Let me be more specific than the title admits. What exactly is this conceptual anachronism of which I speak; and why is it every historian’s nightmare? Put simply, it is the placement of concepts that did not exist in the period that the historian tries to apply them to. Now, the theme of some of my more recent blog posts has been that the importance of recognizing the discipline of “history and philosophy of science” as an autonomous, separate field of study. Continue reading