Señor

Second Edition

PHILOSOPHY,
RHETORIC,
AND THE

END

OF
KNOWLEDGE
A New Beginning for Science
and Technology Studies

STEVE FULLER • JAMES H. COLLIER

PHILOSOPHY, RHETORIC,
AND THE END OF KNOWLEDGE
A New Beginning for Science
and Technology Studies
Second Edition

PHILOSOPHY, RHETORIC,
AND THE END OF KNOWLEDGE
A New Beginning for Science
and Technology Studies
SecondEdition

Steve Fuller
University of Warwick, UK
James H. Collier
Virginia Tech

2004

LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS
Mahwah, New Jersey
London

Camera ready copy for this book was provided by the authors.

Copyright © 2004 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced
in any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system,or
any other means without the prior written consent of the
publisher.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, NJ 07430
Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fuller, Steve, 1959Philosophy, rhetoric and the end of knowledge: a new beginning for science and technology studies.— 2nd
ed./Steve Fuller,James H. Collier.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-4767-7 (alk. Paper)
ISBN 0-8058-4768-5 (pbk. : alk. Paper)
1. Science—Philosophy. 2. Science—Social aspects. 3.
Knowledge, Theory of. 4. Rhetoric—Philosophy. 5. Social
sciences—Philosophy. I. Collier, James H. II. Title.
Q175.F926 2003
501—dc21
Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed
onacid-free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength
and durability.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents
Acknowledgments

ix

Introduction 2003:
The More Things Remain the Same, the More They Change

xi

PART I: THE PLAYERS AND THE POSITION
1

The Players: STS, Rhetoric, and Social Epistemology
HPS as the Prehistory of STS
The Turn toSociology and STS
Rhetoric: The Theory Behind the Practice
Enter the Social Epistemologist
Thought Questions

2

The Position: Interdisciplinarity as Interpenetration
The Terms of the Argument
The Perils of Pluralism
Interpenetration's Interlopers
The Pressure Points for Interpenetration
The Task Ahead (and the Enemy Within)
Here I Stand
Thought Questions

3
3
7
14
19
26
2929
32
37
40
46
54
54

PART II: INTERPENETRATION AT WORK
3

Incorporation, or Epistemology Emergent
Tycho on the Run
Hegel to the Rescue
Building the Better Naturalist
Naturalism's Trial by Fire
Thought Questions

4

59
59
70
78
83
83

Reflexion, or the Missing Mirror of the Social Sciences

86

How Science Both Requires and Imposes Discipline

86
v

viCONTENTS

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why the Scientific Study of Science Might Just Show That
There Is No Science to Study
The Elusive Search for the Science in the Social Sciences:
Deconstructing the Five Canonical Histories
How Economists Defeated PoliticalScientists at
Their Own Game
The Rhetoric That Is Science
Thought Questions
5

Sublimation, or Some Hints on How to Be Cognitively
Revolting
Of Rhetorical Impasses and Forced Choices
Some Impasses in the AI Debates
Drawing the Battle Lines
AI as PC-Positivism
How My Enemy's Enemy Became My Friend
But Now That the Coast is Clear
Three Attempts to Clarify the Cognitive
AI's StrangeBedfellows: Actants
Thought Questions

6

90
96
104
110
114
117
117
119
120
122
125
129
138
145
149

Excavation, or the Withering Away of History and Philosophy
of Science and the Brave New World of Science and
Technology Studies
152
Positioning Social Epistemology in the Transition From
HPS to STS
The Price of Humanism in Historical Scholarship
A Symmetry Principle for...