Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Foster responds

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxx>]

> At 10:11 AM 6/29/01 -0700, you wrote:
> >Careful Jim, next thing you know you'll be reading Barbara
Herrnstein
> >Smith and Bruno Latour! :-)
>
> I've never heard of those folks. Who are they?
============

Jim,

Latour is "key figure" in the sociology of scientific
knowledge/science studies debate. He started as an anthropologist and
with a guy named Steve Woolgar decided to use anthro methods to
investigate a scientific laboratory. Their work launched some already
very contentious debates within the philosophy of science;
realism/constructivism/instrumentalism in a somewhat different
direction by looking very closely at how scientists actually go about
doing research, gathering data, disclosing the existence of entities
[they focused on molecular biology] etc.

Herrnstein-Smith wrote a book called "Belief and Resistance" which
explores the whole absolutist/relativist dynamic in
philosophy/science/literature/speecha act/discourse/political theory.
She was the one who launched the counter-"attack" on Lynne Cheney's
"attack" on Stanford's humanties program[s]. Here's the table of
contents from her book:

 Table of Contents
 Preface
1 The Unquiet Judge: Activism without Objectivism in Law and Politics
1
2 Making (Up) the Truth: Constructivist Contributions 23
3 Belief and Resistance: A Symmetrical Account 37
4 Doing without Meaning 52
5 Unloading the Self-Refutation Charge 73
6 The Skeptic's Turn: A Performance of Contradiction 88
7 Arguing with Reason 105
 Appendix: Webs of Reason 123
8 Microdynamics of Incommensurability: Philosophy of Science Meets
Science Studies 125
 Notes 153
 Index 213


> The late Richard Feynman was a great scientist and I find the quote
in my
> signature line (see below) to be a very clear statement of one
aspect of my
> philosophy. That doesn't mean I agree with everything he did or
said.
>
> Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx & http:/bellarmine.lmu.edu/~JDevine
> "Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself." -- Richard
Feynman.
========
Particularly troubling was how he, unwittingly, provided cover for the
bumbling of understanding the Challenger tragedy. See Philip
Mirowski's essay on the issue in "Natural Images in Economic Thought"
[a great book btw]

Ian
"Love is a machine without a problem" -- Talking Heads