Cet auteur explore l'histoire et la sociologie de la science, en examinant les choix éthiques des scientifiques et les fondements de la crédibilité scientifique. Il a remodelé la compréhension de l'expérimentation en étudiant où et par qui les expériences sont menées. Son travail a été essentiel pour restructurer la manière dont le domaine aborde des concepts scientifiques majeurs tels que la vérité, la confiance, l'identité scientifique et l'autorité morale. Un élément central de sa perspective est l'idée que la science repose sur la foi du public, ce qui rend nécessaire d'expliquer clairement comment les connaissances solides sont générées et qui participe au processus.
The authors bring the perspectives of sociology and anthropology to bear on key historical developments in various fields of science, demonstrating that it is possible to study science in the same way as other forms of culture - art, music, and literature. They show that our understanding of science, and the development of scientific knowledge, can be enriched by these perspectives, and that the history of science can benefit from case studies, such as those presented here.
This book addresses issues of crucial importance to present-day discussions about the nature of knowledge and how it is produced. 54 halftones. Line art.
Shapin and Schaffer work out the implications of these debates [between Hobbes
and Boyle] for the history of science with great skill of interpretation and
exposition. They use their findings and their analysis to give an explanation
of the experimental enterprise in general, which, although it is not
philosophical in nature, always takes philosophy most seriously. This is
simply one of the most original, enjoyable and important books published in
the history of science in recent years.--Owen Hannaway, Technology and Culture
Historical Studies of Science as if It Was Produced by People with Bodies, Situated in Time, Space, Culture, and Society, and Struggling for Credibility and AuthoritySteven Shapin argues that science, for all its immense authority and power, is and always has been a human endeavor, subject to human capacities and limits. Put simply, science has never been pure. To be human is to err, and we understand science better when we recognize it as the laborious achievement of fallible, imperfect, and historically situated human beings.Shapin's essays collected here include reflections on the historical relationships between science and common sense, between science and modernity, and between science and the moral order. They explore the relevance of physical and social settings in the making of scientific knowledge, the methods appropriate to understanding science historically, dietetics as a compelling site for historical inquiry, the identity of those who have made scientific knowledge, and the means by which science has acquired credibility and authority. This wide-ranging and intensely interdisciplinary collection by one of the most distinguished historians and sociologists of science represents some of the leading edges of change in the scholarly understanding of science over the past several decades.
Who are scientists? What kind of people are they? What capacities and virtues are thought to stand behind their considerable authority? They are experts—indeed, highly respected experts—authorized to describe and interpret the natural world and widely trusted to help transform knowledge into power and profit. But are they morally different from other people? The Scientific Life is historian Steven Shapin’s story about who scientists are, who we think they are, and why our sensibilities about such things matter. Conventional wisdom has long held that scientists are neither better nor worse than anyone else, that personal virtue does not necessarily accompany technical expertise, and that scientific practice is profoundly impersonal. Shapin, however, here shows how the uncertainties attending scientific research make the virtues of individual researchers intrinsic to scientific work. From the early twentieth-century origins of corporate research laboratories to the high-flying scientific entrepreneurship of the present, Shapin argues that the radical uncertainties of much contemporary science have made personal virtues more central to its practice than ever before, and he also reveals how radically novel aspects of late modern science have unexpectedly deep historical roots. His elegantly conceived history of the scientific career and character ultimately encourages us to reconsider the very nature of the technical and moral worlds in which we now live. Building on the insights of Shapin’s last three influential books, featuring an utterly fascinating cast of characters, and brimming with bold and original claims, The Scientific Life is essential reading for anyone wanting to reflect on late modern American culture and how it has been shaped.
In this classic of science history, Shapin takes into account the culture -
the variety of beliefs, practices, and influences - that in the 1600s shaped
the origins of the modern scientific worldview.
The book explores the deep connection between food and identity, examining historical perspectives on eating practices in the West. It traces the evolution of dietary thought from traditional dietetics, which intertwined health advice with moral living, to the rise of scientific nutrition in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This shift introduced a focus on macronutrients rather than holistic well-being. Ultimately, it reflects on how these changing ideas have shaped contemporary attitudes toward food, blending objective knowledge with personal experience.
