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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:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Berkeley</st1:City></st1:place><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>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></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></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></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
text-align:justify'><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Verdana'>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><o:p></o:p></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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