On the Uses of the Category of Style in the History of Science
Résumé
In this article the author focuses on the uses of the notion of style in studies of science. Since the middle of the 1980s, the term "style" has become widely used by historians of science. A series of conferences on "national styles" or "local styles" of scientific research have already taken place. At the same time, the terms "styles of thinking," "styles of reasoning," and "styles of argumentation" have become widespread in the literature of the history of science. However, authors rarely give a precise definition of what they mean by style. In fact, historians of science have adopted the term because it expresses an important aspect of their research. The author further focuses on style taken as an interpretative category that is freely appropriated by historians of science. The author deals with a particular extension of the figurative use of the word style. The term has taken on a heterogeneous, even contradictory, set of meanings, depending on the kind of history of science. The epistemological use of the notion of style bears the traces of older debates on rhetoric, literary criticism, the philosophy of history, and the philosophy of art.