Project description
Understanding how philology worked as a science in 19th century Europe
Philology once reigned as ‘queen of the sciences’. In 19th-century Europe, as the research university was founded and modern disciplines were formed, the study of text and language became the premier model for building knowledge. The EU-funded project PhiSci will explore how philology worked as a system of knowledge-production, one that claimed to be universal in its approach to the great diversity of cultural artifacts and the human past. Through its new account of philology from the late 1700s to early 1900s, the project will trace the transformation of infrastructure, media, collaboration, and techniques into seemingly stable knowledge and knowledge communities. PhiSci therefore aims to show how philology projected both scientific unity and scientific authority.
Objective
Philology once defined what it meant to be scientific – and it may yet once again. Increasingly a broad array of scholars using digital methods cite the historical accomplishments of philology as a model for systematic study around unwieldy and heterogenous textual corpuses. Despite this renewed interest, there is still no systemic account for the huge range of activity and aegis, data and networks, that propelled philology to its status as a model or even the 'queen of science' in C19 Europe. In drawing on history of science, media studies, information studies and diverse textual methods, this project offers that holistic account of how and why philology as a 'science in the making' achieved such extraordinary success. It articulates the widely sought yet unachieved bridge that would permit rigorous interdisciplinary exchange between philology – its historical and contemporary iterations – and present-day endeavors in the fields of digital humanities, critical data studies, infrastructure studies and de/post-colonial studies. PhiSci takes philology seriously as a science and gives it the kind of treatment that has dominated history of science for the last generation. Pioneering a novel account of philology from the French Revolution to First World War, it pursues a central question: How did local ensembles of protocols, representation, instrumentation and cooperation consolidate into robust programs for the genesis of stable knowledge and knowledge communities? It gives special attention to heterogeneity and universality in key concepts and practices and to physical aspects like media and infrastructure: elements undervalued or rarely grasped in terms of their epistemic work for producing data, evidence and facts. PhiSci will thus explain how philology operated as a relational system that – in the diversity of its data and perpetual flux in its projects and personnel –projected unity that enabled it to wield a scientific authority greater than the sum of its parts.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences data science
- humanities history and archaeology history
- social sciences political sciences political transitions revolutions
- social sciences sociology anthropology science and technology studies
- humanities languages and literature literature studies history of literature
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2021-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
9000 GENT
Belgium
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.