Instituting science : the cultural production of scientific disciplines
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Instituting science : the cultural production of scientific disciplines
（Writing science）
Stanford University Press, 1997
- : hbk
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [295]-343) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Metaphors of inscription and writing figure prominently in all levels of discourse in and about science. The description of nature as a book written in the language of mathematics has been a common trope since at least the time of Galileo, a metaphor supplemented in our own day by the characterization of DNA sequences as the code for the book of life, decipherable in terms of protein semantic units. An important recent direction in the fields of science and literature studies is to consider such descriptions as more than metaphoric, as revelatory of the processes of signification in science more generally. Nearly everywhere we look, the "semiotic turn" is upon us.
Recent science and technology studies have been characterized by a rich diversity of research directions, manifesting several trends apparently counter to one another. On the one hand stands the rich tradition of detailed microstudies of experiments, instruments, and scientific practice; on the other hand are grouped studies grander in scope, aimed at examining science within the framework of cultural production. This volume of sixteen essays seeks common ground among these different approaches by juxtaposing work from historically focused science and literature studies with work inspired by poststructuralist philosophy and semiotics.
The contributors are Gillian Beer, Lisa Bloom, Robert Brain, Lorraine Daston, Richard M. Doyle, David Gugerli, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Friedrich Kittler, Timothy Lenoir, Alex Pang, Philip Prodger, Hans-Joerg Rheinberger, Robin Rider, Brian Rotman, Simon Schaffer, and Bernhard Siegert.
Table of Contents
- 1. Inscription practices and materialities of communication Timothy Lenoir
- 2. The language of strange facts in early modern science Lorraine Daston
- 3. Shaping information: mathematics, computing and typography Robin Rider
- 4. The technology of mathematical persuasion Brian Rotman
- 5. On the take-off of operators Friedrich Kittler
- 6. Switchboards and sex: the nut(t) case Bernhard Siegert
- 7. Politics on the topographer's table: the helvetic triangulation of cartography, politics, and representation David Gugerli
- 8. Writing Darwin's islands: England and the insular condition Gillian Beer
- 9. Illustrations as strategy in Charles Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals Phillip Prodger
- 10. The Leviathan of Parsontown: literary technology and scientific representation Simon Schaffer
- 11. Technology, aesthetics and the development of astrophotography at the Lick Observatory Alex Pang
- 12. Standards and semiotics Robert Brain
- 123. Experimental systems, graphematic spaces
- Hans-Jong Rheinberger
- 14. Emergent power: vitality and theology in artificial life Richard M. Doyle
- 15. Science and writing: two national narratives of failure Lisa Bloom
- 16. Perception versus experience: moving pictures and their resistance to interpretation Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht
- Notes
- Index.
by "Nielsen BookData"