[Sci-tech-public] STS Circle, October 15 - Paul Forman (Please RSVP)

[STS]

STS Circle at Harvard
[image.png]

Paul Forman
Smithsonian

on
Politico-legal Proceduralism, Belief in Scientific Method, and the Elevation of Means Over Ends in Modernity

Monday, October 15
12:15-2:00 p.m.
Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Room 100F

[image.png]

Lunch is provided if you RSVP.
Please RSVP to sts<mailto:sts at hks.harvard.edu>@hks.harvard.edu<mailto:sts at hks.harvard.edu> by 5pm Wednesday, October 10.

Abstract: In this talk I build upon the general consensus among STS scholars that the last 30-35 years have seen a great change in the presuppositions of scientific work.  One especially noteworthy, but less emphasized, aspect of that change is the drastic downgrading of the importance attributed to the notion of scientific method.  I argue that this particular alteration of our presuppositions is coherent with, and presumably a manifestation of, other, successively wider, cultural changes: loss of confidence in method generally, including a retreat from politico-legal proceduralism, reaching so deeply as seriously to undermine the most general and comprehensive presupposition of modernity, the elevation of means above ends.  In this way I aim to persuade that the transformations which we all recognize in knowledge production setting in circa 1980 cannot be the consequence of new governmental policies, or even of new terms of trade and modes of production, but are, much rather, ‘part and parcel’ of the abrupt and profound cultural break that put an end to modernity.



Biography: Paul Forman is Curator Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution. For more information, see: http://americanhistory.si.edu/about/staff.cfm?key=12&staffkey=1692





A complete list of STS Circle at Harvard events can be found on our website:
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts/events/sts_circle/
Follow us on Facebook: STS at Harvard<http://www.facebook.com/HarvardSTS>




_______________________________________________

You are currently subscribed to the Harvard STS Circle mailing list.
harvard-sts at lists.ksg.harvard.edu<mailto:harvard-sts at lists.ksg.harvard.edu>

To unsubscribe, please click here: http://lists.ksg.harvard.edu/u?id=114309.68a0e2670e977096141663bb022c99c6&o=74041&n=T&c=F&l=harvard-sts
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/sci-tech-public/attachments/20121005/bf0b9ef5/attachment.htm
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.png
Type: image/png
Size: 4628 bytes
Desc: image.png
Url : http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/sci-tech-public/attachments/20121005/bf0b9ef5/attachment.png