Technikatörténeti szemle 27. (2005-06)

Tanulmányok - Vámos Éva Katalin: Természettudósok három generációja Magyarországon, 1849–1918

ÉVA VÄMOS: THREE GENERATIONS OF NATURAL SCIENTISTS IN HUNGARY, 1849-1918 The aim of the paper is to show the different styles of scientific work of the well distinguishable three generations of natural scientists in the epochs of (Neo)absolutism and Dualism. The development of the methods of work and of the interests depended, to a great extent, on the historical conditions and expectations in, and with, which the scientists gained their chairs. The first generation of the epoch was characterized by foreign scientists adapting to the German language of teaching. To consider them solely as tools of national oppression without taking into account their professional achievements would seem - as looked at from a historical perspective - not absolutely justified. According to our classification, the second generation is made up of scientists, who devoted a considerable part of their activities to improve the domestic system of institutions, the Hungarian scientific language and public scientific life, thus - so to say - creating the basis for the next generation's activities. The Hungarian professors, who tried to address, from Hungarian universities - by utilizing the conditions created - the universal problems of their specialities and raise their scientific activities to world acknowledgement, are classified as third generation. Our classification depends not so much on the date of birth and the years of activity but on the styles of scientific work.