Technology, Science and Art
a Tribute toWin Labuda on the Occasion of
his 70th Birthday
Address held by Eckhard Schollmeyer* on the 28th of June 2008 in the
Institute of the History of Medicine and Science, University of Lübeck,
Germany
Introduction
Dear guests, dear Ms Labuda, dear Mr Labuda,
Today we are celebrating your 70th birthday, and with my tribute I would
like to honour your life’s work.
In biblical number symbolism the number 70 is the result of the multipli-
cation of the numbers 7 and 10. The 7 stands for “God’s providence and
wisdom“. The 10 represents “All of this time and world“. The number
seventy thus represents “all according to God’s wisdom and providence“.
According to Hebrew-Jewish tradition there are 70 nations (Genesis 10);
correspondingly Jesus sent out 70 disciples (Luke 10:1). All the souls of
the house of Jacob who came into Egypt, were threescore and ten, that is,
there were seventy (Genesis 46:27). Moses called 70 elders (Numbers
11:16). The Sanhedrin comprised 70 council members plus the head of
the council. For ancient oriental religions, such as in Babylon, numbers
have a mystical significance: In Babylonian number symbolism 70 is the
number of the completed cycle. [1]
I was granted the privilege of presenting a tribute illustrating your diverse
accomplishments. In my address you will certainly wish that I go into
your photographic, graphic and sculptural works and your essays on
current topics in art. Also, you probably expect that I refer to your
production of extraordinary sound documents. I also should go into your
research on the mechanics of wiper-based cleaning and your other work
regarding cleanroom technology issues. And finally, your entrepreneurial
skill should not remain unmentioned, for without your economic success
many of your achievements would probably not have been possible. How
can such a connection be drawn? Or to express this in a better way: On
which philosophical foundation can an observer like me understand this
life’s work? I hope that my approach in this tribute will do justice to your
work.
First, I would like to refer to the philosopher Salomon Maimon (1753-
1800): He strove to pursue philosophy as an intellectual unit combined
with mathematics and science. Behind this we can also see a rupture
with the interrelationship of mathematics and metaphysics avouched by
university philosophy. Maimon was an adherent to the philosophy of
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), i.e. also his Critique of Metaphysics, and
thus opposed the position of Moses Mendelssohn’s (1729-1786)
university philosophy. After Maimon’s early death in 1800, this approach
was not pursued further. Rather, accelerated by rapid progress in
cognitive science, a specialisation of mathematics and scientific disci-
plines took place [2,3].
1
1 - Professor Dr. Eckhard Schollmeyer,
Lübeck, 2008
