Martin Carrier & Rebecca Mertens 
Narratives and Comparisons [PDF ebook] 
Adversaries or Allies in Understanding Science?

As a powerful tool in the production of knowledge, comparing plays a crucial part in the sciences and the humanities. This volume explores the relationship between comparing and narrating in epistemic practices and clarifies the ways in which narratives enable or impede practices of comparing. It takes into account related activities, such as measuring and classifying, modeling, establishing norms and categories, as well as organizing and popularizing knowledge, to analyze the ambivalent relationship between narratives, scientific explanation, and understanding. The contributions bring out the epistemic role of narratives, and elucidate how narratives are connected to comparisons and scientific explanations.

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Martin Carrier, born in 1955, teaches philosophy of science at Bielefeld University. His research is directed at methodological characteristics of science in the context of practice, that is, research targeted at economically or politically relevant fields.
Rebecca Mertens is a postdoctoral researcher in the collaborative research center 1288 »Practices of Comparing«. Her research interests cover the role of analogies, models and forms of comparison in the history of the life sciences.
Carsten Reinhardt, born in 1966, has been Professor of Historical Science Studies at Bielefeld University since 2007. His research areas are history of chemistry, industrial research, scientific instruments and expert knowledge.