Franz Mauelshagen on "The Climatological Revolution of the Eighteenth Century"
Lunchtime Colloquium
09.10.2014 12:00 – 14:00
Location: Katholische Hochschulgemeinde (KHG), Leopoldstr. 11
Franz Mauelshagen (Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) in Essen) will present on "The Climatological Revolution of the Eighteenth Century."
Recent research in the history of meteorology and climatology has focused largely on the discovery of (anthropogenic) global warming and its scientific foundations. In comparison, the early days of climatology have remained rather obscure. Studies in the history of climate ideas before 1800 have focused exclusively on meteorology, turning the history of climatology into a by-product of technological progress in meteorological measurement and data collection from about 1700 onwards. This approach has taken for granted that “climate” has always been a meteorological category, which it never was. Well into the eighteenth century, “climate” remained a geographic niche category with a remarkably stable definition. So, why did it emerge to represent a new and complex science? The early modern geographic tradition, particularly the development of physical geography from Varenius to Humboldt, is key to answering this question. This perspective changes the narrative as well as the chronology of the emergence of what I call the “climatological revolution.”
The Lunchtime Colloquium is free and open to the public.
Snacks are served at 12:00; the lecture starts at 12:30.
For more information on the Lunchtime Colloquium series, please click here.