Alireza Doostdar
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691163772
- eISBN:
- 9781400889785
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163772.003.0016
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines imaginative uses of science to highlight the variety of ways in which scientific imaginaries permeate understandings of religious phenomena, even such central theological ...
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This chapter examines imaginative uses of science to highlight the variety of ways in which scientific imaginaries permeate understandings of religious phenomena, even such central theological concepts as the Day of Judgment and divine rewards and punishments. A scientific imaginary consists of two things: first is an experimental template for transposing ways of knowing (concepts, models, methods, evidential considerations, styles of reasoning, interpretive schemas, subjective orientations, etc.) from one or more well-established contexts of scientific knowledge-practice to less-explored terrain. Second, a scientific imaginary comprises images and representations that capture a range of aspirations, hopes, fears, anxieties, and moral judgments attached to scientific knowledge and practice. The chapter considers three examples of self-consciously playful and tentative deployments of scientific imaginaries.Less
This chapter examines imaginative uses of science to highlight the variety of ways in which scientific imaginaries permeate understandings of religious phenomena, even such central theological concepts as the Day of Judgment and divine rewards and punishments. A scientific imaginary consists of two things: first is an experimental template for transposing ways of knowing (concepts, models, methods, evidential considerations, styles of reasoning, interpretive schemas, subjective orientations, etc.) from one or more well-established contexts of scientific knowledge-practice to less-explored terrain. Second, a scientific imaginary comprises images and representations that capture a range of aspirations, hopes, fears, anxieties, and moral judgments attached to scientific knowledge and practice. The chapter considers three examples of self-consciously playful and tentative deployments of scientific imaginaries.
Lesley A. Sharp
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520277960
- eISBN:
- 9780520957152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520277960.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
In the introduction, “Moral Neutrality and the Scientific Imaginary,” I map out the history of this project and make particular claims about the value of ethnographic investigation as a means to ...
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In the introduction, “Moral Neutrality and the Scientific Imaginary,” I map out the history of this project and make particular claims about the value of ethnographic investigation as a means to uncover otherwise hidden evidence of widespread moral thinking in science. A premise that drives the work as a whole is that highly experimental contexts in science engender moral thought and that the related (and often competing) fields of xenotransplantation and biomechanical engineering (henceforth “bioengineering”) provide especially compelling contexts in which to explore this. Both are morally charged precisely because organ transplantation itself is driven by the intense desire to stave off death and alleviate suffering. Given the widespread understanding that organs are in scarce supply, from the start, those working on experimental alternatives understand their work as virtuous forms of science. The introduction is also devoted to unpacking the significance of the “imaginary” as a way to explore the nature of moral thinking.Less
In the introduction, “Moral Neutrality and the Scientific Imaginary,” I map out the history of this project and make particular claims about the value of ethnographic investigation as a means to uncover otherwise hidden evidence of widespread moral thinking in science. A premise that drives the work as a whole is that highly experimental contexts in science engender moral thought and that the related (and often competing) fields of xenotransplantation and biomechanical engineering (henceforth “bioengineering”) provide especially compelling contexts in which to explore this. Both are morally charged precisely because organ transplantation itself is driven by the intense desire to stave off death and alleviate suffering. Given the widespread understanding that organs are in scarce supply, from the start, those working on experimental alternatives understand their work as virtuous forms of science. The introduction is also devoted to unpacking the significance of the “imaginary” as a way to explore the nature of moral thinking.
Lesley A. Sharp
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520277960
- eISBN:
- 9780520957152
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520277960.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
The extraordinarily surgically successful realm of organ transplantation is plagued worldwide by the scarcity of donated human parts, a quandary that generates ongoing debates over the marketing of ...
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The extraordinarily surgically successful realm of organ transplantation is plagued worldwide by the scarcity of donated human parts, a quandary that generates ongoing debates over the marketing of organs, as patients die waiting for replacements. These widespread anxieties within and beyond medicine over organ scarcity inspire seemingly futuristic trajectories in other fields. Especially prominent, longstanding, and promising domains include xenotransplantation, or efforts to cull organs from animals for human use, and bioengineering, a field peopled with “tinkerers” intent on designing implantable mechanical devices, where the heart is of special interest. Scarcity, suffering, and sacrifice are pervasive and, seemingly, inescapable themes that frame the transplant imaginary. Xenotransplant experts and bioengineers at work in labs in five Anglophone countries share a marked determination to eliminate scarcity and human suffering, certain that their efforts might one day altogether eliminate any need for parts of human origin. A premise that drives Sharp’s compelling ethnographic project is that high-stakes experimentation inspires moral thinking, informing scientists’ determination to redirect the surgical trajectory of transplantation and, ultimately, alter the integrity of the human form.Less
The extraordinarily surgically successful realm of organ transplantation is plagued worldwide by the scarcity of donated human parts, a quandary that generates ongoing debates over the marketing of organs, as patients die waiting for replacements. These widespread anxieties within and beyond medicine over organ scarcity inspire seemingly futuristic trajectories in other fields. Especially prominent, longstanding, and promising domains include xenotransplantation, or efforts to cull organs from animals for human use, and bioengineering, a field peopled with “tinkerers” intent on designing implantable mechanical devices, where the heart is of special interest. Scarcity, suffering, and sacrifice are pervasive and, seemingly, inescapable themes that frame the transplant imaginary. Xenotransplant experts and bioengineers at work in labs in five Anglophone countries share a marked determination to eliminate scarcity and human suffering, certain that their efforts might one day altogether eliminate any need for parts of human origin. A premise that drives Sharp’s compelling ethnographic project is that high-stakes experimentation inspires moral thinking, informing scientists’ determination to redirect the surgical trajectory of transplantation and, ultimately, alter the integrity of the human form.
Lesley A. Sharp
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520299245
- eISBN:
- 9780520971059
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520299245.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
What are the moral challenges and consequences of animal research in academic laboratory settings? Animal Ethos considers how the inescapable needs of lab research necessitate interspecies encounters ...
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What are the moral challenges and consequences of animal research in academic laboratory settings? Animal Ethos considers how the inescapable needs of lab research necessitate interspecies encounters that, in turn, engender unexpected moral responses among a range of associated personnel. Whereas much has been written about the codified, bioethical rules and regulations that inform proper lab behavior and decorum, Animal Ethos, as an in-depth, ethnographic project, probes the equally rich—yet poorly understood—realm of ordinary or everyday morality, where serendipitous, creative, and unorthodox thought and action evidence concerted efforts to transform animal laboratories into moral, scientific worlds. The work is grounded in efforts to integrate theory within medical anthropology (and, more particularly, on suffering and moral worth), animal studies, and science and technology studies (STS). Contrary to established scholarship that focuses exclusively on single professions (such as the researcher or technician), Animal Ethos tracks across the spectrum of the lab labor hierarchy by considering the experiences of researchers, animal technicians, and lab veterinarians. In turn, it offers comparative insights on animal activists. When taken together, this range of parties illuminates the moral complexities of experimental lab research. The affective qualities of interspecies intimacy, animal death, and species preference are of special analytical concern, as reflected in the themes of intimacy, sacrifice, and exceptionalism that anchor this work.Less
What are the moral challenges and consequences of animal research in academic laboratory settings? Animal Ethos considers how the inescapable needs of lab research necessitate interspecies encounters that, in turn, engender unexpected moral responses among a range of associated personnel. Whereas much has been written about the codified, bioethical rules and regulations that inform proper lab behavior and decorum, Animal Ethos, as an in-depth, ethnographic project, probes the equally rich—yet poorly understood—realm of ordinary or everyday morality, where serendipitous, creative, and unorthodox thought and action evidence concerted efforts to transform animal laboratories into moral, scientific worlds. The work is grounded in efforts to integrate theory within medical anthropology (and, more particularly, on suffering and moral worth), animal studies, and science and technology studies (STS). Contrary to established scholarship that focuses exclusively on single professions (such as the researcher or technician), Animal Ethos tracks across the spectrum of the lab labor hierarchy by considering the experiences of researchers, animal technicians, and lab veterinarians. In turn, it offers comparative insights on animal activists. When taken together, this range of parties illuminates the moral complexities of experimental lab research. The affective qualities of interspecies intimacy, animal death, and species preference are of special analytical concern, as reflected in the themes of intimacy, sacrifice, and exceptionalism that anchor this work.
Stephen Ramsay
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036415
- eISBN:
- 9780252093449
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036415.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter turns to the scientific imaginary as it appears in the realm of art. It asserts that art has very often sought either to parody science or to diminish its claims to truth. Within this ...
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This chapter turns to the scientific imaginary as it appears in the realm of art. It asserts that art has very often sought either to parody science or to diminish its claims to truth. Within this important post-Romantic strain of critique, this chapter isolates another voice that has sought to find a common imaginative ground between art and science. The chapter begins with Alfred Jarry's inauguration of the “science of 'Pataphysics” and ends with the literary refraction of Jarry's Gedankenexperimenten in the work of the Oulipo. The latter, in which the terms of art and criticism are uniquely joined, informs algorithmic criticism's emphasis on the liberating forces of (computationally enforced) constraint. Moreover, the chapter argues that this important modernist genealogy points to the primacy of pattern as the basic hermeneutical function that unites art, science, and criticism.Less
This chapter turns to the scientific imaginary as it appears in the realm of art. It asserts that art has very often sought either to parody science or to diminish its claims to truth. Within this important post-Romantic strain of critique, this chapter isolates another voice that has sought to find a common imaginative ground between art and science. The chapter begins with Alfred Jarry's inauguration of the “science of 'Pataphysics” and ends with the literary refraction of Jarry's Gedankenexperimenten in the work of the Oulipo. The latter, in which the terms of art and criticism are uniquely joined, informs algorithmic criticism's emphasis on the liberating forces of (computationally enforced) constraint. Moreover, the chapter argues that this important modernist genealogy points to the primacy of pattern as the basic hermeneutical function that unites art, science, and criticism.
