A Case Study in the Applied Philosophy of Imaging

The Synaptic Vesicle Debate

Bibliographic Data

ID5337191
AuthorsRobert Rosenberger (0000-0003-4608-6746, Georgia Institute of Technology, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume36
Issue1
Pages6-32
Publication date2011-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0162243909337117
OpenAlexW2144591051
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited71

Thinkers from a variety of fields analyze the roles of imaging technologies in science and consider their implications for many issues, from our conception of selfhood to the authority of science. In what follows, I encourage scholars to develop an applied philosophy of imaging, that is, to collect these analyses of scientific imaging and to reflect on how they can be made useful for ongoing scientific work. As an example of this effort, I review concepts developed in Don Ihde's phenomenology of technology and refigure them for use in the analysis of scientific practice. These concepts are useful for drawing out the details of the interpretive frameworks scientists bring to laboratory images. Next, I apply these ideas to a contemporary debate in neurobiology over the interpretation of images of neurons which have been frozen at the moment of transmitter release. This reveals directions for further thought for the study of neurotransmission

Cognitive science · Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Philosophy of science · Sociology · Cell Image Analysis Techniques · Computer Science · Engineering · Neural dynamics and brain function · Neuroscience · Philosophy · Plant and Biological Electrophysiology Studies · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence