Die Beiträge befassen sich mit der Dominanz von Männern im Wissenschaftsbetrieb aus den Bereichen Kultur, Recht, Wirtschaft, Medizin und Technik und in der wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisgewinnung.

Uncertainty is interwoven into human existence. It is a powerful incentive in the search for knowledge and an inherent component of scientific research. We have developed many ways of coping with uncertainty. We make promises, manage risks and make predictions to try to clear the mists and predict ahead. But the future is inherently uncertain - and the mist that shrouds our path an inherent part of our journey. The burning question is whether our societies can face up to uncertainty, (...) learn to embrace it and whether we can open up to a constantly evolving future. In this new book, Helga Nowotny shows how research can thrive at the cusp of uncertainty. Science, she argues, can eventually transform uncertainty into certainty, but into certainty which remains always provisional. Uncertainty is never completely static. It is constantly evolving. It encompasses geological time scales and, at the level of human experience, split-second changes as cells divide. Life and death decisions are taken in the blink of the eye, while human interactions with the natural environment may reveal their impact over millennia. Uncertainty is cunning. It appears at unexpected moments, it shuns the straight line, takes the oblique route and sometimes the unexpected short-cut. As we acknowledge the cunning of uncertainty, its threats retreat. We accept that any scientific inquiry must produce results that are provisional and uncertain. This message is vital for politicians and policy-makers: do not be tempted by small, short-term, controllable gains to the exclusion of uncertain, high-gain opportunities. Wide-ranging in its use of examples and enriched by the author’s experience as President of the European Research Council, one of the world’s leading funding organisations for fundamental research. The Cunning of Uncertainty is a must-read for students and scholars of all disciplines, politicians, policy-makers and anyone concerned with the fundamental role of knowledge and science in our societies today. (shrink)

In my response to Andrew Webster's examples I point to certain limitations, while fully supporting the thrust of his argument for a re-engagement of science and technology studies with policy making. When analyzing the policy implications of knowledge, the larger context must be considered. New criteria, like transparency, have arisen and the tendency for evidence-based policy making has become widespread. The managerial side of policy making emphasizes that "only what can be measured, can be managed." The crucial question is how (...) well prepared-and how willing-the STS community is to tackle policy making in this new guise. In the end, what is needed are institutions that are capable of developing their own reflexivity-a task to which STS can certainly contribute, but the road to be taken may be less direct than Andrew Webster suggests. (shrink)

Taking the lead from complexity theory and complex systems methodology, the article argues that we are engaged in a contradictory process when encountering, analysing and dealing with complexity. We face opposite tendencies that indicate an in-built dynamic between the increase of complexity and its reduction. The increase partly comes through evolution, defined as the transmission of information and partly from the desire for a human-built world that functions more efficiently. The reduction of complexity is due partly to the necessity of (...) minimizing unwanted and unintended consequences of its increase, and partly due to the continued re-alignment between social systems and their environments. The article examines the public debate about human stem cell research, the debates in the 18th century about the free circulation of commodities and opinions, and the attempts to provide answers to the question debated between Einstein and Freud: why war? The article concludes by arguing that the plea for a re-alignment of scientific disciplines will not suffice. Instead, the study of the co-evolution between science and society offers itself as a strategic research site by focusing on the dynamic interplay between the increase of complexity and its reduction. (shrink)

Relying on a powerful collective narrative through which political, legal and social decision-making is guided in the name of science, the authority of scientific experts reaches beyond the boundaries of their certified knowledge base. Therefore, expertise constitutes and is constituted by transgressive competence. The author argues that (1) changes in the decision-making structure of liberal Western democracies and changes in the knowledge production system diminish the authority of scientific expertise while increasing the context-dependency of expertise - thereby altering the nature (...) of its predictive claims; (2) the societal distribution of expertise, while displaying emancipatory features of empowerment of citizens, also raises issues of quality control; and (3) in order to regain a balance between public and private, i.e. individual-based societally distributed expertise, future expert systems will need to adopt a longer time-perspective. The author also reflects on directions in which future expert systems might evolve. (shrink)

The article retraces the social and institutional circumstances that in 1986 led two researchers at the IBM laboratory near Zurich, Müller and Bednorz, to discover high-temperature superconductivity. After confirmation of the unexpected breakthrough an unprecedented mobilization of research groups all over the world took place while simul taneously high-temperature superconductivity turned into a subject of intense media interest. The authors discuss these events under three perspectives: the closer interlinkage capacity of researchers and the relationship between the social organization of research (...) and unforeseen cases of scientific creativity. (shrink)

Dear John, You would have agreed with me that by writing to you I am putting into practice what your essay is all about: an act of cognitive intersubjectivity. It aims at reaching a common understanding or even a shared interpretation that is sufficiently wide to include whatever differences may remain between us. At the same time, I am aware, and painfully so, that this intersubjectivity has become asymmetrical, for you will not be able to respond this time. The symmetry (...) has been broken (and you know better than I what this means in physics). And yet, cognitive intersubjectivity enables me to render you fully present in my imagination. Therefore, by writing to you as I have done in the past, I wish to render homage to you as a friend and colleague. But it is also a tribute to your endless curiosity, your firm belief in the power of ideas and to your wisdom. For you have chosen intersubjectivity as one of your last intellectual puzzles to solve. May the bonds of intersubjectivity live on for generations to come. (shrink)

At first sight the interrelation between the two main themes of this paper, time structuring and time measurement, seems to be simple enough. Time is something that we measure and that we measure with. But what is it that we measure and how is it constructed that we come to think of it as being measurable? As Leach has pointed out, in any society the prevailing ideas about the nature of time and space are closely linked up with the kinds (...) of measuring scales which are thought to be appropriate. If we alter the scales and dimensions with which we measure, we seem to alter the nature of that which is being measured, as well. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook Jahrgang: 2016 Heft: 1 Seiten: 235-256.

Einzelne Aspekte der Bildung werden in aller Einseitigkeit als Heilslehren angeboten, und in ihrer Borniertheit und Verzerrtheit werden sie zur Bildungsideologien.

Virtualisierung und Entsubstantialisierung sind Schlagworte, die gegenwärtig - in den Medien, der Ökonomie, in Politik, in der Biotechnologie und nicht zuletzt in den Gender Studies un den Kulturwissenschaften - das diskursive Feld neu ordnen: Was vormals eine Essenz oder einen Wert bzw. einen Körper - in gewissem Sinn eine Faktizität und damit 'Realität' - hatt, scheint sich im Virtuellen zu verlieren. Um eine Einschätzung dieses angeblichen Paradigmenwechsels vozunehmen, zieht die Autorin einschlägige Theorien und Kategorien aus der Geschichte der europäischen Philosophie (...) heran. Im ersten Teil geht es noch einmal um Zusammenspiel und Gegensatz von Körper und Technik in der klassischen Ideengeschichte. Der zweite Teil "Technologien des Körpers" ist der Überlagerung der Körper durch Technik gewidmet, die viele Fragen neu aufwirft - besonders jene des Geschlechterverhältnisses. Die diversen Begriffsneuschöpfungen lassen sich aus dieser Fragwürdigkeit erklären. Ergebnis dieser Untersuchung ist, dass die gegenwärtigen Veränderungen strukturell eine Fortführung von Traditionellem darstellen. (shrink)

Der Text vergleicht zwei fetischistische Puppenexperimente des 20. Jahrhunderts. Auf der einen Seite steht der vielbeachtete Versuch Oskar Kokoschkas, die verlorene Alma Mahler durch eine lebensechte Puppe zu ersetzen. Auf der anderen Seite geht es um die verborgen gehaltenen Bücher des Schweizer Einsiedlers Armand Schulthess, bevölkert von Hunderten von erotischen Collage-Frauen, die kunstvoll zusammengeklebt, vernäht und ineinander gefaltet sind. So unterschiedlich das zugrundeliegende fetischistische Ritual auch ausfällt, so zeigt sich in beiden Anordnungen doch eine grundlegende Übereinstimmung: In beiden Fällen nimmt (...) das Inkarnieren die Form einer Operationskette an, die das Bild ins Register einer mimetischen Transformationsontologie überstellt. (shrink)

"Der Text vergleicht zwei fetischistische Puppenexperimente des 20. Jahrhunderts. Auf der einen Seite steht der vielbeachtete Versuch Oskar Kokoschkas, die verlorene Alma Mahler durch eine lebensechte Puppe zu ersetzen. Auf der anderen Seite geht es um die verborgen gehaltenen Bücher des Schweizer Einsiedlers Armand Schulthess, bevölkert von Hunderten von erotischen Collage-Frauen, die kunstvoll zusammengeklebt, vernäht und ineinander gefaltet sind. So unterschiedlich das zugrundeliegende fetischistische Ritual auch ausfällt, so zeigt sich in beiden Anordnungen doch eine grundlegende Übereinstimmung: In beiden Fällen nimmt (...) das Inkarnieren die Form einer Operationskette an, die das Bild ins Register einer mimetischen Transformationsontologie überstellt. The paper compares two fetishistic experiments with puppets of the 20th century. On the one hand, there is Oskar Kokoschka’s much discussed attempt to replace the lost Alma Mahler with a life-size doll. On the other hand, the paper treats the secret books of Swiss hermit Armand Schulthess, populated by hundreds of erotic women, which are artfully glued, sewn and folded together. However different the underlying fetishistic ritual may be, the two groups show a fundamental agreement: In both cases, the process of incarnating becomes a chain of operations, translating the image into the register of a mimetic ontology of transformation. ". (shrink)

Da nur der einzelne Mensch, nicht aber etwas ihn (seinen individuellen Leib im Sinne Jean Amérys) Überschreitendes frei sein kann, darum, so lautet Sartres logisch nicht zu widerlegendes Urteil, kann keinem Objekt eine in diesem selbst angelegte Fähigkeit, Entscheidungen zu fällen, zugesprochen werden. Wenn ein Subjekt einem ihm Äußeren – etwa Gott, der Natur, dem Staat, dem Kapital oder dem Schönen, dem Glück oder sonst etwas –, eine derartige Autonomie zuschreibt, belügt es sich, meint Sartre: um der Angst vor seiner (...) Freiheit Herr zu werden und sich für seine Taten nicht verantwortlich fühlen zu müssen. Wenn man Adornos Ästhetik dieser Subjektbestimmung konfrontiert, läßt sich jedoch zeigen, daß, so sehr Sartre logisch im Recht sein mag, die Kritik im Grunde darauf zielen muß, genau jenes für Sartre Unmögliche dennoch zur Darstellung zu bringen: um die Verkehrungen erkennen zu können, dank derer das Kapital als automatisches Subjekt, als Souverän, agieren kann. (shrink)

Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--Freiburg (Breisgau), Universitèat, 1996.