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In previous posts we have seen what Will's picture has to say about what historians do, why this is wrong, and why they do it anyway. But how did things get this way in the first place? What trends in the mid-late twentieth century led historians of science to practice their discipline in the way they now do? Will's picture includes some preliminary answers to these questions. The first is what WT calls The Great Escape, and is the topic of this post. The next post deals with the second answer, which I will call the Brush with Sociology.
Some time in the middle of the twentieth century, historians of science decided that philosophy made for bad history. In the Great Escape from philosophy in the 1970s and '80s, historians were joined by post-Marxist sociologists and “semiotic phenomenologists” like Bruno Latour. There were extreme examples of this trend in Latour, Andrew Pickering, Harry Collins, the Edinburgh School, and others.
But even sober, realist historians joined the race from philosophy. WTs example is Peter Galison. Galison's How Experiments End (1983) reached the negative conclusion that “philosophically informed accounts will not account for the contingencies of scientific practice.” But this left the problem of how to do good history that rose above the details of one or two archives, a problem that Galison himself recently included in a list of ten pressing problems for historians of science.
Galison found a solution in his Image and Logic (1997), “one of the finest works of historiographical craftsmanship I can think of.” Galison's book traced “mesoscopic traditions of practice” in all their “materiality” and “intercalation.”
Nevertheless, a subsequent exchange with the philosopher Kent Staley showed that the Great Escape was not over. Philosophers once stressed the “unity” of science. So when Staley used this word with approval in a review of Image and Logic, Galison was “entirely confident that he was being visited by some easily vanquished ghost out of the historiographical past.” Galison's confidence was misplaced, in WTs opinion: the historical error was probably Galison's, not Staley's. The error was a small one in a fine book, but in this exchange it was not so obvious that philosophy made for bad history.
Galison's Objectivity (2007), co-authored with Lorraine Daston, showed again that historians had stumbled in their rush from philosophy. The ghost of Thomas Kuhn was still hanging around in the idea of an “episteme” (read: paradigm), the failure of scientists in different epistemes to see eye to eye (read: incommensurability), and the existential crises (read: Kuhnian crises) that accompanied changes in epistemes. Moreover, in their declared quest to avoid localism the authors fell back on the philosopher's habit of treating scientists as automata, all executing one or other of a small number of methodological programmes dreamed up by the historian.
At they same time, Objectivity fell short of the philosopher's virtue of explaining scientist's behaviour in terms of reasons and evidence. The book “[reduced] the intellectual content of science to ritual”: actors no longer took reasoned decisions, based on their goals and audience, to move from one technique or belief to another; they began as symbols of one episteme and ended as symbols of another. Like others in the gallery of practices, Galison and Daston imposed epistemic virtues on actors “much as a Whiggish narrative of history imposes present ideas on the past.”
Summing up the Great Escape, WT wrote that “only a philosophical language will permit description of some of the deeper intricacies of historical patterns of objection and acceptance of argument that appear in the record.” History is not the same as philosophy or sociology, but it should not run from one and towards the other. The flaws of the Great Escape literature showed that good historiography requires a “full conceptual palette” as well as a “confidence to not insist that our work has broad lessons.”
WT thinks that these lessons have not been learnt. Consider Daston's recent commentary on the field. Daston may be right that historians now consider themselves distinct from sociologists of science, and that they no longer aim to debunk science. But WT says that Daston herself is still in the grip of the “socio-epistemic imperative.” Note her belief that “the current passion for archive-mongering indicates our dedication to historiographical methodology,” and her own passion for finding a “new vision of science.” Between these two passions there is little room for chronological problematics or the study of traditions of practice, let alone the creation of navigable archives. In short, in her commentary Daston seems to leave little room for doing history for its own sake.
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The next post considers what WT has to say about the role of the sociology of science in producing this situation.
Expand post.
Au cours des quatres derniers postes j’ai résumé ce que la vision de Will nous dit à propos des pratiques actuelles des historiens des sciences. Mais comment a-t-on arrivé à ces pratiques en premier lieu ? Quelles tendances intellectuelles de la dernière moitiée du vingtième siècle nous ont porté aux normes et habitudes d’ajourd’hui ? On peut distinguer deux réponses à ces questions qui se trouvent sur le blog Ether Wave Propaganda : la Grande Evasion, et l'Entente avec les Sociologues. Je traite du premier dans ce poste et du dernier dans la suite.
Lors des années 70s et 80s les historiens des sciences ont décidé que la philosophie engendre la mauvaise histoire. Pendant la Grande Evasion de la philosophie des sciences les historiens ont été accompagné par les sociologues post-Marxistes et quelques “phenomenologistes semiotiques” comme Bruno Latour. Il y avait des exemples extrêmes de cette tendance en forme de Latour, Andrew Pickering, Harry Collins, les membres de l’école d’Edinburgh en la sociologie des sciences, et d’autres.
Mais même les historiens sobres et respectés ont participé dans cette fuite de la philosophie. WT se concentre sur l’exemple de Peter Galison, historien de physique renommé. Dans son livre How Experiments End de 1983 il a conclu (selon les mots de WT) que « les descriptions philosophiques de la science ne tiennent pas en compte les contingences de la pratique réelle de la science. » Mais le problème demeurait de comment écrire de la bonne histoire sans se noyer dans les détails minutieux de telle ou telle archive historique.
D’après WT, Galison a trouvé une solution à ce problème dans son livre Image and Logic (1997), lequel WT décrit comme “l’une des produits les plus excellents du travail historique que je connaisse.” Galison a tracé les “traditions des pratiques mésoscopique” dans toute leur « matérialité » et avec une grande attention aux relations entre les diverses traditions qui appartiennent à la science modèrne, telle que celles des théoriciens, des constructeurs des instruments, et des expérimentateurs.
Image and Logic a été une avance importante. Mais un débat sur ce livre entre Galison et le philosophe Kent Staley a montré que même Galison a été précipité en fuiant la philosophie. Autrefois les philosophes ont mit l’accent sur l’unité de la science. Dans Image and Logic Galison l’a mit sur sa manque d’unité. Quand Staley a mis en doute cette aspect du livre de Galison, le dernier a éte « entierement convaincu que Staley était le victime d’une ideologie discréditée depuis longtemps. » La confiance de Galison a été mal conçue, dit WT. C’était Galison et non Staley qui a fait une erreur historique. Cette erreur, bien que mineure, a montré que la philosophie n’engendre pas forcement la mauvaise histoire.
Un livre plus tardif de Galison, « Objectivity », a montré encore une fois que les historiens avaient trébuché dans leur fuite précipitée de la philosophie. Le spectre de Thomas Kuhn etait encore présent dans l'idée d'une « epistème » (lire : une paradigme), l'incapacité des scientifiques dans des epistèmes différentes d'être d'accord sur une théorie (lire : l'incommensurabilité), et les crises existentielles qui accompagnent les changements d'epistème. De plus, en s'éfforçant à echapper le localisme ils ont recourri à la mauvaise habitude des philosophes de traiter les scientifiques en « automates », tout étant les exécuteurs d'une seule programme méthodologique.
Au même temps ils ont esquivé la vertu philosophique qui consiste à expliquer les actes et les croyances des scientitiques par les épreuves et les données. Ils ont « réduit le contenu intellectuel de la science aux rituels » : les scientifiques ne prennaient plus des décisions raisonnées, fondé sur leurs propres buts et leurs audiences spécifiques, pour aller d'une technique à une autre ; ils commençaient comme des symbols de telle ou telle epistème et ils finnissaient comme des symbols d'une autre. On dirait que comme les autres partisans da la Grande Evasion, Galison et Daston ont imposé des « vertus epistémiques » sur les scientifiques « à peu près comme une narrative 'Whiggish' de l'histoire impose les idées du présent sur le passé ».
En résumant la Grande Evasion, WT a écrit que « seul une langue philosophique nous permettra de décrire les subtilités de l'acceptation et de l'objection qui se trouvent dans les documents historiques. » L'histoire n'est pas la même chose ni de la philosophie ni de la sociologie, mais on ne devrait pas courir de l'une à l'autre. Les défauts des partisans de la Grande Evasion ont montré que la bonne histoire nécessite « un éventail complet des concepts » ainsi que « la confiance de ne pas insister que notre travail offre des leçons générales ».
WT croit que ces défauts sont toujours répandus à profusion dans la discipine de l'histoire des sciences. Il nous fait remarquer, par exemple, le commentaire récent de Daston sur l'état actuel de la discipline. Daston a peut-être raison en disant au cours de cet écrit que les historiens des sciences d'aujourd'hui ne s'abornent plus à démystifier la science. Quoi qu'il en soit, WT constate que Daston elle-même est toujours sous l'emprise de le « culte de l'invisibilité ».
Notons par exemple l'affirmation de Daston que (dans la phrase de WT) « l'enthousiasme actuelle pour les détails des archives fait preuve de notre attachment aux bonnes méthodes historiographiques. » Notons aussi son propre enthousiasme pour la recherche d'une « nouvelle vision de la science ». Entre ces deux enthousiasmes il n'y a guère de place pour la pensée chronologique ni pour l'étude des traditions de pratique, et encore moins pour la création des archives navigables. En bref, il n'y a guère de place pour l'étude de l'histoire juste pour l'histoire.
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The Galison-K. Staley debate continues to be of interest. I'm revising an article right now that adopted some of the material from those posts, and I ultimately came to the conclusion that Staley was gesturing not toward a historical logic (à la Lakatos's rational reconstructions) or an underlying psychology, so much as a partially articulated and sporadically invoked standard of scientific argumentation. I'm not so sure that this shows whether philosophy makes for good or bad history, so much as it suggests that the philosophical project is not invalidated by the historian's work (as Galison seems to suggest). I do think some of Staley's criticisms of Galison's image-logic distinction are valid, though I wouldn't necessarily say that those proceed from his philosophical argument for unity. I mention this here, because it is looking likely that this discussion will be cut from the paper, and any supplementary blog posts will not appear for many months.
ReplyDeleteI also think it's important to not slot Daston entirely into the "socio-epistemic imperative" though it clearly informs the "historical epistemology" that she and others at the MPI practice. There clearly is a strong chronological macro-narrative at work there as well.
I believe her emphasis on this chronological component is the basis of her disappointment -- not unlike Galison's "localism" point in his "Ten Problems" -- with what she thinks of as the "microhistorical" turn in HoS, which she regards as an event following the field's departure from its alliance with science studies. (As you point out, I view this as a remnant of that alliance, though I agree the alliance is not presently *active*.) I'm actually keen to advertise that aspect of her thinking, because it is one of the few strategic visions presently at work in the field relating to what historians' goals should be.
Thanks Will for the clarifications.
Delete1. "I'm not so sure that this shows [a] whether philosophy makes for good or bad history, so much as [b] it suggests that the philosophical project is not invalidated by the historian's work."
I originally read the post in question as asserting [a] and not just [b]. That is, I read it as asserting that by insisting on the radical disunity of science Galison was led into a historical error--perhaps a small one, but a historical one nonetheless, and one rooted in his excessive suspicion of a past philosophical programme (namely the unity of science programme).
2. On Staley's appeal to unity, I had in mind the following passage from your post: "Staley, in the end, might have overplayed his hand a little bit, primarily because he considers the statistical and epistemological affinities between image and logic traditions to be indicative of a “unity” of scientific method -- a phrase he repeats and emphasizes..."
3. On Daston and the socio-epistemic imperative I had in mind the following part of the post in question (http://etherwave.wordpress.com/2009/09/24/daston-on-the-current-situation/): "To address the socio-epistemic imperative is practically what it means to be a post-1980s historian of science, regardless of whether or not one is making any active contribution to some overarching socio-epistemic theory. Indeed, Daston feels that this is what still needs to be done..."
I agree with you that Daston goes beyond the socio-economic imperative insofar as she goes beyond micro-history. In the terms that I have been using in this series of posts, she avoids case studies but is still interested in combating ideologies (in the sense of intellectual prejudices about the general nature of science).
Good point on (1). Yes, Galison does make his own epistemological claim, which impacts the history he tells, so, yes, in this case, a negative philosophical argument at least opens the way for better history. Ostensibly, the positive content of philosophy could contribute a vocabulary that could be used to describe some of the deeper reasoning that actors used (though in many cases, the depth of vocabulary will not be necessary).
ReplyDelete(2) Staley does indeed make a case for unity, but I don't think his philosophical arguments against Galison proceed from it. I think the positive philosophical content, which we can use to derive better history is more of a potential than a reality. (As we were discussing in person, the notion that this potential exists may be why many historians interested in intellectual or "internal" history look to a reconciliation with philosophy.)
From a philosophical point of view, I think there may be a case to be made for Staley's brand of unity, but I also think that both historians and philosophers will have to contend seriously with the prima facie disunity that interests Galison.
(3) Yes. I think Daston envisions historical epistemology as satisfying both epistemologists' and historians' needs. As near as I can discern, the "ideologies" that we are talking about tend, in her view, to be a) singular in their vision of scientific validity, and b) derived from history, but c) in denial of their historicity. Her approach would be to destroy (c), in order to permit acknowledgement of (b), and thus to destroy (a), and thus open up a multiplicity of visions of validity from which we may choose.
But this leads to just the point I would like to stress: I believe scientists already make these choices, depending on what sort of argument they want to make (and that we only fail to see this because we arrange our case studies in such a way that suppresses their historical existence). I further don't think we have a very good account of how these choices are actually made from field to field, and from scientist to scientist. If we hope for our work to be normatively compelling, we first have to arrive at a full appreciation of the ideas that govern those choices.
This actually feeds over into the discussion we're having at EWP. Within the discipline & ontology perspective, the idea that singular visions of scientific validity are at play will be read into the historical record (and, along with them, a fetishism for those visions that should be overcome). According to the "project" view, the historical actions and choices that we are looking at play out according to the rules of projects that we do not yet fully understand, and will not understand so long as we continue to think that we are witnessing battles over proper ontology.
I think we're now on the same page wrt (1), (2) and (3).
ReplyDeleteRegarding your last paragraph: I was going to ask about the relationship between "Will's picture" as I have been summarising it in these posts, and the new distinction between "ontology-based" and "project-based" approaches in the history of science. In particular, what is the difference between "definitions or ontologies" and "ideologies"?
There seem to be a number of *similarities* between the two notions. Both of them refer to general beliefs about the nature of science or the world. In both cases historians take their task to be to display the role of these general beliefs in past controversies, while drawing attention to the falsity or at least disputability of these same general beliefs. Finally, in both cases you suggest that this historiographical project is ill-conceived, partly because those general beliefs -- whether labelled "ideologies" or "ontologies" -- are absent or at least idle in many key episodes in the history of science.
Would you agree that the following are among the *differences* between the two notions? Are there any other differences?
1. "Ideologies" are general beliefs about *science* (whether it is local or universal, whether it admits crucial experiments, etc.). By contrast, "ontologies and definitions" also include general beliefs about *nature* (whether the history of the earth is uniform or catastrophic, whether the mind is a rational calculator, etc.)
2. "Ideologies" are prejudices that are held in common by many scientists. Precisely because few scientists are free from these prejudices, they engage in bitter controversies (eg. one might argue Newton and Hooke engaged in a bitter dispute about the nature of light precisely because they both believed in the existence of crucial experiments). By contrast, "ontologies and definitions" are things that vary between scientists. Indeed, the bitter controversies in which scientists engage are controversies *over* these different ontologies and definitions.
My picture and the "discipline & ontology" corollary are, I think, pretty closely related, in that the misconceptions about science are taken to result in misconceptions about ontologies and their fixity.
DeleteTo begin, we should probably distinguish two types of ideologies, call them Hidden Ideologies, and the Ideology of Science. Then, let's bring in the point you were bringing up about methods vs. ontologies. Basically, a method is something that establishes some sort of ontology, either because the method results in a statement about the ontology, or -- and this is maybe a new point in the discussion -- the ontology is presumed in the method (think an economic model that reinforces the idea of a rational actor because the model comprises rational actors, not because it concludes that actors are rational).
So, a Hidden Ideology is something that inhabits a method. Maybe the Hidden Ideology is derived from an ontological commitment that authorizes the model because the model reproduces the ontology (essentially, a confirmation bias). Or perhaps the Hidden Ideology is a particular epistemic commitment like Daston and Galison's epistemic virtues, say a belief that photographic evidence is particularly reliable, or that evidence arising from a trusted source is beyond question. These ideologies will result in certain kinds of ontological conclusions, which people who do not share that ideology may not share.
To answer (1), then, yes, the Hidden Ideology inhabits a particular vision of method, and, yes, an ontology is a belief about nature, or reality more generally. That said, particular ideologies result in particular beliefs about nature, and, furthermore, commitment to particular beliefs might, in fact, be the source of the ideology in the first place.
To answer (2), I would say it could go either way. It may be that scientists engage in bitter disputes because they hold different ideologies (I believe in photographs, you believe in mathematical proofs) which result in different ontological beliefs, or it may be, as you suggest, that they jointly hold a naive view of method that, in fact, allows room for irreconcilable disagreement about ontology even though the disagreement were not predicated by divergent methodological commitments.
Less ambiguous on this point, though, is the Ideology of Science, which is the thing that prevents us from seeing Hidden Ideologies. The Ideology of Science is a master narrative that science is something devoid of ideological commitments. It is most definitely commonly held, and is most definitely a naive view.
So, let's say you and I both believe that photographs produce reliable scientific evidence; this would be both a Hidden Ideology and a naive view, which, when we produce contradictory photographs produced dispute. However, it is our naive Ideology of Science that keeps us from seeing the limitations inherent to our Hidden Ideology, despite the fact that those limitations should have been evidenced by our failure to come to agreement. It is the Ideology of Science that would hide the underlying causes of a mundane dispute, and cause it to grow into a bitter, historically noteworthy dispute.
That's a useful clarification. Just to get it clear in my head:
DeleteIdeology of science = "master narrative that science is something devoid of ideological commitments." A belief about science, not about nature. Causes controversy because it is held in common by the disputants.
Hidden Ideology = a belief (perhaps implicit) about how science should be done or how it works. Scientists may well hold different hidden ideologies.
Ontology = distinct from Hidden Ideologies because about nature rather than about science. But a particular Ontology may result from, or even give rise to, a particular Hidden Ideology.
Yes, that's a pretty good summary. The ideology of science hides other ideologies that inflect science, and science produces belief about reality. Those beliefs are (or could be) controversial because they are produced by ideology-ridden science, which is falsely assumed to be non-ideological and authoritative.
DeleteThere are complications, but that's the simple core of it. I think we only really need "ontology" if we're going to worry about this or that component of reality.