Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
Display:
Coincidences : I read this blog post in my RSS feeds yesterday...

Philosophie et sociologie des sciences pour le chercheur - Enro, scientifique et citoyen Science sociology and philosophy for the scientist
Comme le répète sans arrêt une des mes profs, le chercheur typique ne connaît rien à la philosophie des sciences et encore moins à la sociologie des sciences. Et quand il connaît Bruno Latour, il ne l'aime pas du tout. Je ne serais pas si catégorique mais il est difficile de s'exprimer au nom du chercheur moyen, surtout quand on lit trop les blogs de certains chercheurs qui regorgent d'allusions à ces auteurs ou leurs théories. As one of my teachers constantly repeats, the typical scientist knows nothing about science philosophy and even less about science sociology. And when he knows Bruno Latour, he absolutely doesn't like him. I wouldn't be as categorical, but it is hard to talk in the name of the average scientist, especially when one reads too much some scientists' blogs which are full of allusions to these authors and their theories.
Heureusement, les chercheurs curieux ou avides de réflexivité existent, comme le prouve le témoignage de Bertil Sylvander (Inra) au moment de son départ à la retraite : Thankfully, curious and reflection hungry scientists exist, as is proved by Bertil Sylvander's text at the time of his retirement :

Part of the problem is doing anything that is not relegated to obscurity. Many researchers face the same problem...

Another aspect is that, beyond the obscurity of such subjects, fewer and fewer people care about the why ; that is not a social value nowadays. I have a distinct feeling for example economists don't really have a solid epistemology ; and they don't feel any need for it. Politicians now care about being elected rather than "the good of the country". People will have no problems working for weapons makers... A society defined by money exchange cares not about the why, as l'argent n'a pas d'odeur - money has no smell.


Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Mon Dec 31st, 2007 at 04:53:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Others have rated this comment as follows:

Display:

Occasional Series