Abstract
This paper focuses on Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926) as an expert on Science of Work, who attempted to illuminate the phenomenon of workers' fatigue around 1900. At the turn of the century, fatigue was recognized as one of the immanent problems of the industrial society, which was to be resolved through scientific research such as laboratory investigation and new techniques of measurement. The problem of workers' fatigue led to the creation of a new field of expertise in which science and politics intersected (Anson Rabinbach) and Kraepelin was a central figure involved in this endeavor. By examining Kraepelin’s texts on fatigue-related problems and some related texts by Max Weber (1864-1920), his contemporary who wrote a comprehensive essay on Kraepelin’s fatigue studies, the present paper aims to reveal the rationality on which Kraepelin’s scientific practices were grounded and the political dimension they were connected to.
