Ars Longa, Vita Brevis: Collectivization of Knowledge

Since classical antiquity, gathering natural knowledge was a task meant for an individual. Renaissance natural historian Conrad GessnerConrad Gessner and astronomer Tycho BraheTycho Brahe also privileged the individual and private character of natural knowledge. Both scientists considered their research closed work to be passed on to grateful posterity, providing them with literary immortality. During the seventeenth century, it became clear that no individual experience could suffice to produce a reliable system of knowledge. Natural philosophers started to use several tropes and metaphors that were meant to express the insufficiency of ancient natural philosophy and a belief in the necessity of collaboration over generations. At the end of the seventeenth century, institutions such as the Académie des sciences and the Observatoire of Paris supported the development of collective epistemic practices, highlighting the fact that proper research of nature demanded an institutional background. The enduring institution could give the research long-term continuity, outlive the short lifetimes of the individuals, and preserve data, ideas, and theories in its registers. Thus, scientific knowledge was given a new collective bearer: humanity in general, and scientific institutions in particular.