DEPARTMENTS

The CPA office is located in the heart of the Faculty of Philosophy at Saint Paul University

We gratefully acknowledge the University's continuing support.
Les bureaux de l'ACP se trouvent au sein de la Faculté de philosophie à l'Université Saint-Paul.

Nous remercions grandement l'Université pour son soutien continu.

The Fourth Annual Stephen M. Straker Memorial Lecture

Professor Theodore M. Porter
Department of History
UCLA

"Thin Description: Surface and Depth in Science and Science Studies"

Monday, 12 April 2010
4:30-6:00 pm
Woodward IRC Room 1

Reception to Follow

Abstract: A succession of modern thinkers has theorized the thinning of the world and of thought. Edmund Burke and Frédéric Le Play lamented the disappearance of depth and wisdom as European states forsook tradition in the name of revolution. Alexis de Tocqueville worried about American democratic superficiality, and Marxist critical theorists about an alliance of capitalism and positivism. Against this, positivistic research on the modern pressed the need for professional social science on the ground that in a complex, interdependent world, local experience can only deceive us about true structures of causation. They had a point, but they underestimated the power of paradox. Our large, diverse, and politicized world has become less tolerant of subtlety, which recedes into nooks and corners, and increasingly it reveres information for its ready accessibility and seeming solidity. Science, adapting its public voice and some of its inward practices to such expectations, now flourishes in the public sphere as a preeminent site of facts, data, and statistics. Yet the aspiration to superficiality yields up all kinds of unexpected consequences, and exploring these is among the most pressing missions for science studies. We ought to scrutinize the domain of the superficial, yet not to be captured by it. We miss something vital if we merely follow scientists around or listen to what scientists and other spokesmen say about science, without asking about the meanings they make and the roles they create.

Professor Theodore M. Porter is the author of numerous essays and several books. His monographs include The Rise of Statistical Thinking, 1820-1900 (Princeton UP, 1986), Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton UP, 1995), and Karl Pearson: The Scientific Life in a Statistical Age (Princeton UP, 2004).

Professor Stephen M. Straker (1942-2004) was a member of the UBC History Department for over thirty years. Throughout his time at UBC, Professor Straker was the voice of history of science at UBC. He remains a leading inspiration for the efforts to create a Science and Technology Studies Graduate Program at UBC.

Funding for this event is provided by the SSHRC Knowledge Cluster Grant, Situating Science www.situsci.ca.