XX Seminário Internacional de
FILOSOFIA E HISTÓRIA DA CIÊNCIA
Tecnociência, cultura e sociedade
De 23 de agosto a 27 de agosto de 2010
Participantes
Alfred Nordmann
Institut für Philosophie
Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany
Researcher of The GOTO-project
Anne Marcovich
Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, France
Pesquisadora Visitante Fapesp
Astrid Schwarz
Institut für Philosophie
Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany
Researcher of The GOTO-project
Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent
Université Paris OUEST/IUF, France
Researcher of The GOTO-project
Hugh Lacey
Swarthmore College – EUA
Terry Shinn
Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, France
Pesquisador Visitante Fapesp
Patrocínio
Projeto Temático Fapesp 07/53867-0
Departamento de Filosofia/FFLCH/USP
Associação Filosófica Scientiae Studia
Fapesp
Programação
1o. Seminário – 23 de agosto
Alfred Nordmann
Technoscientific objectivity
The GOTO-project (The genesis and ontology of technoscientific objects) proposes that the differences between science and technoscience are more clearly discernible on the level of the objects of research than on the level of the researchers themselves, i.e., the subjects of research. In this presentation, I want to explore how the relation of subjects and objects is conceptualized in notions of scientific objectivity. This serves as background for a proposal of how one might conceive technoscientific objectivity. Scientific objectivity resides in propositions about objects that do not show traces of contingency and personal subjectivity – though propositions appear in the sphere of knowledge with its knowing subjects, they are construed as thing-like objects for deliberation. Technoscientific objectivity resides in the demonstration of an artifact, device, or controlled process – and though artifacts appear in the sphere of objects, they are construed as invested with human subjectivity, as agents.
References
Nordmann, A. Collapse of distance: epistemic strategies of science and technoscience. Danish Yearbook of Philosophy, 41, p. 7-34, 2006.
_____. Enhancing material nature. In: Wickson, F. & Kjolberg, K. (Ed.). Nano meets macro: social perspectives on nanoscale sciences and technologies. Panstanford, forthcoming.
_____. Was wissen die Technowissenschaften? In: Gethmann, F. (Ed.). Lebenswelt und Wissenschaft. Kolloquiumsband des XXI. Deutschen Kongresses für Philosophie. Hamburg: Meiner, forthcoming.
2o. Seminário – 24 de agosto
Anne Marcovich e Terry Shinn
Nanoscale research in historical and sociological perspective: the concentration/extension dynamic
This presentation deals with two key aspects of nanoscale research dynamics: (1) combinatorial associations which were already discussed in our first talk of new disciplinarity, (2) the double movement of concentration and extension.
(1) The origins and evolution of nanoscale research exhibits innumerable combinatorial configurations between materials, instruments, fields of research, teams from different laboratories, and entails a jumble of concepts which will be described in a historical perspective. Such combinatorial associations have been linked to main oppositions: in the late xixth beginning of xxth century, the deterministic understanding of the physical world gave way to stochastic interpretation of phenomena as exemplified in thermodynamics, non-linearity and brownian movement. More recently a deterministic perception of phenomena has, in the case of nanoscale research, re-emerged. In 1959 Feynman, in his famous lecture suggested the horizon of undertaking atomic and molecular scale engineering. Though such practices admittedly had no grounding in the present understanding of atomic and molecular dynamics, he pointed out that engineers had long managed to control material in the absence of detailed knowledge. This position introduced the theme of control which nicely complemented the earlier mentioned paradigm of determinism. Lastly, in nanoscale research these combinatorial associations have been coupled to a massive acceleration in publications and perspectives. The relationship between the tide of combinatorial associations and rich public financing of nanoscale research will be explored.
(2) The double movement of concentration and extension describes the dynamic between two poles: concentration refers to strong collaborative or synergistic interactions between teams, themes and projects in a very dense space and in a relatively brief temporality to solve well defined problems. One may speak here of the interpenetration of groups and topics, and of a reduced importance of contingency. The horizon of expectations is circumscribed, to use Luhmann’s terms. Extension refers to a far flung multiplication of publics, scientific and non-scientific, economic and non-economic of nanoscale technology and vistas where the environment is paramount and strongly influences intellectual orientations. Here, the terminus of a research project frequently functions as the origin of a much broader expansion. A classical example of the dynamic interaction between concentration and extension will be offered in the trajectory of Dip-pen nanolithography.
References:
Nordman, B. D. et al. Discovering the nanoscale. Amsterdam / Washington: IOS Press, 2004.
Marcovich A. & Shinn T. (2010) “Socio/intellectual Patterns in Nanoscale Research Feynman Nanotechnology Prize Laureates, 1993-2007. Social Science Information, 4 (forthcoming).
Marcovich A. & Shinn T. “Instrument Research, Tools and the Knowledge Enterprise 1999-2009. Birth and Development of Dip-Pen Nanolithography” Science Technology And Human Values(Submitted).
3o. Seminário – 25 de agosto
Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent
Nanotechnology: Governance à la française
The French government launched a National NanoInitiative which resulted in the creation of a few big centers around the territory. Research programs funded by the French research agency include social science studies on nanotechnology. In Grenoble the creation of Minatec raised a strong opposition of an activists’s group of ‘simple citizens’. Consequently efforts were made to put nanotechnology in the public arena. This paper will describe the various attempts at initiating a technological democracy and try to identify why they meet a strong resistance.
4o. Seminário – 26 de agosto
Hugh Lacey
Is the neutrality of scientific research a viable ideal today?
In many areas of scientific research, (what I have called) impartiality is an obligatory ideal. However, claims made about the risks of technoscientific innovations can rarely be accepted in accordance with impartiality. Endorsements of such claims should draw on empirical research, but they also reflect (ethical/social) value judgments in various ways. A condition on the legitimacy of the implementation of an innovation is that ‘the innovation occasions no serious risks’ be soundly endorsed, and this requires evidence that the likelihood of this claim being false is very low. How low is ‘sufficiently low’? There is no general answer, but only case-by-case answers that take into account the moral salience of the harm that is risked: the greater the moral salience of the harm that is risked, the greater should be the likelihood that it will not actually occur. Endorsements depend on judgments about the moral salience of harms, and clearly they will vary with the value-outlooks of those making them. Often (and I will illustrate this) scientists give the same cognitive status to endorsements that they give to knowledge claims accepted in accordance with impartiality – but this is inconsistent with impartiality. I will suggest that the commitment to the ideal of neutrality – understood in terms of ‘evenhandedness‘ – is needed to counter systematic violations of impartiality.
5o. Seminário – 27 de agosto
Astrid Schwarz
Experimentation culturally and scientifically perceived
For a long time, experimentation was a scientific method and habit that happened exclusively inside the walls of a laboratory. Today, experiments happen everywhere and they are performed by everybody; experiments are performed in ‘open spaces’: artists work with genetic engineering and ambient intelligence environments, scientists propose large scale-experimentation in order to prevent or at least slow down climatic change, in politics governmental strategies are framed as a collective experimentation. Further concepts are in circulation that seek to label these various experimental constellations, including real life or real world experiments, experimental installations or innovations, adaptive or experimental management, and prototyping. This rather broad conceptual map of experimentation will be explored in more detail from a perspective of the philosophy of science and of cultural studies. The first one considers a particular ecological model and raises questions about the epistemic and ontological qualities of a specific field experiment that abolishes the carefully maintained separation between an experimental system and the natural system. The second one will focus on the cultural phenomenon of "greenness" perceived as a collective experimentation with "ecotechnologies" mainly in European societies.
References
Schwarz, A. E.: Building on borders: constructing ecological knowledge. EASST Review, 25, 2006. S. 1-6. <http://www.easst.net/review/oct2006/schwarz>.
_____. Dirty and purified places - comparing lab and field studies. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 2008 (forthcoming)
_____. Green dreams of reason. Green nanotechnology between visions of excess and control. NanoEthics, 3 (2009), pp. 109-118, 2009. Disponível em: <http://www.citeulike.org/ article/4944676>.
_____. Rising above the horizon: visual and conceptual modulation of place and space. Augenblick, 46, p. 36-61, 2010.
_____. Baron Jakob von Uexküll (1864 – 1944): Das Experiment als Ordnungsprinzip in der Biologie. In: Schwarz, A. E. & A. Nordmann (Ed.). Philosophierende Forscher. Freiburg: Alber 2009, fortcoming.
Nordmann, A. & Schwarz, A. E. Lure of the „yes“: the seductive power of technoscience. In: Kaiser, M. et al. (Ed.). Governing future technologies. Nanotechnology and the rise of an assessment regime. Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook 27. Dordrecht: Springer, 2010, p. 255-77.
Schwarz, A. E. & Krohn, W. An experimental approach through the concept of experiment: probing the epochal break. In: Radder, H.; Nordmann, A. & Schiemann, G. (Ed.). 2008 (forthcoming).
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Organização:
Grupo Temático Estudos de Filosofia e História da
Ciência
Apoio Institucional:
USP e Fapesp
