ABSTRACT
The process of scientific discovery is, for the most part, exclusively approached from the perspective of its scientific content, logical structure, or sociological processes (social epistemology). Undeniably, these approaches are not without merit. However, the rich psychological and social context of such discoveries is too often considered utterly unrelated or merely incidental to the scientific and logical, and therefore, underappreciated if not neglected. This paper attempts to look at the process of Dimitri Mendeleev’s discovery of the periodic table precisely from the underappreciated social and psychological dimensions. These include Mendeleev’s patriotic and pedagogical motivations, his conceptual development in light of his intellectual zeitgeist, his positivist trajectory revealing his philosophical commitments, the immediate conditions and circumstances of his discovery, his psychological processes and how they correspond to the representational devices he used, his thematic commitments and aesthetic ideals, and his personal and intellectual dispositions. Furthermore, an attempt is made to look at these dimensions not only in relation to the scientific and the logical, but also in relation to each other.
