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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=4
color=maroon face=Verdana><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:maroon'> “The Subway Series”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=4
color=maroon face=Verdana><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:maroon'>A Joint Colloquium Between Harvard History of Science and MIT
Program in Science, Technology, and Society<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=2
face=Georgia><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Georgia;font-weight:
bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=4
color=navy face=Verdana><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:navy;font-weight:bold'>What is the Thinker doing? The Ethnographic Study
of a Statue<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=4
color=navy face=Verdana><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:navy;font-weight:bold'>Hélène Mialet, <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType>
of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">California</st1:PlaceName>, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Berkeley</st1:place></st1:City><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Verdana;font-weight:bold'>Abstract:<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Verdana'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='margin-left:31.5pt'><font size=2 face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>I begin by drawing your attention
to a special, but at first sight merely curious feature of the notion of doing
something, or rather of trying to do something. In the end I hope to satisfy
you that this feature is more than merely curious; it is of radical importance
for our central question, namely, what is <i><span style='font-style:italic'>le</span></i>
<i><span style='font-style:italic'>Penseur</span></i> doing? </span></font><font
face=Verdana><span style='font-family:Verdana'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:.5in'><i><font size=2 face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;font-style:italic'><O:P> </O:P></span></font></i><font
face=Verdana><span style='font-family:Verdana'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='margin-left:2.0in'><font size=2 face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>——Gilbert Ryle</span></font><font
face=Verdana><span style='font-family:Verdana'><O:P></O:P><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
text-align:justify'><O:P><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Verdana'> </O:P>What was for the philosopher a pure thought
experiment has been fleshed out for the ethnographer into an improbable scene: the
meeting of Stephen Hawking, the man with Stephen Hawking the statue. The scene
takes place in Hawking’s office. A statue representing Hawking (along
with his wheelchair and computer) has been presented for approval before a
definitive version is made. Hawking, his assistants, his colleagues, the
sculptor and the ethnographer are present. The paper describes the interaction
between these different actors. In taking into account the materiality of the
statue, its circulation, its presence and what it allows, I will follow the
mise-en-scène, the articulation and shaping of an identity—the Thinker (<i><span
style='font-style:italic'>le</span></i> <i><span style='font-style:italic'>Penseur).</span></i>
Where is Hawking? Where the original, where is is the replica? Who is who? Who
is what? And what is Hawking—the Thinker, the man/the statue—doing?
These are some of the questions I will address through a thick description, to
use Geertz term, which, as we will recall, was inspired by Ryle’s
“What is <i><span style='font-style:italic'>le</span></i> <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>Penseur</span></i> doing?” </span></font><font
face=Verdana><span lang=EN-GB style='font-family:Verdana'>The social sciences
have for a long time made subjects into silent agents—statues—that
are put into action and into words by others, society, culture, habitus…
Or, on the contrary, they have made them all-powerful by overlooking the
non-humans to which they are attached. Rethinking the role of a statue will
enable us to rethink the role of the subject, and not any random subject, but
one that embodies the mythical figure of the isolated genius capable of
attaining the ultimate laws of the universe on the sole basis of his
reasoning—the Knowing Subject, the Cartesian Subject, the Thinker.</span></font><font
face=Verdana><span style='font-family:Verdana'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Verdana;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=3
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;font-weight:
bold'>Tuesday, November 3, 2009<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=3
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;font-weight:
bold'>4pm<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=3
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;font-weight:
bold'>Located at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Harvard</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Science</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Center</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
469<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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