Description
The reliability (and nature) of human senses in rigorous scientific observations has been questioned since antiquity, and contemporary philosophy of science continues to portray astrophysicists as narrow-minded scholars, fuelled by certainty.
Drawing on visual ethnographic fieldwork with astrophysicists and instrument scientists, (microscope labs and diverse medical settings) this talks offers an alternative view of how these communities make sense of the world ‘up and out there’ beyond the visual image or spoken word. Exploring everyday scientific (and creative) embodied practices of deciding what is real, it focuses on temporary, dynamic interactions that take place through technologies and the importance of being human in the everyday world.
The applied ethnographic fieldwork is interwoven with Aristotle’s practical wisdom, Don Idhe's philosophy of technologies - and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s dialogue-as-play that moves beyond individual bodies and narrow concepts of the senses and embraces thinking through doing.
