Measuring Up to the Humanities: Navigating the Epistemological Advantage of Classical Humanism in Nineteenth-Century Scholarly Periodicals

This chapter analyzes the epistemological hierarchy around the middle
of the nineteenth century in Sweden through efforts to mobilize support
for natural science in scholarly periodicals. It is argued that scholarly
communication was key to achieving legitimacy for natural science, but
that such efforts were mitigated by a dominant view of the humanities
in general and classical humanism in particular as more valuable to
society. Tensions between natural science and classical humanism were
expressed in negotiations of the nebulous concept of bildning – the Swedish
equivalent of the German Bildung – and the article demonstrates how
natural scientists tried to navigate its semantic usage and advocate the
view that natural science could achieve the educational goals associated
with classical humanism.