Synthetic technocracy

Dutch scientific intellectuals in science, society and culture, 1880–1950

Bibliographic Data

ID8392959
AuthorsDavid Baneke (0000-0002-6920-9940, Leiden University, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume44
Issue1
Pages89-113
Publication date2011-03-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe British Journal for the History of Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-0874 • E-ISSN: 1474-001X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s000708741000004x
OpenAlexW1992087874
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited8

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, changing social and cultural climates challenged the position of scientists in Western society. Ringer and Harwood have described how scientists reacted by adopting either pragmatist or ‘comprehensive’ styles of thought. In this article, I will show how a group of Dutch intellectuals, including many scientists, came up with an alternative approach to the dilemmas of modernity, and eventually became influential in shaping Dutch society. They combined elements of both styles into what I call a ‘synthetic technocrat’ ideology, a reaction against intellectual and political fragmentation. These ideas were often combined with pleas for educational reform, culminating in a plea for gebildete Tatkraft . I will analyse the development of the synthetic technocrat movement from the late nineteenth century into the 1940s. During this period, the movement became increasingly political in nature, but in a radically different way to comparable movements in other countries, especially Germany

Aesthetics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Ideology · Modernity · Modernization theory · Period (music · Plea · Political science · Politics · Pragmatism · Progressivism · Reform movement · Social science · Sociology · Technocracy · History of Science and Natural History · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Philosophy, Science, and History

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub