Thin Description

Surface and Depth in Science and Science Studies

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3924595
AutoresTheodore M Porter (autor correspondente)
Ano2012
Volume27
Fascículo1
Páginas209-226
Data de publicação2012-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoOsiris (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0369-7827 • E-ISSN: 1933-8287
EditoraUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/667828
OpenAlexW2009217335
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas26
Referências citadas14

Since the time of the French Revolution, a sequence of modern thinkers has theorized the thinning of the world in relation to the growth of science. In a large, diverse, and politicized world, subtlety seems to recede into nooks and corners, while information is revered for its ready accessibility and seeming solidity. The sciences, adapting their public voice and some of their inward practices to such expectations, have over the twentieth century flourished more and more in the public sphere as preeminent sites of facts, data, and statistics. Yet the aspiration to superficiality yields up all kinds of unexpected consequences, which provide fascinating opportunities for historical and social studies of science if we can ourselves resist the siren song of thinness

Aesthetics · Epistemology · Political science · Politics · Public sphere · Sociology · Solidity · Biographical and Historical Analysis · History · History of Science and Medicine · History of Science and Natural History · Law · Philosophy