Feedback Loops: Pragmatism about Science and Technology (Postphenomenology and the Philosophy of Technology)

In a world of information technologies, genetic engineering, controversies about established science, and the mysteries of quantum physics, it is at once seemingly impossible and absolutely vital to find ways to make sense of how science, technology, and society connect. In "Feedback loops : pragmatism about science and technology", editors Andrew Wells Garnar and Ashley Shew bring together original writing from philosophers and science and technology studies scholars to provide novel ways of rethinking the relationships among science, technology, education, and society. Through critiquing and exploring the work of philosopher of science and technology Joseph C. Pitt, the authors featured in this volume investigate the complexities of contemporary technoscience, writing on topics ranging from super-computing to pedagogy, engineering to biotechnology patents, and scientific instruments to disability studies. Taken together, these chapters develop an argument about the necessity of using pragmatism to foster a more productive relationship among science, technology and society Cover Feedback Loops Series page Feedback Loops: Pragmatism about Scienceand Technology Copyright Contents Preface Chapter 1 The Pursuit of Machoflops Notes References Chapter 2 The Applicability of Copyright to Synthetic Biology The Essentials of Patent and Copyright Law Synthetic Biology and the Analogy with Computer Programming A Fundamental Disanalogy between Computer Source Code and the DNA Sequences of Synthetic Biology Merger, Synthetic Biology, and the Complications That Arise Summary and Conclusion Notes References Chapter 3 A Defense of Sicilian Realism A Simplified Version of a Complicated Idea The Sellarsian Challenge The Myth of Simplicity A Sellarsian Rejoinder Theory, Practice, and Realism Technology and Realism Teachers and Students Notes References Chapter 4 Quasi-fictional Idealization The General Idea Machinery Typical Normal Ordinal/Usual Average On Perfection and Its Exclusions by Merit Complementarity Optimal The Use of Idealizations Note Reference Chapter 5 Technological Knowledge in Disability Design Introduction Disability Activism, Simulation, Community, and Expertise Technological Knowledge Technological Knowledge in Disability Community Afterword and Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Chapter 6 The Effects of Social Networking Sites on Critical Self-Reflection Pitt on Neutrality SNS and the Ethic of Personalization SNS and Epistemic Bubbles Epistemic Bubbles and Responsiveness to Reasons Pitt’s Common Sense Approach to Technological Problems Conclusion Notes References Chapter 7 A Celtic Knot, from Strands of Pragmatic Philosophy Note References Chapter 8 Moral Values in Technical Artifacts Pitt’s Defense of the Value Neutrality Thesis Critique of Pitt’s defense Technical Artifacts with Values and Inherent Moral Significance Discussion Notes References Chapter 9 Engineering Students as Technological Artifacts Notes References Chapter 10 Gravity and Technology Falling Bodies Henry Cavendish, the Density of the Earth, and G, the Universal Gravitational Constant Conclusion Notes References Chapter 11 Joe Pitt, the Philosophical Imagination, and the Practice of Pedagogy Notes References Afterword Index About the Contributors In a world of information technologies, genetic engineering, controversies about established science, and the mysteries of quantum physics, it is at once seemingly impossible and absolutely vital to find ways to make sense of how science, technology, and society connect. In Feedback Loops: Pragmatism about Science & Technology, editors Andrew Wells Garnar and Ashley Shew bring together original writing from philosophers and science and technology studies scholars to provide novel ways of rethinking the relationships between science, technology, education, and society. Through critiquing and exploring the work of philosopher of science and technology Joseph C. Pitt, the authors featured in this volume explore the complexities of contemporary technoscience, writing on topics ranging from super-computing to pedagogy, engineering to biotechnology patents, and scientific instruments to disability studies. Taken together, these chapters develop an argument about the necessity of using pragmatism to foster a more productive relationship between science, technology and society "This volume explores the arrangement of science, technology, society, and education. Using the concept of 'feedback loop', this book processes subjects dear to the work of Joseph C. Pitt: technology as humanity at work, pragmatism, Sicilian realism, pragmatist pedagogy, instrumentation in science, and more"-- Provided by publisher