10.6092/issn.2038-3460/16863
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2038-3460
16863
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Chiara Ambrosio
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Boris Castel and Sergio Sismondo, The Art of Science, University of Toronto Press, 2008
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https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/
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Book Reviews
2011-12-29
2023-04-27
2011-12-29
2023-07-06
116-119
TS
Chiara Ambrosio
2011/12/29
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/16863
116
University College London
2038-3460
2
en
119
Boris Castel and Sergio Sismondo, The Art of Science, University of Toronto Press, 2008
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/16863/15835
2
116   BOOK REVIEWS




          Boris Castel, Sergio Sismondo         tualise these two images and prove
              The Art of Science                that they offer a key to understand
        2008, University of Toronto Press,      particular scientific characters and
                     200 pp.                    their place within specific episodes in
                                                the history of science.
                  Chiara Ambrosio                   The myth of the genius, for
             (University College London)        instance, often seems to permeate
                                                accounts of the collapse of classical
                                                physics, which is discussed in chapter
                                                2. Here the authors use the case of
          When philosophers and physicists      20th century representations of the
      join forces, the results are usually      atom as a particularly illustrative
      quite exciting. Born from the             example of the reconceptualisation
      collaboration between a nuclear           that shook the world of physics – and
      physicist and a philosopher of            of culture at large – at the beginning
      science, The Art of Science is no         of the past century. The chapter is
      exception. Boris Castel and Sergio        aptly entitled “Painting the Invi-
      Sismondo present an engaging dis-         sible”, as it shows that, just like
      cussion on the art of scientific inqui-   scientists, artists at the beginning of
      ry, unravelling its most human as-        the century embarked on an enquiry
      pects and dispelling a few wide-          into ways of representing the unseen.
      spread myths.                             Due to their revolutionary nature, the
          The book revolves around two          parallel histories of early 20th
      commonsense assumptions, which            century art and science often appear
      still seem to inform many accounts of     inhabited by extraordinary geniuses –
      scientific investigation: a view of the   Cézanne, Rutherford, Duchamp,
      scientist as a computer and one of        Bohr, Mondrian, Heisenberg – but
      the scientist as a genius. These two      Castel and Sismondo emphasise that
      assumptions       ultimately    explain   this only happens when we strip their
      science either as the product of a        stories out of context. Both art and
      cold and impeccable logic, which          science in Europe in the 20th century
      warrants the rationality of the           were intensely social activities – and
      scientific pursuit, or as the myste-      it is this social dimension that defines
      rious creation of the mind of “genius-    what comes to be accepted as a
      es”, whose workings remain unexpla-       “revolutionary” reconceptualisation.
      inable.                                       Examples of the myth of the
          Castel and Sismondo show that         scientist as a computer are discussed
      the computer and the genius embody        in chapter 3, which deals with the
      popular conceptions of ideal qualities    process of scientific reasoning. The
      often attributed to scientists, and as    truth in the myth, Castel and
      all ideals they are extremely difficult   Sismondo argue, is that patterns of
      to live up to. Without entirely           reasoning, once consolidated, tend to
      rejecting them, the authors contex-       become more and more rigid, thus
                                                           TECNOSCIENZA – 2 (2)       117




resembling computations. This hap-          remain otherwise hidden. During
pens only with time, however.               controversies scientists dissect each
Scientific reasoning is an art that         other’s theories in the effort of
requires learning and practice. It          finding possible flaws in their oppo-
develops through time and it is             nents’ arguments, they openly ques-
constantly affected by controversies        tion the validity of each other’s
about the validity of scientific data       evidence and at the same time come
and their interpretations. Drawing on       up with sophisticated strategies to
the case of the early resistance to         prove their points. The emerging
natural selection, the authors con-         picture is one in which conflict and
textualise the place of logic in science    disagreements are central to the
as “the work needed to develop and          growth of knowledge and to the
expand specific reasoning skills” (p.       development of new strategies of
74). As the history of science clearly      reasoning within scientific com-
shows, logic alone rarely provides the      munities. Through an insightful
final verdict on a particular theory or     examination of the argumentative
experimental result.                        strategies used in the controversy
   Scientific inquiry, conceived as an      around the case of Mitochondrial
“art”, requires a renewed emphasis          Eve, Castel and Sismondo show how
on the social dimension of the              controversies unravel scientists’ valu-
scientific enterprise as a whole.           es, and their passions, in ways which
Revolutionary reconceptualisations          would otherwise remain hidden
require acceptance within a com-            behind the objective and factual style
munity, effective forms of reasoning        of the average scientific paper.
never emerge in isolation, but are              Such a view of science as a social
learned and developed within a social       art is extended to the context of
context. Scientific controversies are a     experimentation in chapter 5. The
good ground to test the art of science      chapter capitalises on historians and
in action, and it is to this aspect of      philosophers’ revival of interest in
scientific inquiry that Castel and          the role of experimentation and its
Sismondo turn their attention in            relation to theories. Ian Hacking’s
chapter 4. The slogan of the chapter,       work immediately springs to mind as
which is also the title of the opening      a key reference to the section entitled
section, is “Science as a Social Art”.      “Experiments Have Lives of Their
The aim of the chapter is to unravel        Own” (p. 111), but the authors go
and highlight the role of com-              further than that. Through a variety
munities, and their disagreements, in       of examples ranging from contem-
scientific practice. One of the             porary microscopy to Wilson and
advantages of examining contro-             Simberloff’s experiments testing the
versies, both from a philosophical          predictions of the equilibrium theory
and from a historical point of view, is     of the distribution of species in
that they give full visibility to aspects   isolated regions, the authors stress
of scientific practice that would           that the value of experimental
118   BOOK REVIEWS




      knowledge resides in its ability to       the authors show how the move
      disclose potential avenues for further    toward “big science” is now
      investigation. This feature of experi-    paralleled by a move toward “big
      mental knowledge very much                art”. The Wrapped Reichstag – the
      depends on its ambiguous nature.          German Reichstag in Berlin entirely
      Philosophers and scientists alike have    covered in fabric, which was
      been wrestling with the question of       produced entirely for the purpose of
      which experimental results truly          the installation – required an enor-
      count as “natural”, and which ones        mous amount of organization and
      are explicitly “artifactual” – the        institutional support. A picture very
      products of the experimenter’s            different indeed from that of the
      manipulations. As Castel and Sis-         artist in his studio, which still per-
      mondo show, this distinction is itself    vades our common idea of what
      in part misleading when taken out of      counts as artistic practice.
      a particular social context. In this          Castel and Sismondo’s narrative
      sense, the artificial products of         guides the reader toward the final
      experimentation, and their practical      chapter, aptly framed as a question:
      effects, can eventually offer a glimpse   “The End of Science?”. By that
      of the potential of certain experi-       point, the reader will have all the
      mental practices, thus offering a basis   tools to formulate an answer. The
      for further theorising.                   very idea that the pursuit of scientific
          Chapter 6, entitled “Doing            investigation is very close to be
      Science in the Real World” explores       completed is yet another myth – one
      the social dimension of science in        which might hold only if we fully
      connection with its growingly             subscribe to a view of scientists as
      institutional character. The chapter is   computers or as geniuses. But the
      broad in scope and touches a              very social dimension of science, the
      number of pressing contemporary           authors suggest, implies the possibi-
      issues. These range from women’s          lity of continuously redefining questi-
      place in science, and the hidden          ons in an endless cycle of new
      disadvantages and subtle forms of         controversies and reconceptualisa-
      discrimination that still prevent their   tions. This is also why reductionist
      full participation in the scientific      programmes, and their promise of
      enterprise, to the effects that           successfully reducing various levels
      publication pressure has on the           of explanation to fundamental laws,
      directions of scientific research, and    are only yet another ideal that scien-
      finally to the meaning and conse-         tists will never be able to live up to.
      quences of “big science”. Interes-            Focusing from the start on
      tingly, the parallel with art comes       “activity” rather than “results”, The
      back in this chapter in a particularly    Art of Science offers an engaging and
      forceful way. Drawing on the              refreshing perspective on the pursuit
      example of the “Wrapped Reichstag”        of science as an inherently human
      by artists Christo and Jeanne Claude,     enterprise. The book ends on a
                                                         TECNOSCIENZA – 2 (2)       119




hopeful note: “Indeed, perhaps            several case studies, the tendencies
science has only just begun” (p. 178)     assumed by biomedicine in the
– a powerful reminder of the              postmodern society. In the last
importance of keeping an open mind        decades, indeed, the technological
even when the achievements of             innovation in the health care field has
science seem to give us final answers.    laid the groundwork for a consistent
Castel and Sismondo’s discussion          development of the biomedical
will certainly please all philosophers,   knowledge, considerably moving the
sociologists and historians with an       medical intervention limit on the
interest in scientific practice, while    human body, till to interweave life’s
the broad range of case studies and       and human experience’s aspects that
illustrations in each chapter will take   otherwise would be considered
students and general readers on a         "natural" (Kaufman and Morgan,
wonderful journey of discovery.           2005). In particular, the emergence
                                          of new substantive areas of the life
                                          sciences such as genomics, molecular
                                          biology, genetic medicine and
                 ***                      pharmacogenetics, accompanied by
                                          complex diagnostic and information
                                          technologies, provides just some
                                          examples of the changes that have
Adele E. Clarke, Laura Mamo, Jennifer     affected the modality of production
Ruth Fosket, Jennifer R. Fishman, Janet   and circulation of the medical
            K. Shim (eds)                 knowledge. For this reason the Social
  Biomedicalization. Technosci-           Sciences, and in particular way the
  ence, Health, and Illness in the        Science and Technology Studies
               U.S.                       (STS), in the last years have devoted
                                          a constantly increasing attention to
 2010, Duke University Press, 498 pp.     the intersection between biology,
                                          medicine and life sciences in general,
                                          focusing the analysis on the emergent
             Stefano Crabu
                                          biomedical technologies (Hogle
         (Università di Padova)           2008).
                                              The works composing the
                                          anthology proposed by Adele Clarke
    The anthology edited by Clarke,       and her colleagues present, on the
Mamo, Fosket, Fishman and Shim,           whole, the most innovative STS
called "the gang of five" by Virginia     features. In doing so, treating the
Olesen because of their constant          relation between medicine and
“shoulder to shoulder” academic           society, the editors introduce an
work, proposes to face, within an         approach to social studies that is
innovative theoretical perspective        different from the classical one
accompanied by the discussion of          constituted by the medicalization
