The Modern Myth of the Mad Scientist

Clark, William G, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

Many scientific autobiographies and biographies, as well as many learned and popular histories written about science situate themselves, consciously or not, within the horizon of the modern myth that the extraordinary scientist is a "mad" one, either an eccentric or an evil genius. In popular mentalities, moreover, such attributes tend to be projected onto scientists per se. This project seeks to illuminate the origins of this myth or "metanarrative" about the modern scientist. The origins of the "mad" scientist are traced from the 17th through the 19th centuries. Methodologically, the project connects to cultural studies and the history of mentalities, and it makes a contribution to a rather new research field, the "history of scientific personae." The PI reconstructs how various sorts and cases of normal and extraordinary scientists - for example, "mechanical philosophers," anatomists, galvanists, and individuals including Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Anton Mesmer, Charles Babbage, Thomas Edison - were conceived, imagined, fashioned, and presented as scientists or "natural philosophers," themselves, by their colleagues and by the public. As a contribution to the history of mentalities and of scientific personae, the research also examines fictional or literary "mad" scientists. The popularity of Frankenstein and Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, for examples, illuminate extant mentalities about scientists; moreover, such works may alter popular and even learned mentalities about the persona or figure of the scientist. Tracing the early origins of the myth, the project attends to certain figures, such as the Philosopher and the Sorcerer, that were important in the period before the emergence of the modern scientist. The PI is investigating the extent to which such figures played a role in shaping the image of the eccentric or evil genius. The research for the project is being conducted at the Max-Planck-Institut fiir Wissenschaftsgeschichte in Berlin, as well as at libraries in and around Berlin. At the end of two years of research, the PI intends to have produced an academic monograph that will contribute to the new field of research on the history of scientific personae. This study also should advance better understandings of both extraordinary and normal scientists by illuminating the deep-seated historical context and socio-cultural public fears suggested by pervasive notions of scientist as eccentric or evil genius.