Table Of ContentScience After the Practice Turn in
the Philosophy, History, and Social
Studies of Science
“This is a terrifi c collection, which has brought together contributions by
the people who have thought hardest about practices in science. It is essen-
tial reading for anyone who employs this problematic concept in the study
of science. Its special virtue is that it brings social studies of science and the
philosophy of science back together, and in a fruitful and interesting way”.
—Stephen Turner, University of South Florida, USA
In the 1980s, philosophical, historical and social studies of science under-
went a change which later evolved into a turn to practice. Analysts of sci-
ence were asked to pay attention to scientifi c practices in meticulous detail
and along multiple dimensions, including the material, social and psycho-
logical. Following this turn, the interest in scientifi c practices continued to
increase and had an indelible infl uence in the various fi elds of science stud-
ies. No doubt, the practice turn changed our conceptions and approaches of
science, but what did it really teach us? What does it mean to study scientifi c
practices? What are the general lessons, implications, and new challenges?
This volume explores questions about the practice turn using both case
studies and theoretical analysis. The case studies examine empirical and math-
ematical sciences, including the engineering sciences. The volume promotes
interactions between acknowledged experts from different, often thought of as
confl icting, orientations. It presents contributions in conjunction with critical
commentaries that put the theses and assumptions of the former in perspec-
tive. Overall, the book offers a unique and diverse range of perspectives on the
meanings, methods, lessons, and challenges associated with the practice turn.
Léna Soler is Maître de conférences in the Laboratoire d’Histoire des Sci-
ences et de Philosophie—Archives Henri Poincaré at the Université de Lor-
raine, France.
Sjoerd Zwart is assistant professor at the Universities of Technology in Delft
and Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Michael Lynch is professor in the Department of Science and Technology
Studies at Cornell University, USA.
Vincent Israel-Jost is a post-doctoral researcher in the Laboratoire
d’Histoire des Sciences et de Philosophie—Archives Henri Poincaré at the
Université de Lorraine, France.
Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Science
1 Evolution, Rationality and 9 Models, Simulations, and
Cognition Representations
A Cognitive Science for the Paul Humphreys and
Twenty-First Century Cyrille Imbert
Edited by António Zilhão
10 Platonism, Naturalism, and
2 Conceptual Systems Mathematical Knowledge
Harold I. Brown James Robert Brown
3 Nancy Cartwright’s Philosophy
11 Thought Experiments
of Science
in Science, Philosophy,
Edited by Stephan Hartmann,
and the Arts
Carl Hoefer, and Luc Bovens
Edited by Mélanie Frappier,
Letitia Meynell, and
4 Fictions in Science
James Robert Brown
Philosophical Essays on
Modeling and Idealization
12 Kuhn’s The Structure of
Edited by Mauricio Suárez
Scientifi c Revolutions
Revisited
5 Karl Popper’s Philosophy of
Edited by Vasso Kindi and
Science
Theodore Arabatzis
Rationality Without Foundations
Stefano Gattei
13 Contemporary Philosophical
6 Emergence in Science and Naturalism and Its
Philosophy Implications
Edited by Antonella Corradini Edited by Bana Bashour and
and Timothy O’Connor Hans D. Muller
7 Popper’s Critical Rationalism 14 Science After the Practice
A Philosophical Investigation Turn in the Philosophy,
Darrell Rowbottom History, and Social Studies
of Science
8 Conservative Reductionism Edited by Léna Soler, Sjoerd
Michael Esfeld and Christian Zwart, Michael Lynch, and
Sachse Vincent Israel-Jost
Science After the Practice
Turn in the Philosophy,
History, and Social Studies
of Science
Edited by Léna Soler, Sjoerd Zwart,
Michael Lynch, and Vincent Israel-Jost
First published 2014
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
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© 2014 Taylor & Francis
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Science after the practice turn in the philosophy, history, and social studies
of science / edited by Léna Soler, Sjoerd Zwart, Vincent Israel-Jost, and
Michael Lynch. — 1 [edition].
pages cm. — (Routledge studies in the philosophy of science ; 14)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Science—Philosophy. 2. Science—Social aspects. I. Soler, Lena,
1966– editor of compilation.
Q175.S4157 2014
501—dc23
2013037522
ISBN: 978-0-415-72295-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-85798-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
LÉNA SOLER, SJOERD ZWART ,
VINCENT ISRAEL-JOST, AND MICHAEL LYNCH
1 Some Notions of Action 44
J EAN-MICHEL SALANSKIS
Commentary 58
J EAN-LUC GANGLOFF AND
CATHERINE ALLAMEL-RAFFIN
2 Epistemic Activities and Systems of Practice:
Units of Analysis in Philosophy of Science
After the Practice Turn 67
HASOK CHANG
Commentary 80
LÉNA SOLER AND RÉGIS CATINAUD
3 From Normative to Descriptive and Back:
Science and Technology Studies and the Practice Turn 93
MICHAEL LYNCH
Commentary 114
VINCENT ISRAEL-JOST AND KATHERINA KINZEL
4 Chemistry’s Periodic Law: Rethinking Representation
and Explanation After the Turn to Practice 123
ANDREA I. WOODY
Commentary 151
RÉGIS CATINAUD AND FRÉDÉRIC WIEBER
vi Contents
5 Epistemic Dependence in Contemporary Science:
Practices and Malpractices 161
HANNE ANDERSEN
Commentary 174
C YRILLE IMBERT
6 V alues in Engineering: From Object Worlds
to Socio-Technical Systems 188
LOUIS BUCCIARELLI AND PETER KROES
Commentary 200
SJOERD ZWART
7 The Impact of the Philosophy of Mathematical
Practice on the Philosophy of Mathematics 215
JEAN PAUL VAN BENDEGEM
Commentary 227
CAROLINE JULLIEN AND LÉNA SOLER
8 Observing Mathematical Practices as a Key to Mining
Our Sources and Conducting Conceptual History:
Division in Ancient China as a Case Study 238
K ARINE CHEMLA
Commentary 269
MÉLISSA ARNETON, AMIROUCHE MOKTEFI, AND
CATHERINE ALLAMEL-RAFFIN
9 Scientifi c Practice and the Scientifi c Image 277
JOSEPH ROUSE
Commentary 295
E MILIANO TRIZIO
Contributors 301
References 309
Index 335
Acknowledgments
We would like to offer our greatest thanks to many people and institutions
for their indispensible roles in the realization of this edited volume. First of
all, let us express our great appreciation to all the authors. The time and
effort they investigated made the present project so successfully achieve its
end. We are grateful for their important contributions to the present-day
research in philosophy, history, and social studies of science and technol-
ogy after the practice turn. Second, we would like to thank all the members
of the PratiScienS group, who provided the starting point of the present
volume: the conference R ethinking Science After the Practice Turn, held at
the Nancy University in June 2012. They helped to turn the conference into
a great success, and unrelentingly participated in the various demanding
and inspirational collective discussions of all the contributions of this book.
In addition, our special thanks are extended to the staff of Routledge for
their warm support and collaboration in the publishing process. Finally, we
would like to acknowledge the institutions that support or have been sup-
porting the activities of the PratiScienS team, viz., the:
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)
Maison des Sciences Humaines de Lorraine (MSHL);
Région Lorraine;
Laboratoire d’Histoire des Sciences et de Philosophie—Archives Henri
Poincaré;
Université de Lorraine.
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Introduction
Léna Soler, Sjoerd Zwart, Vincent
Israel-Jost, and Michael Lynch
I. AIM, SCOPE, AND GENESIS OF THE BOOK
The aim of the book is to take stock of the turn to practice in science stud-
ies, including the natural sciences as well as mathematics and engineering.
“Science studies”, as used here, refers to all studies that take science as their
object, whatever the perspective—philosophical, historical, sociological, or
other.
It is generally acknowledged that science studies, defi ned in this broad
sense, underwent a change that began in the 1970s and was later often called
a “practice turn”. 1 Researchers in science studies, who we will refer to as
“analysts of science”, were progressively more encouraged to pay attention
to scientifi c practices in meticulous detail and along multiple dimensions,
including the material, tacit, and psycho-social ones. This turn to practice
emerged from criticisms of traditional philosophy of science. The latter was
deemed to be too idealized and too disconnected from how science actually
is performed in laboratories and other research settings. In particular, ethno-
graphic studies conducted in scientifi c laboratories showed that science was
a complex activity that involved much more than experiments and logical
inferences. As a result, in the 1980s and even more in the 1990s, analysts of
science developed a broad interest in scientifi c practices.
This interest continued to increase in all the fi elds of science studies, to
the point that today, the reference to practice is a pervasive feature in diverse
studies devoted to science. It is present in philosophy of science and, to
some extent, in epistemology, including the analytic tradition. It remains
very important in science and technology studies (STS), particularly in soci-
ological and anthropological investigations that use ethnographic and eth-
nomethodological approaches. It also is prominent in history of science, and
in mixed forms of research, such as social history of science and historically
inspired philosophy of science.
The practice turn is thus deeply entrenched in science studies today, and
there is little doubt that it changed our conceptions of and approaches to sci-
ence. But what did it actually teach us? What does it mean to study scientifi c
practices? What are the general lessons, implications, and new challenges?
