SOCI 325: Sociology of Science

Agenda

Theme 3:
Science aligns
with power

  1. Administrative
  2. Today's readings
  3. Scientific objectivity
  4. Small-group discussions

Administrative

Notes

Group sign-up

Final project details on Thursday

Today's readings

A 19th-century phrenology diagram of a cranium, with areas labeled with numbers and lobes of the brain Three multi-colored medical scans of a human body, emphasizing bones and flesh An MRI scan of a brain in black and white

Gould (1981) Measuring Heads — required

  • Case study of 19th century craniologist Paul Broca
  • Examines the role of objectivity and numerical measurement in supporting racial, gender, and class hierarchies

Maintenence Phase (2021, podcast) The Body Mass Index — optional

  • Discussion of the history of the Body Mass Index (BMI) as a health measure
  • Links BMI to gender, race, class, and body politics

Daston and Galison (2010), Epistemologies of the Eye — optional

  • History of scientific ideals and the concept of objectivity
  • Discusses different forms of objectivity, and the
    role of interpretation in contemporary ideals of objectivity

Scientific objectivity

a brief history

Scientific objectivity

Objectivity

In theory:

  • Removing the influence of personal bias, opinions, or feelings.
  • Knowledge that exists apart from human influence.

In practice:

  • Represents one ideal to strive toward.
  • Many techniques:
    Mechanization, replication, peer review, …
  • These methods can be deceptive
    (e.g. Gould 1981; Benjamin 2019).

Historically:

  • Scientific objectivity was a 19th-century invention (Daston & Galison 2010).

Scientific objectivity

Truth to nature

Pre-objectivity

  • In Daston & Galison’s (2010) account, 18th-century scientists had a different ideal for representation.

Ideal types

  • The job of a scientist was to characterize objects in the world, emphasizing regularity.
  • Idiosyncrasies should be ignored,
    and description should emphasize “the characteristic, the essential, the universal, the typical” (ibid., p. 20).
A 19th century technical illustration of a plant with almond-shaped green leaves and six-lobed pink flowers. There are inset drawing detailing the flower and seeds. The plant's name, 'Lagerstroemia speciosa' is written in thin script at the bottom.

Illustration of Lagerstroemia speciosa from 1795 publication Plants of the coast of Coromandel.

Scientific objectivity

Mechanical objectivity

New ideal of seeing

  • With the advent of photography, scientists adopted mechanical objectivity as new ‘epistemic virtue.’

Minimizing human involvement

  • Mechanical objectivity aimed to take people out of the process of representing nature.
    “To be objective is to aspire to knowledge that bears no trace of the knower” (Daston & Galison 2010, p17)
  • Idiosyncrasy should be emphasized and catalogued.
  • Photography, impartial measurement, and blinded observation are prioritized.
A grid of 42 black and white photos of ears. Text at the top reads 'Oreille droite - Lobe'

Alphonse Bertillon’s photographs of the ears of criminals (circa 1900).

Scientific objectivity

Trained judgement

Expert intervention

  • According to Daston & Galison, a new epistemic virtue of “trained judgement” arose in the early 20th
    century.

Trained interpretation of data

  • Cataloguing mechanical representations is not enough for
    valid, scientific knowledge.
  • Trained experts, familiar with the theories, mechanisms, and methods in a domain should provide interpretation.
  • ‘Subjective’ intervention is necessary to make sense of ‘objective’ records.
An X-ray image of a pelvis and spine. Various lines, numbers, and labels are marked on the image by hand.

Discussion

Discussion

In person

Online

Form groups of 4–5

  • At tables or outside of the classroom. Join a Teams room for your table

Form groups of 4–5

  • Choose a "discussion room" channel on Teams

Small-group discussions:

  • Choose one facilitator who will keep the discussion focused and make sure everyone is able to participate.
  • Choose one secretary who will take notes and summarize the group’s responses for submission.
  • Download Word Doc (linked from syllabus) and type your names/roles at the top
  • Type your responses directly in the document and submit one document per group

Notes:

  • You do not need to reach consensus on the questions. Your write-up should mention the different points your group thought were relevant. One or two paragraphs worth of text per question should be sufficient.
    Please avoid bullet-point format.
  • You can discuss the questions in any order you like, and you do not need to respond to all of them. Read over them before you begin!

Next class

Next class

Required reading

  • Wolfe (2018)
    Introduction to
    Freedom's laboratory: the Cold War struggle for the soul of science

Image credit

A 19th-century phrenology diagram of a cranium, with areas labeled with numbers and lobes of the brain

Plate 35 from Hollander (1902), Scientific Phrenology via archive.org

Three multi-colored medical scans of a human body, emphasizing bones and flesh

Image by Hologic Inc, via The Wall Street Journal

An MRI scan of a brain in black and white

MRI from Hongwei et al. (2015)

A 19th century technical illustration of a plant with almond-shaped green leaves and six-lobed pink flowers. There are inset drawing detailing the flower and seeds. The plant's name, 'Lagerstroemia speciosa' is written in thin script at the bottom.

Print from Plants of the coast of Coromandel

A grid of 42 black and white photos of ears. Text at the top reads 'Oreille droite - Lobe'

Photos by Alphonse Bertillon, via The Metropolitan Museum

An X-ray image of a pelvis and spine. Various lines, numbers, and labels are marked on the image by hand.

Photo by Michael Dorausch via planetc1.com

3 readings for today. First two directly related Daston and Galison is for context

ASK: what does it mean for a scientific finding to be "objective"?

Lorraine Daston, Peter Galiston “epistemic virtues”