Scholarly Virtues in Nineteenth-Century Sciences and Humanities

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vii

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2. Introduction

   • Christiaan Engberts

   Pages 1-22

3. A Helping Hand: Private Evaluation in Scholarly Correspondence

   • Christiaan Engberts

   Pages 23-61

4. The Editorial Balancing Act: Editors, Authors, Publishers, and Audiences

   • Christiaan Engberts

   Pages 63-102

5. A Review of Reviews: Criticism and Community Formation in Book Reviews

   • Christiaan Engberts

   Pages 103-137

6. State and Scholarship: The Politics of Professorial Appointments

   • Christiaan Engberts

   Pages 139-173

7. A Moral Economy of Scholarship: The Balance Between Loyalty and Independence

   • Christiaan Engberts

   Pages 175-206

8. Epilogue: Loyalty and Independence Today

   • Christiaan Engberts

   Pages 207-217

9. Back Matter

   Pages 219-226

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Reflecting a growing interest in the history of knowledge, this book explores the importance of scholarly virtues during the late nineteenth century. The practice of science is moulded on notions of scholarly values, such as diligence, impartiality, meticulousness and patience, but here, the author focuses on the virtues of collegial loyalty and critical independence. By analysing how virtues were reflected in day-to-day scholarly work, and examining the possibility that these virtues may have come into conflict with each other, this book sheds light on what is often described as ‘the moral economy of scholarship,’ a metaphor which draws attention to the changeability of the expectations raised by virtue. Highlighting the pre-eminence and exemplary nature of German scholarship during the nineteenth century, the author provides a detailed analysis of four evaluative practices used by scholars across the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences in a number of German universities.This allows a nuanced understanding of the complex relationship between collegial loyalty and critical independence in the academic working environment, and draws comparisons across varying disciplines. A welcome contribution to a growing field of research, this book provides a comparative and transdisciplinary overview of scholarly virtues and will be of interest to those researching the history of science and the humanities.

• History of knowledge
• Scholarship
• Scholarly virtue
• Natural sciences
• Humanities
• Morality
• Ethical scholarship
• Collegial loyalty
• Critical independence
• German scholarship
• History of the humanities
• History of academia
• Scholarly ideals
• History of scholarly debate
• Moral economy of scholarship
• Transdisciplinary

• Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

  Christiaan Engberts

Christiaan Engberts is a Lecturer in Cultural History at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, having previously studied at Leiden University’s Institute for History. His research revolves around the values, attitudes and work environments of scholars in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and medicine.

Policies and ethics