2025/05/06 by Galina Weinstein, Weinstein, Galina
Arts and Humanities · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution #FOS: Physical sciences #History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph) #Philosophy and History of Science #Science and Climate Studies
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2505.03450
openalex publication_date 2025/05/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/16 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This article offers a critical engagement with Jürgen Renn's historiographical approach, with particular focus on "The Evolution of Knowledge" and "The Einsteinian Revolution" (co-authored with Hanoch Gutfreund). It explores how Renn reinterprets Albert Einstein's contributions to modern physics, especially special and general relativity, not primarily as the product of individual insight, but as emergent from broader epistemic structures and long-term knowledge systems. The discussion centers on key concepts such as "challenging objects," "epistemic matrices," "mental models," and "borderline problems," and situates Renn's framework within broader debates involving Thomas Kuhn, Ludwik Fleck, and Mara Beller. While recognizing the historiographical strengths of Renn's structuralist approach, the article raises questions about its implications for understanding individual agency, conceptual creativity, and the philosophical dimensions of scientific change. The paper contends that a balanced account of scientific innovation must preserve both the historical embeddedness of knowledge and the originality of conceptual breakthroughs.