The sciences of subjectivity
Abstract
In historical and ethnographic studies of the making of scientific knowledge, there has been a long-standing fascination with deflating certain stories about objectivity. Among the resources used to achieve that deflation have been the notions of subjectivity, which has been treated more as a trouble for objectivity than as a knowledge-making mode open to systematic study. I describe notions of subjectivity implicated in that inattention; I trace potentially constructive links between contemporary science studies and resources in 18th-century philosophical aesthetics; I draw notice to available engagements with the mode of subjectivity known as taste, and, especially, gustation and olfaction; and I suggest ways in which we might study the achievement of intersubjectivity in these domains.
Cite this
Steven Shapin (2012). The sciences of subjectivity. Social Studies of Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312711435375
@article{steven2012the,
title = {The sciences of subjectivity},
author = {Shapin, Steven},
year = {2012},
journal = {Social Studies of Science},
doi = {10.1177/0306312711435375}
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