This article considers how scientists involved in animal experimentation attempt to defend their practices. Interviews with over 40 scientists revealed that, over and above direct criticisms of the antivivisection lobby, scientists used a number of discursive strategies to demonstrate that critics of animal experimentation are ethically and epistemologically infenor to British scientific practitioners. The scientists portrayed a series of negative "others" such as foreign scientists, farmers, and pet owners. In this manner, they attempted to create a "socioethical domain" which rhetorically (...) insulated them from criticism while simultaneously problematizing the critiques of the anti- animal-experimentation public. Some of the implications for relations between science and the public, especially regarding scientific credibility, are discussed. (shrink)

Die Buchreihe "Philosopische Anthropologie" wird mit einem Band eröffnet, der die Philosophische Anthropologie im Streit vorstellt. Geführt wird dieser Streit um das Paradigma der Philosophischen Anthropologie und um ihre Methoden im Unterschied sowohl zu anderen Philosophien als auch zu den verschiedenen Erfahrungswissenschaften. Ihre Grenzbestimmungen und Grenzübergänge finden schließlich anhand ausgewählter Themen eine exemplarische Erprobung.

Frontmatter -- VORWORT ZUR ERSTEN AUFLAGE -- VORWORT ZUR ZWEITEN AUFLAGE -- INHALT -- Erstes Kapitel. ZIEL UND GEGENSTAND DER UNTERSUCHUNG -- Zweites Kapitel. DER CARTESIANISCHE EINWAND UND DIE PROBLEMSTELLUNG -- Drittes Kapitel. DIE THESE -- Viertes Kapitel. DIE DASEINSWEISEN DER LEBENDIGKEIT -- Fünftes Kapitel. DIE ORGANISATIONSWEISEN DES LEBENDIGEN DASEINS. PFLANZE UND TIER -- Sechstes Kapitel. DIE SPHÄRE DES TIERES -- Siebentes Kapitel: Die Sphaere des Menschen -- NACHTRAG -- SACHREGISTER -- NAMENSREGISTER -- Backmatter.

In order to delimit the realm of social phenomena, sociologists refer implicitly or explicitly to a distinction between living human beings and other entities, that is, sociologists equate the social world with the world of living humans. This consensus has been questioned by only a few authors, such as Luckmann, and some scholars of science studies. According to these approaches, it would be ethnocentric to treat as self-evident the premise that only living human beings can be social actors. The methodological (...) consequence of such critique is a radical deanthropologization of sociological research. It must be considered an open question whether or not only living human can be social actors. The paper starts with a discussion of the methodological problems posed by such an analysis of the borders of the social world, and presents the results of an empirical analysis of these borders in the fields of intensive care and neurological rehabilitation. Within these fields it must be determined whether a body is a living human body or a symbol using human body. The analysis of these elementary border phenomena challenges basic sociological concepts. The relevant contemporary sociological theories refer to a dyadic constellation as the systematic starting point of their concept of sociality. The complex relationship between at least two entities is understood as the basis of the development of a novel order that functions as a mediating structure between the involved parties. Based upon empirical data, I argue that it is necessary to change this foundational assumption. Not the dyad but the triad must be understood as the foundational constellation. This implies a new understanding of the third actor, which is distinct from the concepts developed by Simmel and Berger and Luckmann. (shrink)

WALTER A. ROSENBLITH Footnotes to the Recent History of Neuroscience: Personal Reflections and Microstories The workshop upon which this volume is based offered me an opportunity to renew contact fairly painlessly with workers in the brain sciences, not just as a participant/observer but maybe as what might be called a teller of microstories. I had originally become curious about the brain by way of my wife's senior thesis, in which she attempted to relate electroencephalography to certain aspects of human behavior. (...) As a then-budding physicist and communications engineer, I had barely heard about brain waves, nor had I studied physiology in a systematic way. My work on noise dealt with the effects of certain acoustical stimuli on biological structures and entire organisms. This was the period immediately after World War II when many scientists and engineers who had done applied work in the war effort were trying to find their way among the challenging new fields that were opening up. Francis Crick, among others, has described such a search taking place in the cafes of the "other" Cambridge, the one on the Cam. At that time the brain sciences, in his opinion, offered much less promise than molecular biology. However, he was sufficiently attracted by what they might eventually have to offer to keep an eye on them, and several decades later his work turned toward the brain. (shrink)

In "Primate visions" schetst de wetenschapshistorica Donna Haraway de evolutie van de primatologie van de jaren 20 tot de jaren 80. Primaten lijken zozeer op mensen dat zij het onderzoeksobject bij uitstek vormen waarop wetenschappers, bewust of onbewust, hun ideeën over natuur en cultuur projecteren. Tegelijk is de primatologie een wetenschap waar ongewoon veel vrouwen in betrokken zijn. Haraway grijpt deze twee gegevens aan om uitvoerig in te gaan op het thema van vrouwen in de wetenschap, op de wetenschappelijke constructie (...) van gender, maar ook op de wisselwerking tussen ras, klasse en (post)koloniale cultuur enerzijds en het 'westerse' natuurwetenschappelijk onderzoek anderzijds.Zij argumenteert dat de economische, politieke en culturele overtuigingen van de onderzoekers de studie en de kennis van primaten sterk beïnvloeden. Ze legt de maatschappelijke doelstellingen en de ideologische overtuigingen bloot waardoor onderzoeksprogramma's gestuurd worden. Tegelijk verdedigt ze de stelling dat ook de levende wezens die gewoonlijk als 'natuur' beschouwd worden (apen en 'primitieve' mensen) zelf actief participeren in de creatie van kennis omtrent de natuur. Haraway's betoog is bovendien doorspekt met beschrijvingen van primaten in de populaire cultuur, gaande van science fiction verhalen tot documentaires van National Geographic. De auteur plaatst al deze verschillende perspectieven naast zonder ze te willen reduceren tot één, samenhangende, uniforme realiteit. Deze postmoderne, gefragmenteerde visie op de geschiedenis beschouwt Haraway als een complex en interessant alternatief voor de traditionele, causale geschiedschrijving. (shrink)

Latour is a world famous and widely published French sociologist who has written with great eloquence and perception about the relationship between people, science, and technology. He is also closely associated with the school of thought known as Actor Network Theory. In this book he sets out for the first time in one place his own ideas about Actor Network Theory and its relevance to management and organization theory.

The social, ethical and legal implications of discoveries in the neurosciences.