ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 continues where chapter 1 left off, with the question of whether the discourse of virtue was also used outside of the humanities, in the natural sciences. Focusing on three University of Göttingen professors and their posthumous reputations, the chapter shows that virtue talk was more dominant in history than in chemistry and physics. Nonetheless, scholars in all three fields invoked notions of virtue at moments when the defining features of their scholarly personae were perceived as being under pressure. This shows that the discourse of virtue could serve as a means for taking sides in debates about such fundamental issues as the proper relation between academy and industry or the relative importance of source criticism in relation to writing (Darstellung).
