ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the epistemological hierarchy around the middle of the nineteenth century in Sweden through efforts to mobilize support for natural science in scholarly periodicals. It is argued that scholarly communication was key to achieving legitimacy for natural science, but that such efforts were mitigated by a dominant view of the humanities in general and classical humanism in particular as more valuable to society. Tensions between natural science and classical humanism were expressed in negotiations of the nebulous concept of bildning – the Swedish equivalent of the German Bildung – and the article demonstrates how natural scientists tried to navigate its semantic usage and advocate the view that natural science could achieve the educational goals associated with classical humanism.
