Biography of a Scientist as a Surmounting of Time
- Authors: Aksenov G.P.1
-
Affiliations:
- S. I. Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Russian Academy of Sciences
- Issue: Vol 44, No 3 (2023)
- Pages: 566-576
- Section: Recollections
- URL: https://ogarev-online.ru/0205-9606/article/view/141121
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.31857/S020596060027062-0
- ID: 141121
Open Access
Access granted
Subscription Access
Abstract
The scientist as an individual is a contemporary of particular historical circumstances who perceives social conditions of his time. On the other hand, he or she is part of a scientific community and is involved in a particular scientific discipline. This duality creates a problem of adequacy of the description. To an extent, it generates an uncertainty relation. The more accurately and detailed the description of a scientist’s personal and social life is, the less accurately the essence of his discoveries and his scientific life is conveyed. A biographer’s task is to find the right balance of these two flows that would allow holding the reader’s attention. In practice, the author finds this balance intuitively. In so doing, the biographer surmounts time. Which andwhose time? This article answers this question.
About the authors
Gennady Petrovich Aksenov
S. I. Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Russian Academy of SciencesMoscow, Ul. Baltiyskaya, 14
References
- Aksenov, G. P. (1993) Vladimir Vernadskii [Vladimir Vernadsky]. Moskva: Sovremennik.
- Aksenov, G. P. (2014) Prichina vremeni: zhizn’ – dlenie – neobratimostʼ [The Cause of Time: Life –Duration – Irreversibility]. Moskva: KRASAND.
- Aksenov, G. P. (2019) Dnevniki akademika V. I. Vernadskogo: znachenie i sud’ba [Diaries of Academician V. I. Vernadsky: Value and Fate], in: Minina, E. V. (comp.) Istoriia nauki: istochniki, pamiatniki, nasledie; tret’i chteniia po istoriografii i istochnikovedeniiu istorii nauki i tekhniki. K 150-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia prezidenta AN SSSR akademika V. L. Komarova (1869–1945) [History of Science: Sources, Monuments, Heritage; Third Readings on Historiography and Source Study of the History of Science and Technology. Towards the 150th Anniversary of the Birth of the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician V. L. Komarov (1869–1945)]. Moskva: Ianus-K, pp. 292–295.
- Balandin, R. K. (1984) Poisk istiny [The Search for Truth]. Moskva: Detskaia literatura.
- Bergson, A. (Bergson, H.) (1992) Opyt o neposredstvennykh dannykh soznaniia [An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness], in: Bergson, A. (Bergson, H.) Sobranie sochinenii [Collected Works]. Moskva: Moskovskii klub, vol. 1, pp. 51–159.
- Bergson, A. (Bergson, H.) (1998] Tvorcheskaia evoliutsiia [Creative Evolution]. Moskva: Kanonpress and Kuchkovo pole.
- Gumilevskii, L. (1988) Vernadskii [Vernadsky]. Moskva: Molodaia gvardiia.
- Murav’ev, V. (1998) Ovladenie vremenem. Izbrannye filosofskie i publitsisticheskie proizvedeniia [Mastery of Time. Selected Philosophical and Journalistic Works]. Moskva. ROSSPEN.
- Vernadskii, V. I. (2013) Sobranie sochinenii [Collected Works]. Moskva: Nauka, vol. 19.
- Zimmel’, G. (Simmel, G.) (1996) Izbrannoe [Selected Works]. Moskva: Iurist, vol. 1–2.
