This book explores two disparate sets of debates in the history and philosophy of the life sciences: the history of subjectivity in shaping objective science and the history of dominance of reductionism in molecular biology. It questions the dominant conception of the scientist-subject as a neo-Kantian ideal self – that is, the scientist as a unified and wilful, self-determined, self-regulated, active and autonomous, rational subject wilfully driven by social and scientific ethos – in favour of a narrative that shows how the microcosm of reductionism is sustained, adopted, questioned, or challenged in the creative struggles of the scientist-subject. The author covers a century-long history of the concept of the gene as a series of "pioneering moments" through an engagement with life-writings of eminent scientists to show how their ways of being and belonging relate with the making of the science. The scientist-self is theorized as fundamentally a feeling, experiencing, and suffering subject split between the conscious and unconscious and constitutive of personality aspects that are emotional/psychological, "situated" (cultural and ideological), metaphysical, intersubjective, and existential at the same time. An engaging interdisciplinary interpretation of the dominance of reductionism in genetic science, this book will be of major interest to scholars and researchers of science, history, and philosophy alike.
...MoreReview Edna Suárez-Díaz (2020) Review of "Who Is the Scientist-Subject?: Affective History of the Gene". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 862-863).
Similar Citations
Article
Stotz, Karola;
(2004)
Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB000600325/)
Article
McKnight, Steven;
Beyer, Ann;
Gall, Joseph;
(2012)
Oscar Miller (1925--2012)
(/isis/citation/CBB001320463/)
Article
Deichmann, Ute;
(2008)
Different Methods and Metaphysics in Early Molecular Genetics -- A Case of Disparity of Research?
(/isis/citation/CBB000931566/)
Chapter
Uus, Undo;
(2001)
The Glory and Misery of Modern Science
(/isis/citation/CBB000102685/)
Article
Shapin, Steven;
(2012)
The Sciences of Subjectivity
(/isis/citation/CBB001250744/)
Article
Mouzelis, Nicos;
(2000)
The Subjectivist-Objectivist Divide: Against Transcendence
(/isis/citation/CBB000110012/)
Article
Nachtomy, Ohad;
Shavit, Ayelet;
Yakhini, Zohar;
(2007)
Gene Expression and the Concept of the Phenotype
(/isis/citation/CBB000770764/)
Article
Israel, Giorgio;
(2005)
The Science of Complexity: Epistemological Problems and Perspectives
(/isis/citation/CBB000651669/)
Article
Pierrel, Jérôme;
(2012)
An RNA Phage Lab: MS2 in Walter Fiers' Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Ghent, from Genetic Code to Gene and Genome, 1963--1976
(/isis/citation/CBB001220999/)
Book
Schwartz, James;
(2008)
In Pursuit of the Gene: From Darwin to DNA
(/isis/citation/CBB000774889/)
Chapter
Zittel, Claus;
(2010)
The Politics of Cognition: Genesis and Development of Ludwik Fleck's “Comparative Epistemology”
(/isis/citation/CBB001023239/)
Book
Michel Morange;
(2020)
The Black Box of Biology: A History of the Molecular Revolution
(/isis/citation/CBB035364586/)
Book
Andrew S. Reynolds;
(2022)
Understanding Metaphors in the Life Sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB382962797/)
Book
Parsons, Keith M.;
(2014)
It Started with Copernicus: Vital Questions about Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001510107/)
Article
Isabel Waidner;
(2018)
Christian Bök's Xenotext Experiment, Conceptual Writing and the Subject-of-No-Subjectivity: "Pink Faeries and Gaudy Baubles"
(/isis/citation/CBB611832394/)
Book
Debru, Claude;
Nouvel, Pascal;
(2003)
Le possible et les biotechnologies: Essai de philosophie dans les sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB000772845/)
Article
Webster, W. R.;
(2002)
Wavelength Theory of Colour Strikes Back: The Return of the Physical
(/isis/citation/CBB000202905/)
Article
Barron, Colin;
(2003)
A Strong Distinction between Humans and Non-humans Is No Longer Required for Research Purposes
(/isis/citation/CBB000330504/)
Article
Toader, Iulian D.;
(2013)
Concept Formation and Scientific Objectivity: Weyl's Turn against Husserl
(/isis/citation/CBB001320797/)
Book
Condit, Celeste Michelle;
(1999)
The Meaning of the Gene: Public Debates about Human Heredity
(/isis/citation/CBB000111898/)
Be the first to comment!