“Intelligence” as Topos of Sociological Debates around 1900: “Scientific Journalism” and Object Formation in Social Sciences

• Applicant: Dr. Aleksei Lokhmatov
• Subject Area: History of Science
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 497393760

The project deals with the sociological debates about "Intelligence (the intelligentsia/Intelligenz)" as a social stratum, which took place in the German Empire around 1900. From a contemporary perspective, “intelligence” or “the intelligentsia” is generally understood as a cultural and social concept of Russian or Eastern European origin. In fact, the term was used in German-speaking countries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries not only in journalistic debates but also in sociological discourse. Parallel to the development of eugenics and intelligence tests, "intelligence (Intelligenz)" as a social stratum rose to become a central category of the social sciences in Germany around 1900 and nearly lost its relevance for the vocabulary of German social scientists by the end of the 20th century. The aim of this project is to trace this development. The aim is to show how "intelligence (Intelligenz)" became an object of social research in the multilingual intellectual landscape of the German Empire and which factors contributed to the fact that a category that initially described the mental abilities of a person could become an analytical instrument of the social sciences. Additionally, the project deals with the question of which ideas of society and social structure made it possible to use this category in sociological practice. Thus, this project will take a historical-epistemological perspective rather than a conceptual-historical one and will link the approaches of the history of science to the history of journalism. In contrast to the existing research on "intelligence (Intelligenz)" as a social stratum, the project will develop a historical approach to the emergence of this scientific category and thus conduct a critical examination of the sociological epistemology of “intelligence”.

• DFG Programme: WBP Position