The Reinvention of Grand Theories of the Scientiªc/Scholarly Process Marion Blute Department of Sociology, University of Toronto Paul Armstrong Department of Sociology, University of Toronto l D o w n o a d e d f r o m h t t p : / / direct . m i t . / e d u p o s c

Computational Biology and the Limits of Shared Vision Annamaria Carusi Oxford e-Research Centre, University of Oxford Several studies have focused on the social sharing of visual practices as consti- tutive of evidence within a domain, while there has been relatively less atten- tion paid to points where the social sharing of practices breaks down, or is re- sisted. This article argues that a study of

The Uses of Analogies in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Science Yves Gingras1 CIRST, Université du Québec à Montréal Alexandre Guay CIRST, Université du Québec à Montréal, Université de Bourgogne l D o w n o a d e d f r o m h t t p : / / direct . m i t . The object of this

Once upon a Time I was a Nuclear Physicist. What the Politics of Sustainability can Learn from the Nuclear Laboratory Gert Goeminne Vrije Universiteit Brussel This paper keeps pace with my personal history as a researcher: starting from the eagerness for knowledge of the nuclear physics PhD student I once was, continuing with my search for social relevance in policy-preparatory research I subsequently performed as

A Reminiscence of Thomas Kuhn Jed Z. Buchwald California Institute of Technology In the fall of 1967 I entered Princeton as a Freshman intending to major in physics but interested as well in history. The catalog listed a course on the history of science, taught by a Professor Thomas Kuhn with the assis- tance of Michael Mahoney that seemed nicely to ªt both interests. Le

Public Participation in the Making of Science Policy Darrin Durant York University This paper argues that, because Science and Technology Studies (STS) lost contact with political philosophy, its defense of public participation in policy- making involving technical claims is normatively unsatisfactory. Current penchants for political under-laboring and normative individualism are critiqued, and the connections between STS and theorists of deliberative de- mocracy are explored. UN

Gravity Waves and Neutrinos: The Later Work of Joseph Weber Allan Franklin University of Colorado How does the physics community deal with the subsequent work of a scientist whose earlier work has been regarded as incorrect? An interesting case of this involves Joseph Weber whose claim to have observed gravitational waves was rejected by virtually all of the physics community, although Weber himself continued to

Kepler’s Optical Part of Astronomy (1604): Introducing the Ecliptic Instrument Giora Hon University of Haifa Yaakov Zik University of Haifa For William H. Donahue The year 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of one of the most revolutionary scientiªc texts ever written. In this book, appropriately en- titled, Astronomia nova, Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) developed an as- tronomical theory which departs fundamentally from the

Newton’s Telescope in Print: The Role of Images in the Reception of Newton’s Instrument Sven Dupré Ghent University While Newton tried to make his telescope into a proof of the supremacy of his theory of colours over older theories, his instrument was welcomed as a way to shorten telescopes, not as a way to solve the problem of chromatic aberration. This paper argues that the

Invisible Origins of Nanotechnology: Herbert Gleiter, Materials Science, and Questions of Prestige1 Alfred Nordmann Darmstadt Technical University Herbert Gleiter promoted the development of nanostructured materials on a variety of levels. Dans 1981 déjà, he formulated research visions and pro- duced experimental as well as theoretical results. Still he is known only to a small community of materials scientists. That this is so is itself a

“The Unity of the Generative Power”: Modern Taxonomy and the Problem of Animal Generation Justin E. H. Smith Concordia University Much recent scholarly treatment of the theoretical and practical underpin- nings of biological taxonomy from the 16th to the 18th centuries has failed to adequately consider the importance of the mode of generation of some living entity in the determination of its species membership, comme

“Cabinet d’Histoire Naturelle,” or: The Interplay of Nature and Artiªce in Diderot’s Naturalism Charles T. Wolfe University of Sydney In selected texts by Diderot, including the Encyclopédie article “Cabinet d’histoire naturelle” (along with his comments in the article “Histoire nat- urelle”), the Pensées sur l’interprétation de la nature and the Salon de 1767, I examine the interplay between philosophical naturalism and the rec- ognition of

The Devil is in the (Historical) Details: Continental Drift as a Case of Normatively Appropriate Consensus? Naomi Oreskes University of California, San Diego In Social Empiricism, Miriam Solomon proposes a via media between tra- ditional philosophical realism and social construction of scientiªc knowledge, but ignores a large body of historical literature that has attempted to plough just that path. She also proposes a standard for

Julius Caesar Scaliger on Corpuscles and the Vacuum Andreas Blank Tel Aviv University This paper investigates the relationship between some corpuscularian and Ar- istotelian strands that run through the thought of the sixteenth-century phi- losopher and physician Julius Caesar Scaliger. Scaliger often uses the concepts of corpuscles, pores, and vacuum. En même temps, he also describes mixture as involving the fusion of particles into

Writing a Revolution: On the Production and Early Reception of the Vienna Circle’s Manifesto Thomas Uebel University of Manchester Considerable unclarity exists in the literature concerning the origin and au- thorship of Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung. Der Wiener Kreis, the Vienna Circle’s manifesto of 1929 and on the extent of and the reasons for the mixed reception it received in the Circle itself. This paper reconsiders these

Cartesianism Revisited1 Eric P. Lewis Virginia Tech In the summer of 2006 Daniel Garber opened the FME International Seminar in Early Modern Thought by commenting: “This has become the place to be.” The unexplained utterance generated smiles among the small room full of scholars, and could easily have been written off as an in- nocent bit of self-lauding or an ironic reference to the remoteness—even

Manipulating Underdetermination in Scientiªc Controversy: The Case of the Molecular Clock Michael R. Dietrich Dartmouth College Robert A. Skipper, Jr.. University of Cincinnati l D o w n o a d e d f r o m h t t p : / / direct . m i t . Where there are cases of underdetermination in scientiªc controversies, tel

The Political Theory of French Science Studies in Context Aviezer Tucker Queen’s University, Belfast Science Studies, as developed initially in France attempt to overcome the dis- tinctions between science and society, and correspondingly between the philoso- phy of science and political and social theory. Science Studies considers the theories and beliefs of scientists political rather than direct reºections of an objective natural world. I consider