Biographies of Scientific Objects - Hardcover

Daston, Lorraine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226136701 ISBN 13: 9780226136707

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2000

Synopsis

Why does an object or phenomenon become the subject of scientific inquiry? Why do some of these objects remain provocative, while others fade from centre stage? And why do objects sometimes return as the focus of research long after they were once abandoned? Addressing such questions, this book is about how whole domains of phenomena - dreams, atoms, monsters, culture, society, mortality, centers of gravity, value, cytoplasmic particles, the self and tuberculosis - come into being and sometimes pass away as objects of scientific study. With examples drawn from both the natural and social sciences, and ranging from the 16th to the 20th centuries, this book explores the ways in which scientific objects are both real and historical. Whether discovered or invented, these objects of inquiry broaden and deepen in meaning - growing more "real" - as they become entangled in webs of cultural significance, material practices and theoretical derivations. Thus their biographies should matter to anyone concerned with the formation of scientific knowledge.

About this title

About the Author

Lorraine Daston is director of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and is visiting professor in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226136701
• ISBN 13: 9780226136707
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 312