Historians have long argued that science and technology, as human pursuits, must be inextricably intertwined with the culture and society in which they are created. Preferences for certain kinds of explanations, choices of research problems, the manner of presentation of results, etc. all are affected by factors which are said to be external to the actual content of the science or technology. That these factors have an impact can be seen in the different national styles in science. The paradigm case is the differences which are immediately apparent between British and French physics: the former being exceptionally empirical and prone to use mechanical models, the latter being extraordinarily formal and abstract. While the impact of external factors on science has long been asserted, we have had too few detailed case studies of how they affect the directions of science. Dr. Goldstein, under this grant, will examine the development of three different schools of psychology in France of the 19th century and the role of politics, social organization and public support in influencing the success of one of these schools. This study promises to greatly enhance our understanding of how science, especially social science, is shaped by the society in which it is developed. Dr. Goldstein's study will address the implications of the French Revolution on the development of a science of psychology by exploring the three psychological models that competed in France during the period 1790-1850: sensationalism, rational spiritualism or eclecticism, and phrenology. Her study will consider the political affiliations of their adherents, their varying degrees of success at institutionalizing their theories in the new state educational system, and their efforts at popular dissemination through informal channels. Arguing that each model furnished contemporaries with a distinctive and widely used language of mental states, Dr. Goldstein will seek to explain why eclecticism -- the least scientific of the three -- won an enduring victory over its contemporaries. Finally, the study will probe a little known debate over the unity or multiplicity of the self, a debate reflecting the porousness of 19th century psychological theory to such basic cultural issues a the attitude toward secularization and the conflict between liberalism and socialism.
