Philosophy, Rhetoric, and the End of Knowledge: A New Beginning for Science and Technology Studies

Steve Fuller, James H. Collier9780805847673, 0-8058-4767-7, 0-8058-4768-5

In this second edition of Steve Fuller’s original work Philosophy, Rhetoric, and the End of Knowledge: A New Beginning for Science and Technology Studies, James Collier joins Fuller in developing an updated and accessible version of Fuller’s classic volume. The new edition shifts focus slightly to balance the discussions of theory and practice, and the writing style is oriented to advanced students. It addresses the contemporary problems of knowledge to develop the basis for a more publicly accountable science. The resources of social epistemology are deployed to provide a positive agenda of research, teaching, and political action designed to bring out the best in both the ancient discipline of rhetoric and the emerging field of science and technology studies (STS). The authors reclaim and integrate STS and rhetoric to explore the problems of knowledge as a social process–problems of increasing public interest that extend beyond traditional disciplinary resources. In so doing, the differences among disciplines must be questioned (the exercise of STS) and the disciplinary boundaries must be renegotiated (the exercise of rhetoric). This book innovatively integrates a sophisticated theoretical approach to the social processes of creating knowledge with a developing pedagogical apparatus. The thought questions at the end of each chapter, the postscript, and the appendix allow the reader to actively engage the text in order to discuss and apply its theoretical insights. Creating new standards for interdisciplinary scholarship and communication, the authors bring numerous disciplines into conversation in formulating a new kind of rhetoric geared toward greater democratic participation in the knowledge-making process. This volume is intended for students and scholars in rhetoric of science, science studies, philosophy, and communication, and will be of interest in English, sociology, and knowledge management arenas as well.

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Table of contents :
PHILOSOPHY, RHETORIC, AND THE END OF KNOWLEDGE: A New Beginning for Science and Technology Studies, Second Edition……Page 4
Contents……Page 6
Acknowledgments……Page 10
Introduction 2003:
The More Things Remain the Same,
the More They Change……Page 12
PART I-THE PLAYERS AND THE POSITION……Page 30
1-The Players:
STS, Rhetoric, and Social Epistemology……Page 32
2-The Position:
Interdisciplinarity as Interpenetration……Page 58
PART II-INTERPENETRATION AT WORK……Page 86
3-Incorporation, or Epistemology Emergent……Page 88
4-Reflexion, or the Missing Mirror
of the Social Sciences……Page 115
5-Sublimation, or Some Hints on How to Be
Cognitively Revolting……Page 146
6-Excavation, or the Withering Away of History
and Philosophy of Science and the Brave New
World of Science and Technology Studies……Page 181
PART III-OF POLICY AND POLITICS……Page 214
7-Knowledge Policy: Where’s the Playing Field?……Page 216
8-Knowledge Politics:
What Position Shall I Play?……Page 254
PART IV-SOME WORTHY OPPONENTS……Page 288
9-Opposing the Relativist……Page 290
10-Opposing the Antitheorist……Page 314
Postscript: The World of Tomorrow, as
Opposed to the World of Today……Page 340
Appendix:
Course Outlines for STS in a Rhetorical Key……Page 345
References……Page 352
Author Index……Page 370
Subject Index……Page 376