A Presentation :

“The Hungarian Phenomenon, or: the Social Construction of Genius Scientists”

by
Professor Hideto Nakajima

Department of History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science and Technology
Tokyo Institute of Technology

Date:	22nd Feb (Fri), 4.00p.m.
Location:	Blk ADM, Level 7 (USP)

The Hungarian Phenomenon is a remarkable historical occurrence.  Since the beginning of the twentieth century, numerous talented figures have emerged from Hungary, a comparatively small country: examples include Nobel laureates such as John von Neumann, George de Hevesy, Albert Szent-Györgyi, as well as epoch-making contemporary businessmen like George Soros.   The phenomenon itself has long been recognised abroad, for example by Laura Fermi, wife of Italian Nobel Prize winner Enrico Fermi, who, in her 1968 book, credited Hungarian emigrants to the United States with extraordinary contributions to science and technology.  Nowadays, the phenomenon is much better known to the world by the publication, in English, of George Marx’s Voice of Martians.
            Prof. Nakajima’s talk starts with a definition of the term ‘Hungarian Phenomenon in Science’, followed by an outline of the background to the speaker’s interest in the phenomenon, which has much to do with the understanding of creativity in science.  Creativity could be analysed from the standpoint of the intrinsic nature of human beings, a given culture, and so on.  However, Nakajima suggests, the fact that the centre of scientific creativity has moved around different countries throughout history strongly suggests that scientific creativity is conditioned by historical and accidental social settings of the relevant regions.
            What, then, were these conditions in the case of the Hungarian Phenomenon?  George Marx claimed that we should pay attention to the high standards of secondary (‘Gymnasium’) Education in Budapest, to the importance of mathematical and scientific contests in Hungary, and to the role of the urban Jewish population, especially in Budapest.  But Nakajima will argue that we should also analyse the phenomenon in the context of German science at the periphery.  He will also analyse the impact of economic development of Hungary in the latter half of the nineteenth century and its sudden collapse at beginning of the twentieth century.  The total understanding of the social setting could have important implications to the policy to foster scientific creativity.