The role of the history of science in Marian Smoluchowski’s scientific, didactic and philosophical activities

Abstract

Marian Smoluchowski (1872–1917) was an outstanding Polish physicist, known e.g. as a pioneer of statistical physics. His short paper about history of physics in Poland represents the initial study in this field. It was cited many times, creating the starting point for the historiography of physics in Poland. However, the role of history of science played in Smoluchowski’s activities was never systematically analyzed before. This article concentrates on three main domains of Smoluchowski’s activities involved with history of science: scientific, didactic and philosophical. It reveals that for Smoluchowski the importance of history of science was determined by its cultural impact. History of science played the important role in crystallization of his philosophical concepts, as well as in didactics revealing the internal dynamics of science and inspiring to new discoveries. The last issue is tied with specific methodological approach to physics called by Smoluchowski ‘romanticism of science’. This paper shows that Smoluchowski was not only a pioneer of history of physics in Poland, but also prepared some foundations for future development of this field of research.

Keywords

• marian smoluchowski
• history of physics
• philosophy in science
• history of science and didactics of physics
• history of science and culture