Narratives and comparisons : adversaries or allies in understanding science Frontmatter Contents Introduction Does Narrative Matter Historical Narrative versus Comparative Description On the Narrative Order of Experimentation The Flower People of Shanidar Narrating and Comparing in the Organization of Research Projects Seeing Comparing Narrating Narrating Art History Authors As a powerful tool in the production of knowledge comparing plays a crucial part in the sciences and the humanities. This volume explores the relationship between comparing and narrating in epistemic practices and clarifies the ways in which narratives enable or impede practices of comparing. It takes into account related activities such as measuring and classifying modeling establishing norms and categories as well as organizing and popularizing knowledge to analyze the ambivalent relationship between narratives scientific explanation and understanding. The contributions bring out the epistemic role of narratives and elucidate how narratives are connected to comparisons and scientific explanations. Publisher description