Reynolds, Andrew S. (Author)
Does science aim at providing an account of the world that is literally true or objectively true? Understanding the difference requires paying close attention to metaphor and its role in science. In The Third Lens, Andrew S. Reynolds argues that metaphors, like microscopes and other instruments, are a vital tool in the construction of scientific knowledge and explanations of how the world works. More than just rhetorical devices for conveying difficult ideas, metaphors provide the conceptual means with which scientists interpret and intervene in the world. Reynolds here investigates the role of metaphors in the creation of scientific concepts, theories, and explanations, using cell theory as his primary case study. He explores the history of key metaphors that have informed the field and the experimental, philosophical, and social circumstances under which they have emerged, risen in popularity, and in some cases faded from view. How we think of cells—as chambers, organisms, or even machines—makes a difference to scientific practice. Consequently, an accurate picture of how scientific knowledge is made requires us to understand how the metaphors scientists use—and the social values that often surreptitiously accompany them—influence our understanding of the world, and, ultimately, of ourselves. The influence of metaphor isn’t limited to how we think about cells or proteins: in some cases they can even lead to real material change in the very nature of the thing in question, as scientists use technology to alter the reality to fit the metaphor. Drawing out the implications of science’s reliance upon metaphor, The Third Lens will be of interest to anyone working in the areas of history and philosophy of science, science studies, cell and molecular biology, science education and communication, and metaphor in general.
...MoreReview Dinah R. Davison; Richard E. Michod (2023) Review of "The Third Lens: Metaphor and the Creation of Modern Cell Biology". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 313-316).
Essay Review James E. Strick (2019) Metaphors and Other Slippery Creatures. British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 345-352).
Book
Andrew S. Reynolds;
(2022)
Understanding Metaphors in the Life Sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB382962797/)
Book
Bechtel, William;
(2006)
Discovering Cell Mechanisms: The Creation of Modern Cell Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB000771502/)
Book
Vignais, Pierre;
(2001)
La biologie, des origines à nos jours: une histoire des idées et des hommes
(/isis/citation/CBB000771872/)
Chapter
Laubichler, Manfred D.;
Maienschein, Jane;
(2007)
Embryos, Cells, Genes, and Organisms: Reflections on the History of Evolutionary Developmental Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001213666/)
Article
Anderson, Nancy;
(2010)
A Physicist at Woods Hole: Introducing the Image Intensifier and Image Processing to Cell Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001210107/)
Article
Ghesquier, Danièle;
(2002)
La centrifugation et la cellule: la déconstruction du protoplasme entre 1880 et 1910
(/isis/citation/CBB000770937/)
Book
Bertolaso, Marta;
(2015)
The Future of Scientific Practice: “Bio-Techno-Logos”
(/isis/citation/CBB001422487/)
Article
Lea Beiermann;
Elisabeth Wesseling;
(2020)
Physiology and philhellenism in the late nineteenth century: The self-fashioning of Emil du Bois-Reymond
(/isis/citation/CBB586997935/)
Book
Susan Wells;
(2019)
Robert Burton’s Rhetoric: An Anatomy of Early Modern Knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB011654301/)
Article
Norberto Serpente;
(2016)
Justifying molecular images in cell biology textbooks: From constructions to primary data
(/isis/citation/CBB216748135/)
Article
Baedke, Jan;
(2013)
The Epigenetic Landscape in the Course of Time: Conrad Hal Waddington's Methodological Impact on the Life Sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB001320553/)
Book
Sherrie L. Lyons;
(2020)
From Cells to Organisms: Re-envisioning Cell Theory
(/isis/citation/CBB991006382/)
Article
Levy, Arnon;
(2013)
What Was Hodgkin and Huxley's Achievement?
(/isis/citation/CBB001451054/)
Thesis
Buehl, Jonathan Daniel;
(2008)
Instrument to Evidence to Argument: Visual Mediation of Invisible Phenomena in Scientific Discourse
(/isis/citation/CBB001561165/)
Book
Shea, William R.;
(2000)
Science and the Visual Image in the Enlightenment
(/isis/citation/CBB000110579/)
Thesis
Hanson, Valerie Louise;
(2004)
Haptic Visions: Rhetorics, Subjectivities and Visualization Technologies inthe Case of the Scanning Tunneling Microscope
(/isis/citation/CBB001561929/)
Article
Strasser, Bruno J;
(2002)
Totems de laboratoires, microscopes électroniques et réseaux scientifiques: L'émergence de la biologie moléculaire à Genève (1945-1960)
(/isis/citation/CBB000200404/)
Thesis
Baake, Kenneth Richard;
(cited 2000)
Metaphor and knowledge: The rhetorical challenges at a postmodern science think tank
(/isis/citation/CBB001562677/)
Book
Nils Hansson;
Jonatan Wistrand;
(2019)
Explorations in Baltic Medical History, 1850-2015
(/isis/citation/CBB604958142/)
Article
Lellouch, Alain;
(2006)
De “L'anatomie pathologique première” à “L'anatomie médicale de structure”: Continuité ou points de rupture épistémologiques?
(/isis/citation/CBB000932458/)
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