitioners, hand, lead to a specific conflict persisted into the 19th century.
between science and the form of knowledge? And Artisans, merchants, engineers, instrument
mechanical arts. The con- did this knowledge qual- makers, and scholars participated in a com-
sequent emergence of a ify as science? How one plex historical process of molding the
new scientific persona— answered this question physical sciences based on experimenta-
the experimentalist—was depended on one’s stance tion. Artisanal knowledge became essential
coupled to the establish- toward the implicit dis- for the experimental sciences, but this ex-
ment of experimental tinction made in those pert knowledge resided outside of acade-
physics as an academic days between experi- mia. The material interests of the state in
discipline. Reproduction of a historical experi- mental knowledge and promoting industry and the military en-
Since the early mod- ment from the 18th century. The light science, or knowledge in abled experimentalists to pursue their re-
CREDIT: MAX PLANCK INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE

ern period, scholarly phenomena produced through mechani- general and scientific search and finally forced traditional acade-
opinions on “the art of cal friction in a vacuum tube were con- knowledge in particular. mia to establish scientific laboratories (3).
experiment” ranged from sidered a model of the Aurora Borealis. Furthermore, the domi- The term “Handwerksgelehrte,” coined in
denying that it had any nant understanding of Germany in the second half of the 19th cen-
epistemological value to the 19th-century scientific knowledge as universal, au- tury, captures the amalgamation of the exper-
conviction that this form of inquiry was the tonomous, and permanent was intimately imentalists movement with the traditional ac-
only way to make sense of natural causes. A linked with the hegemony of the written text ademic elite. What had previously been re-
key issue in these controversies was that the in the scholars’ form of life. Hence, from the garded as separate knowledge traditions—ex-
physical manipulation of objects was seen mid-18th century onward, several genera- perimentalists and bookish scholars—now
tions of experimental natural philosophers merged into a distinct community of experi-
H. Otto Sibum is at the Max Planck Institute for the
were required to free the art of experiment mental scientists in which ways of acting and
History of Science, Wilhelmstrasse 44, 10117 Berlin, from its epistemological stigma and to posi- ways of knowing had equal epistemological
Germany. E-mail: sibum@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de tion their knowledge within academia. status (4). By the end of the 19th century, lab-

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oratories had been established in most univer-
sities in Europe and North America.
The teaching of physics also changed dur-
ing this time. Chairs for experimental physics
were set up, and a new scientific methodolo-
gy emerged. Hermann von Helmholtz and
James Clerk Maxwell promoted an under-
standing of induction that stressed the similar-
ities between the intellectual work of the ex-
perimental physicist and that of the artist.
Both continuously reminded their audiences
that experimental physics differed from tradi-
tional scholarship. Maxwell followed his gen-
eral conviction “that the facts are things which
must be felt, they cannot be learned from any
description of them” (5). Similarly, Helmholtz
told the Naturforscherversammlung in
Innsbruck in 1869 (6):
By the end of the 19th century, the in-
creasing number of techniques to investigate
microphysical objects, such as x-rays and
electrons, changed the experiential basis of
physics and evoked various reflections about
these sources of knowledge. Particularly the
artificial technological character of experi-
mental physics was discussed (1):
Experimental physics does not—as the
term already suggests—practice observation
of nature like other natural sciences, it de-
ploys artificial experiments which are per-
formed just for a specific purpose. Strictly
speaking, physics with regard to its method
is not a natural science like astronomy, geol-
ogy, botany, etc.; it does not deal with natu-
ral phenomena but artificial phenomena
E S S AY
mum of experience. Of course with some
practice they could build theoretical physics
directly from the condensed experience
stored in the mind, with the foresight that a
retrospective check against experience will
not contradict the theoretical claim; but if
contradictions occur, they would have to re-
structure their abstract building or eventual-
ly replace it by another one (8).
Auerbach distinguished this practice of
theorizing from another kind of theoretical
physics, which promotes the idea that the
general can be derived exclusively from the
researcher’s mind [(8), p. 2]:
They construct an ideal world, declare
their satisfaction, if the real world matches
the ideal. But in case of contradictions these

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produced by intentional acts of the re- theorists would go that far and declare the
Besides the kind of knowledge that books searcher; in this sense we can speak of real world as false because it does not match
and lectures provide, the researcher in the nat- physics as a technical science. with the ideal.
ural sciences needs the kind of personal ac-
quaintance that only rich, attentive sensory ex- By 1900, more than 90% of German In doing so, he clearly commented on a
perience can give him. His senses must be physicists practiced precisely this techni- tendency among some theoretical physi-
sharpened.... His hand must be exercised that cal science. But the physics community cists, who held that experience and reason
it can easily perform the work of a blacksmith, was still not speaking with one voice, and would remain divided in two separate do-
locksmith, joiner, draftsman, or violinist. several different stances about the episte- mains (9):
mological status of experiment and sensu-
This plea represents the gradual change ous experience in generating knowledge Experience remains, of course, the sole
in the epistemological status of sensuous continued to exist. The experimental criterion of physical utility of a mathemati-
experience in science. Helmholtz, Maxwell, physicist Otto Wiener suggested that in- cal construction. But the creative principle
and others placed sensuous experience cen- strument-based physical research should resides in mathematics. In a certain sense,
ter stage in the process of generating scien- be regarded as an evolutionary process therefore, I hold it true that pure thought can
tific knowledge and of bridging of the extension of the human grasp reality, as the ancients dreamed.
the divide between theorists and From the mid-18th to senses. Generalizations were
practitioners. the early 20th century, derived from sensuous expe- By the turn of the 20th century, the art
And yet, reflections about the establishment of rience. Consequently, ele- of experiment had been developed to the
the epistemological status of experimental physics ments of theory were to be most powerful art of knowing within sci-
experimental physics in gener- as an academic understood as “condensed ence. In Germany, experimental physicists
al and sensuous experience in discipline challenged experience.” regarded the artificial technological char-
particular continued. Not only the still-dominant Auerbach took a very similar acter of experimentation as the extension
the new Handwerksgelehrte, epistemological divide stance in describing the practice of the human senses, opening up new
but even laypersons forcefully between knowing of theoretical physics: for him, realms of experience. This changing expe-
argued for a mediation be- and doing. the source of scientific knowl- riential basis even induced an increasing
tween knowing and doing, the- edge was always experience, the self-reflexivity in physics, which shaped
ory and experience. The German tanner latter not to be regarded as the test of a the- the formation of different types of theoret-
Joseph Dietzgen, for example, announced ory but as the materials to build up the the- ical physics.
in 1869 that the third man’s problem had ory. The implied claim—he argued—that
not been fully resolved (7). To him, the theoretical physics constructs its general References and Notes
tension resulted from a conflict between fundament from experience might make it 1. F. Auerbach, Entwicklungsgeschichte der modernen
Physik (Springer, Berlin, 1923).
two philosophical traditions about the appear as if physicists are arguing in a cir- 2. B. F. de Belidor, Architectura Hydaulica (Klett,
sources of knowledge: the idealist regards cle. How could one derive the facts of ex- Augsburg, 1764), introduction by C. Wolff.
the source of knowledge in reason only, perience from a general schema and at the 3. M. N. Wise, Bourgeois Berlin and Laboratory Science,
in preparation.
the materialist in the sensually perceived same time gain this schema by orientating 4. H. O. Sibum, Sci. Context 16, 89 (2003).
world. But he saw a way out of this contra- one’s self toward experience? 5. H. O. Sibum, Cambridge Rev. 116, 25 (1995).
diction (7): To persuade his audience, he refers to 6. H. Helmholtz, Über die Ziele und Fortschritte der
Naturwissenschaft (Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn,
the most striking invention of 19th century Braunschweig, 1871).
The mediation of this contradiction re- electrical engineering: the dynamo. First 7. J. Dietzgen, Das Wesen der menschlichen Kopfarbeit
quires the insight that both sources of built by Siemens, it starts to produce cur- dargestellt von einem Handwerker. Eine abermalige
knowledge are intimately connected with rent immediately when turned by hand, be- Kritik der reinen und praktischen Vernunft (Otto
Meißner, Hamburg, 1869).
each other... Therefore even the lowest art of cause a trace of magnetism inherent in iron 8. F. Auerbach, Die Methoden der theoretischen Physik
experiment which acts on the basis of expe- produces weak electric currents, which feed (Akademische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig, 1925).
rienced rules, is only gradually different the same machine. In a similar way, theoret- 9. A. Einstein, in Ideas and Opinions, based on Mein
Weltbild, Carl Seelig, Ed., and other sources. New
from that scientific practice which is based ical physicists want to gain as much knowl- translations and revisions by Sonja Bargmann
on mere theoretical principles. edge about nature as possible from a mini- (Bonanza Books, New York, 1954), pp. 270–276.

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