Abstract
Recent historiographies have put a focus on place and movement, with important implications for the history of science and technology outside the traditional locus of Western Europe and the United States. In this chapter, I argue that some of the central problems and concepts advanced in Jean Gayon’s works, together with contributions in other areas of the history of science, set the ground for a thorough critique of the diffusionist view of knowledge, famously associated with George Basalla. Though the themes and tools in contemporary history of science are nowadays coming from afar the industrialized western countries, the movement of twentieth century life sciences into French traditions and institutions captured some of the same basic questions almost thirty years ago. In particular, Gayon contributed to our current narrative of how Mendelism, and later the molecular approach to heredity, made their arrival to France to be accommodated within existing disciplinary fields, traditions, and institutions. In doing so, he and his colleagues introduced a perspective that challenged a merely “rationalist” or even a “spreading” view of the displacement of science, providing an analytical tool kit that emphasized the diversity and fruitfulness of local research traditions.
Adapted from Suárez-Díaz (2018).
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Notes
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- 2.
For contributions in this realm see the volume edited by Suman Seth (2009).
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Interestingly, the recruitment of France as the “receiving” end of developments in Anglo-Saxon and Northern European developments in genetics and molecular genetics, had parallels with the qualifications of Basalla of the majority of non-civilized nations beyond the “small circle of Western European nations” (p. 611). France’s biological tradition was seen at the time as lagging behind England in their historic commitment to Lamarckism and anti-Darwinism.
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The most obvious feature of the transnational turn is its abandonment of the idea that national states, or even national traditions, provide the relevant context for the history of science. In this, it shares common problems with other perspectives, such as the cross-national perspective, which focus on material and human travels across borders. Like its close relative, international history, the cross-national perspective assumes the integrity of national states, but interrogates the conditions and obstacles standing between them: infrastructures and bureaucracies, visa systems and security clearances of people, technologies and knowledge (Cohen & O’Connor, 2004, see Krige; 2006; Miller, 2006). The transnational turn, in contrast, seeks to transcend the strict limits and interests of national states, to look beyond, into the international context, to account for local developments and laboratory cultures.
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Suárez-Díaz, E. (2023). Local Traditions and the Death of Diffusion: Jean Gayon’s Contribution to Contemporary Narratives of ‘The Molecular Vision of Life’. In: Méthot, PO. (eds) Philosophy, History and Biology: Essays in Honour of Jean Gayon. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28157-0_8
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