A. Lentin (Open University), Shcherbatov and Science
While our understanding of several aspects of Shcherbatov's oeuvre has grown considerably over the last quarter-century, his interest in science has been almost totally ignored. Yet this interest eminently merits attention in the current reassessment of this important thinker. Shcherbatov's celebrated library contained numerous scientific titles. He owned a 'natural history cabinet' and 'physical machines'. He translated (from the French) Benjamin Martin's scientific primer, The Philosophical Grammar. He attended scientific lectures at the Academy of Sciences, of which he was himself an honorary member.
Shcherbatov's scientific expertise emerges mainly from his essays О способах преподавания разные науки and О пользе наук (1785/86), especially the former, which includes a 12-page section on scientific education. His curriculum includes instruction in physics, chemistry, mechanics, hydraulics, hydrostatics, atmospherics, natural history, anatomy and astronomy. His pedagogical system is based on a combination of theory and practice, guided readings and experimentation. As a general textbook, Shcherbatov recommends Nollet's well-known Leçons de physique experimentale supplemented by other recommended reading. He emphasises the teaching value of bringing out interconnections and analogies between different branches of science. He also keeps a critical eye on his reading-matter, pointing out alternatives where he considers the standard works to be defective.
Shcherbatov was an amateur, a populariser of science, not an original thinker. He was, however, for an amateur, remarkably well-informed and up-to-date in his knowledge, for example, his familiarity with recent discoveries in gas. He was a keen astronomer. He was also among the first in Russia to be inoculated. Shcherbatov's scientific interests serve to refute Herzen's now grossly outdated categorisation of him as essentially backward-looking.