Erotic Economies of Science

Hertha Firnberg Position T 58 Erotic Economies of Science Waktraud ERNST 27.06.2000 Erotic economies of science run as a productive and reproductive moment, as explanans, and explanation in processes of knowledge, as a changing and changeable variable through the european history of science and philosophy. During the 19th century, when modem natural sciences were established and professionalized and when the ideal of romantic love got replaced by the ideal of civil marriage, fundamental changes in the cultural meanings of erotics and knowledge seem to have taken place, which are effective until today. While there have been investigations into the changes of the meaning of knowledge and also studies of the changes of intimate relations, no thorough research has been undertaken into the connection between these two social fields. This can be done at best in focussing on the concept of erotic economies. In my project I want to investigate into the processes of erotization of epistemic relations as well as into the naturalization of erotic relations, which take place in epistemologies and treaties of the natural sciences. My hypothesis is that these processes are interwoven in multiple ways, which require systematic clarification. I am especially interested in studying the sensitivity of the various changing erotic relations `in regard to power differentials and definitions of gender and sex. This investigation into the erotic economies of science could lead to a more comprehensive understanding of scientific knowledge production in its cultural continuity and change.

Far from the widespread assumption that natural sciences are void of humanity and social life, this study shows that from the Enlightenment until the late ninteenth century, the investigation into natural entities were closely linked to issues deeply embedded in social life. More concretely, theories addressing the attraction of bodies and the generation of life in a natural, nonhuman realm were interwoven in multiple ways with a vivid discourse of erotic inter-human relations and in a political economy of population. My work focuses on the following issues: How were concepts of the erotic in scientific theories interwoven with erotic concepts in their socio-cultural context? Which natural relations were represented in which historical contexts as erotic relations? To what extent did conceptions of the erotic in the natural sciences correspond with those in a larger cultural framework and where were there the contradictions? How were relations of power and domination effective in concepts of erotic desire and attraction? In which ways were erotic relations, represented in scientific treatises of nature and the universe, subject to standardization, stigmatization and pathologization? In this study, I analyzed scientific theories of chemical elements, plants, and animals made between the mid eighteenth and late nineteenth centuries, in terms of their impact on the definition of erotic desire, erotic relations, and practices as natural. I thus focussed on theories of generation, theories of chemical affinities, and theories of evolution. It was possible to show that the question of the forces underlying erotic desire, erotic relations and practices has played a central role in these theories and also in conjectural theories of civilization since the Enlightenment. These forces were described as organic forces of attraction which - in the end - were beyond explanation, which means that in earlier accounts their outcome and duration were seen as not predictable. In later accounts, especially in Charles Darwin`s account of evolution, erotic attraction followed natural mechanisms of selection, which could be predicted and described in terms of natural laws. In this way, theories of nature contributed arguments used to distinguish legitimate erotic relations from illegitimate relations and natural from unnatural ones. Moreover, some erotic practices were legitimized by the argument of being functional for the generation of new life or reproduction of the species, whereas others, especially masturbation and same sex relations were regarded as problematic. I investigated the history of science as cultural history, insofar as I understand scientific knowledge production to be situated in a dynamic multilateral exchange with other socio-cultural processes. With my concentration on an analysis of processes of naturalization of erotic relations I hope to contribute to a more comprehensive project of historical epistemology. Therefore, methodological clarification was necessary not only for particular accounts in the history of science, but also for "historical epistemology" as a research program. This research project reveals the significance of erotic economies of science for the plausibility and success of scientific knowledge production. The ways in which theories of nature gain their logic from erotic economies became evident. With this investigation I want to contribute to a philosophy of the natural sciences, which is able to embrace and relate epistemic and social change.