Curriculum Vitae — Kenneth L. Caneva

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1962-1966. BS in Humanities and Science (physics and philosophy). Undergraduate thesis, under Prof. Giorgio de Santillana, on "The Dispute between Einstein and Bohr" over the completeness of quantum mechanics.

Technische Hochschule, Munich, 1966-1967. As a Fulbright Fellow, I heard courses in the history of science and technology.

Princeton University, Program in History and Philosophy of Science. PhD awarded January 1975. Dissertation, under Prof. Thomas S. Kuhn, entitled "Conceptual and Generational Change in German Physics: The Case of Electricity, 1800-1846."

Employment

University of Utah, Department of Physics, College of Humanities, and Honors Program, September 1972 to January 1976.

Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Unit for History and Social Aspects of Science, February 1976 to November 1978.

University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of History, January 1979 to August 2010. Assistant Professor (January 1979), Associate Professor (August 1983), Professor (August 1995).

Publications

Books

Helmholtz and the Conservation of Energy: Contexts of Creation and Reception. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2021.

The Form and Function of Scientific Discoveries. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Libraries, 2001. viii + 32 p. Also published electronically at www.sil.si.edu.

Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993. xxiii + 439 p. [LINK to errata] [LINK to published reviews]

Articles, Essay Reviews, and Essays

"Ørsted's Presentation of Ritter's Work in Paris." In Jens Olaf Pepke Pedersen, Cecilie M. K. Pedersen, and Dorte Olesen, eds., Hans Christian Ørsted--the Unity of Spirit and Nature. On the Bicentennial of Electromagnetism (Kongens Lyngby: Kvants Forlag, 2020), pp. 47-54. [LINK]

"Ørsteds præsentation af Ritters arbejde i Paris." Kvant. Tidsskrift for Fysik og Astronomi, 30, No. 4, December 2019, pp. 26-29.

"Helmholtz, the Conservation of Force and the Conservation of Vis Viva." Annals of Science, 76, No. 1, 2019, pp. 17-57.

"Not Defining Natural Science in Germany, 1770-1850," Metascience, 23, No. 1, March 2014, pp. 187-190. Essay review of Denise Phillips, Acolytes of Nature: Defining Natural Science in Germany, 1770-1850. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 2012. [LINK]

"What in Truth Divides Historians and Philosophers of Science?" In Seymour Mauskopf and Tad Schmaltz, eds., Integrating History and Philosophy of Science: Problems and Prospects ("Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science," 263; Dordrecht [etc.]: Springer, 2012), pp. 49-57. [LINK]

"Ørsted's Presentation of Others'--and His Own--Work." In Robert M. Brain, Robert S. Cohen, and Ole Knudsen, eds., Hans Christian Ørsted and the Romantic Legacy in Science: Ideas, Disciplines, Practices ("Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science," 241; Dordrecht: Springer, 2007), pp. 273-338. [LINK] [LINK to errata]

"Are Spirits the Untouchables of Academia? Situated No Legitimacy in Feminism." International Journal of Parapsychology, 12, No. 2, 2001 [published February 2007], pp. 43-65. [LINK]

"Kuhn, Thomas." In Donald M. Borchert, ed., Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd ed. (10 vols.; Detroit [etc.]: Macmillan Reference/Thomas Gale, 2006), 5, pp. 157-160. [LINK]

"'Discovery' as a Site for the Collective Construction of Scientific Knowledge." Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 35, Pt. 2, 2005, pp. 175-291. [see also "Errata--Discovery as a Site"]

"The Ecology of Romantic Biology." Isis, 94, No. 4, December 2003, pp. 679-683. Essay review of Robert J. Richards, The Romantic Conception of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.

"Possible Kuhns in the History of Science: Anomalies of Incommensurable Paradigms." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 31, No. 1, March 2000, pp. 87-124.

"Objectivity, Relativism, and the Individual: A Role for a Post-Kuhnian History of Science." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 29, No. 3, September 1998, pp. 327-344.

"Colding, Ørsted, and the Meanings of Force." Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 28, Pt. 1, 1997 [published May 1998], pp. 1-138. [LINK to errata]

"Physics and Naturphilosophie: A Reconnaissance." History of Science, 35, Pt. 1, No. 107, March 1997, pp. 35-106. [LINK to errata]

"Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Matter." Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, No. 13/14, Winter/Spring 1992/1993 [published August 1994], pp. 27-29. [LINK]

"Reflections on the Study of Marginal Science." Newsletter for the History and Sociology of Marginality in Science, 2, No. 2, Fall 1990 [published December 1991], pp. 1-3. [LINK]

"'Why Are You a Vegetarian?' On the Historicity of Becoming vs. the Rationality of Being and Other Practical Matters." Mad River: A Journal of Essays, No. 2, Spring 1991, pp. 5-10. [LINK] [LINK to errata]

"Teleology with Regrets." Annals of Science, 47, No. 3, May 1990, pp. 291-300. Essay review of Timothy Lenoir, The Strategy of Life: Teleology and Mechanics in Nineteenth-Century German Biology. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1989.

"What Should We Do with the Monster? Electromagnetism and the Psychosociology of Knowledge." In Everett Mendelsohn and Yehuda Elkana, eds., Sciences and Cultures: Anthropological and Historical Studies of the Sciences ("Sociology of the Sciences: A Yearbook," 5; Dordrecht & Boston: D. Reidel Publ. Co.), pp. 101-131. [LINK] [LINK to errata]

"Ampère, the Etherians, and the Oersted Connextion." British Journal for the History of Science, 13, Pt. 2, No. 44, July 1980, pp. 121-138. [LINK to errata]

"From Galvanism to Electrodynamics: The Transformation of German Physics and Its Social Context." Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, 9, 1978, pp. 63-159.

"Schweigger, Johann Salomo." In Charles C. Gillispie, ed., Dictionary of Scientific Biography (16 vols.; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970-1980), 12, 1975, pp. 253-255.

"Ohm, Georg Simon." Ibid., 10, 1974, pp. 186-194.

"La Rive, Charles-Gaspard de." Ibid., 8, 1973, pp. 37-39.

"La Rive, Arthur-Auguste de." Ibid., 8, 1973, pp. 35-37.

Book Reviews and Commentaries

Review of Michael Friedman and Alfred Nordmann, eds., The Kantian Legacy in Nineteenth-Century Science. Cambridge, Mass. & London: The MIT Press, 2006. British Journal for the History of Science, 41, Pt. 2, No. 149, June 2008, pp. 307-308. [LINK]

Review of Elizabeth Neswald, Thermodynamik als kultureller Kampfplatz: Zur Faszinationsgeschichte der Entropie, 1850-1915. Freiburg: Rombach Verlag, 2006. Isis, 99, No. 1, March 2008, pp. 204-205. [LINK]

Review of Friedrich Steinle, Explorative Experimente: Ampère, Faraday und die Ursprünge der Elektrodynamik. "Boethius," 50. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2005. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 28, No. 3, 2006 [published October 2007], pp. 460-462. [LINK]

Review of Iwan Rhys Morus, When Physics Became King. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 2005. Isis, 97, No. 2, June 2006, pp. 371-373. [LINK]

Review of Peter Machamer, Marcello Pera, and Aristides Baltas, eds., Scientific Controversies: Philosophical and Historical Perspectives. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Isis, 92, No. 3, September 2001, pp. 577-578. [LINK]

Review of Steve Fuller, Thomas Kuhn: A Philosophical History for Our Time. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Metascience, 10, No. 2, July 2001, pp. 164-171. Part of a review symposium with author's reply, pp. 160-179. Reprinted as "Steve Fuller and His Discontents," Social Epistemology, 17, Nos. 2 & 3, April-September 2003, pp. 135-137.

Review of Hans Christian Ørsted, Selected Scientific Works, ed. and trans. by Karen Jelved, Andrew D. Jackson, and Ole Knudsen. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. Isis, 90, No. 4, December 1999, pp. 819-820. [LINK]

Review of Frederick Amrine, ed., Goethe in the History of Science. 2 vols. New York [etc.]: Peter Lang, 1996. Isis, 88, No. 3, September 1997, pp. 547-548. [LINK]

Review of Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling, Ergänzungsband zu Werke Band 5 bis 9. Wissenschaftshistorischer Bericht zu Schellings naturphilosophischen Schriften 1797-1800 (= F. W. J. Schelling, Historisch-kritische Ausgabe, Reihe I: Werke, Ergänzungsband zu Band 5 bis 9). Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 1994. Isis, 87, No. 2, June 1996, pp. 366-367. [LINK]

Review of Kathryn M. Olesko, Physics as a Calling: Discipline and Practice in the Königsberg Seminar for Physics. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 1991. Physis. Rivista internazionale di storia della scienza, New Series, 29, No. 2, 1992, pp. 625-630.

Review of Marcello Pera, The Ambiguous Frog: The Galvani-Volta Controversy on Animal Electricity. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 23, No. 4, Spring 1993, pp. 796-798. [LINK]

Review of Stephen G. Brush, ed., History of Physics: Selected Reprints. College Park, Md.: American Association of Physics Teachers, 1988. Isis, 80, No. 301, March 1989, pp. 158-159. [LINK]

Review of Christa Jungnickel and Russell McCormmach, The Intellectual Mastery of Nature: Theoretical Physics from Ohm to Einstein. Vol. 1, "The Torch of Mathematics, 1800-1870." Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Annals of Science, 45, No. 1, January 1988, pp. 104-107.

"Open Peer Commentary" on Harry Redner's "Pathologies of Science." Social Epistemology: A Journal of Knowledge, Culture, and Policy, 1, No. 3, July-September 1987, pp. 255-257. [see also "Errata--Various"] [LINK]

Review of Luboš Novy, ed., Impact of Bolzano's Epoch on the Development of Science. "Acta historiae rerum naturalium necnon technicarum," Special Issue 13. Prague: Institute of Czechoslovak and General History of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, 1982. Annals of Science, 41, No. 6, November 1984, p. 593. [LINK]

Review of Enrico Bellone, A World on Paper: Studies on the Second Scientific Revolution, trans. by Mirella and Riccardo Giacconi. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1980. Physics Today, 37, No. 1, January 1984, pp. 89-90. [LINK]

Review of Immanuel Franksen, H. C. Ørsted: A Man of the Two Cultures. Birkerød: Strandbergs Forlag, 1981. Annals of Science, 39, No. 6, November 1982, p. 609. [LINK]

Review of Geoffrey N. Cantor and Michael J. S. Hodge, eds., Conceptions of Ether: Studies in the History of Ether Theories 1740-1900. Cambridge, UK [etc.]: Cambridge University Press, 1981. Science, 216, No. 4547, 14 May 1982, pp. 725-726. [LINK]

Review of Klaus Bonik et al., Materialistische Wissenschaftsgeschichte: Naturtheorie und Entwicklungsdenken, ed. by Helmut Bien et al. "Argument-Sonderband," AS 54. Berlin: Argument-Verlag, 1981. Isis, 73, No. 267, June 1982, p. 281. [LINK]

Review of Hans Niels Jahnke and Michael Otte, eds., Epistemological and Social Problems of the Sciences in the Early Nineteenth Century. Dordrecht & Boston: D. Reidel Publ. Co., 1981. Annals of Science, 39, No. 2, March 1982, pp. 193-198. [LINK]

Review of Kurt-R. Biermann, Alexander von Humboldt. "Biographien hervorragender Naturwissenschaftler, Techniker und Mediziner," 47. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1980. Annals of Science, 39, No. 1, January 1982, pp. 89-91. [LINK]

Public Talks, Seminars, and Colloquia

"Formation of Consensus around the Concepts of Energy and Energy Conservation during the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century." Historisches Seminar Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, 13 January 2010.

"Hat Mayer die Erhaltung der Energie entdeckt?" The inaugural lecture in the "Robert Mayer Lecture" series at the science center Experimente in Heilbronn, Germany, 12 January 2010. [LINK] A translation of "Did Robert Mayer Discover the Conservation of Energy?" [LINK]

"What in Truth Divides Historians and Philosophers of Science?" Conference "Do Historians and Philosophers of Science Have Anything to Say to Each Other?" Program in History and Philosophy of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Duke University, 24 March 2007.

"Creating Facts: The Forms and Functions of Scientific Discoveries." Department of Philosophy, University of South Carolina, 9 April 2004.

"Ørsted's Presentation of Others'--and His Own--Work." International Symposium on H. C. Ørsted and the Romantic Legacy, Harvard University, 11 May 2002.

"The Legacy of Thomas Kuhn, Inside and Out." Keynote address at conference "Final Answers? Science, Scholarship, and the Legacies of Thomas S. Kuhn," State University of New York at Oswego, 7 April 2001.

"The Form and Function of Scientific Discoveries." Dibner Library Lecture, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, D. C., 16 November 2000.

"Energy Conservation Reconsidered." Informal colloquium, Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 25 May 2000.

"The Reconstruction of Scientific Knowledge: From Personal Conviction to Collective Acceptance." Colloquium, Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 5 October 1999.

"Possible Kuhns in the History of Science: Anomalies of Incommensurable Paradigms." Symposium on "The Legacy of Thomas S. Kuhn," Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 21 November 1997.

"Are Spirits the Untouchables of Academia?" UNCG Women's Studies conference, "Tensions and Transformations: Reflections on Women's Studies, 15 March 1997.

Informal presentation at a Triangle Workshop in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology on "Kuhn Reconsidered: A Discussion among Disciplines," Duke University, 11 October 1996.

"Colding, Ørsted, and the Conservation of Energy." Tuesday Colloquium Series, National Museum of American History, Washington, D. C., 13 June 1995.

Objectivity, Relativism, and the Individual: A Role for the History of Science." History of Science Society annual meeting, New Orleans, session on "Reconstructing Scientific Revolutions: Thomas S. Kuhn's Philosophy of Science," 14 October 1994.

"Objectivity, Relativism, and the Individual: A Role for the History of Science." Triangle Workshop in the History of Science, Duke University, 30 September 1994. (Same as the foregoing.)

"Physics and Naturphilosophie: A Reconnaissance." Symposium on "German Medicine and Science in the Era of Romanticism, 1780-1830," Yale University, 23 April 1994.

"Objectivity, Relativism, and the Individual: A Role for a Feminist History of Science." Women's Studies Research Series, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 12 April 1994.

"The Medical Context to Robert Mayer's Formulation of the Conservation of Energy." North Carolina Medical History Group, Bailey, N. C., 1 October 1993.

"The Physiological Context of Robert Mayer's Conception of Force." Section of History of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, 11 September 1992.

"The Status of the Vital Force in the Transformation of German Physiology around 1840." Triangle Workshop in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Duke University, 24 January 1992.

"Robert Mayer and Naturphilosophie: Historiography versus History." Center for the Study of Science in Society, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, 20 November 1991.

"The Role of Analogy in Scientific Theory Construction: Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy." Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry, Philadelphia, 7 March 1990.

"The Crystallization of Meaning: Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy." History of Science Society annual meeting, Gainesville, Fla., 27 October 1989.

"Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Matter." 41st Southeast Regional Meeting, American Chemical Society, Winston-Salem, N. C., 10 October 1989.

"What Was the 'Conservation of Energy' to Robert Mayer?" Conversazione in the History of Science, National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, N. C., 8 February 1988.

"Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy: Philosophy and Physiology Reconsidered." History of Science Department, Harvard University, 15 May 1987.

"On Understanding Romantic Science: The Indispensability and Illegitimacy of Typological Analysis." Philological Association of the Carolinas annual meeting, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2 March 1984.

Moderated a session on "Goethe and the Sciences of Nature" and delivered a prepared commentary on the three papers read, History of Science Society annual meeting, Norwalk, Conn., 30 October 1983.

"André-Marie Ampère and the Development of Electrodynamics." Program on Science, Technology, and Society, Department of Physics, and Applied Mathematics Seminar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 21 November 1980.

"André-Marie Ampère and the Development of Electrodynamics: A Case Study in the Dynamics of Problem Solving and Theory Building in Science." History of Science Society annual meeting, Toronto, 17 October 1980. (Wholly different from the foregoing.)

"Is Science for Real? Or, Nothing Succeeds Like Success." Greensboro Chapter of Sigma Xi fall meeting, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 26 September 1979.

"What Should We Do with the Monster? Electromagnetism and the Psychosociology of Knowledge." Triangle Conversazione on the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, N. C., 22 October 1979. (Revised from the following.)

"What Should We Do with the Monster? Electromagnetism and the Psychosociology of Knowledge." Joint Atlantic Seminar in the History of the Physical Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 7 April 1979.

"What Should We Do with the Monster? Electromagnetism and the Sociology of Knowledge." Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge University, 26 January 1978. (An earlier version of the foregoing.)

"The Problem of Ampère and the Oersted Connection." History of Science Society annual meeting, Dallas, 30 December 1977.

"Conceptual and Generational Change in German Physics: The Case of Electricity, 1800-1846." Center for History of Science and Technology, University of California at Berkeley, 18 April 1975.

Unpublished Works

"Introduction--1980" (41 pp.) [LINK] and "Index" (17 pp.) [LINK] prepared for the planned but never achieved reprinting of my dissertation in the Arno Press series, "History of Physics, 18000-1950," ed. by Gerald Holton and Katherine Sopka.

"Historical Knowing and the Ethics of Human Relationships." February 2010. [LINK]

Grants, Awards, and Honors

History of Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society, Outstanding Paper Award for best paper published in the Bulletin for the History of Chemistry during the previous three years ("Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Matter"), received April 2001 for 1995 award year ($250).

Awarded a UNCG Research Assignment at half pay for 1999/2000 ("The Reconstruction of Scientific Knowledge: From Personal Conviction to Collective Acceptance").

Dean's Merit Award for Research and Publication, October 1998 ($900).

Nominated for a College Teaching Excellence Award, Spring 1997.

Awarded a grant from the American Scandinavian Foundation, Former Fellows Fund, for the period 17 July to 4 August 1995 for research in Copenhagen on the project "Oersted, Colding, and the Meanings of Force in Nineteenth-Century Physics" ($2,500).

Awarded a grant from the Dibner Library Resident Scholar Program, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, for June 1995 for research in Washington, D. C., on the project "Oersted, Colding, and the Meanings of Force in Nineteenth-Century Physics" ($1,500).

Awarded a travel grant for research in Philadelphia Libraries from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry, March 1990 ($400).

Awarded a UNCG Research Assignment at half pay for 1988/89 for the project "Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy: The Crystallization of Meaning."

Awarded a National Science Foundation research grant for 1988/89 for the project "Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy: The Crystallization of Meaning" ($30,000).

Named a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, 1986/87.

Awarded a National Science Foundation research grant for spring semester 1987 for the project "Julius Robert Mayer's Route to Energy Conservation: Naturphilosophie and Physiology Reconsidered" ($26, 887). (In making the award, the NSF inaccurately changed the name of my project to "Simultaneous Discovery in Science: The Case of Conservation of Energy.")

Awarded a UNCG Research Assignment at full pay for fall semester 1986 for the project "The Alleged Influence of Naturphilosophie on Julius Robert Mayer's Formulation of the Principle of the Conservation of Energy."

Recognized by the UNCG Association for Women Students for commitment to educational equity, 15 February 1982.

Elected member of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society; initiated on 23 April 1980.

Awarded a UNCG Excellence Fund Faculty Summer Fellowship for summer 1980 for the project "André-Marie Ampère and the Development of Electrodynamics: A Case Study in the Dynamics of Problem Solving and Theory Building in Science" ($1,500).

Other Professional Activities

Advisory editor, Isis, 1997-2000.

Refereed National Science Foundation grant proposals (1981; 1982; 1983; 1984; 1985, 2x; 1988, 2x; 1989, 2x; 1990, 2x; 1992; 1994; 2001; 2003; 2004; 2005).

Refereed National Endowment for the Humanities grant proposals (1985, 1989, 1990, 1992, 2012).

Refereed articles for Annals of Science (2001); Bulletin for the History of Chemistry (2004); Foundations of Science (2020); Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences (2018); History of Science (1985); Isis (1982; 1994, 2x; 1996, 2x; 1997, 3x; 1998, 2x; 1999; 2002); Journal of the History of Ideas (1999); Osiris (1987, 2x); Physis (1992); Social Studies of Science (1985); Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (1998; 1999; 2000, 2x; 2002; 2005, 2x; 2007; 2009); Synthese (2002).

Refereed book manuscript for University of California Press (1992) and University of Chicago Press (2002).

Refereed book proposal for Oxford University Press (2011).

Prepared reader's report and translation report for Princeton University Press (1994, 1996).

Refereed project proposal for Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Cambridge, Mass. (1995).

Served on "Outstanding Paper Award" committee of the History of Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Socity (2003; 2004, as chair; 2005).Advisory editor, Isis, 1997-2000.