Historians of science have recognised that scientists use narrative in many different fields and different domains - not just in the most obvious domains of the natural historical sciences, or in development stories, but in accounting for reactions, in describing mechanisms, in making sense out of simulations, in piecing together complex social and ecological arrangements, and so forth. Historians have also paid attention to the ways narratives feature in how scientific work is communicated. This symposium investigates how scientists use narrative not just to structure their practices (of hypothesising, observing, and inferring), but in constituting the objects of their science. At this deeper level, we see how scientists make use of narrative in the realm of concept formation: that is, in framing, expounding, clarifying, justifying, and then developing, the concepts they create and use. Our research suggests that such narratives of concept formation are broadly as well as deeply based: they may be built upon empirical research problems, developed out of theoretical puzzles, emerge from attempts to make causal sense out of events, or to account for strange phenomena.
The individual symposium papers consider the role of narrative in two late 19th century cases: Darwin’s use of narrative in developing the theoretical concepts of evolution and economists’ use of narratives to characterize their competing concepts of utility; and two mid-20th century examples where narratives are involved in developing concepts of gene action and the taxonomies of neuroscience.
