Constructing and Reconstructing Scientific Ignorance
Constructing and Reconstructing Scientific Ignorance
复制标题
构建和重建科学无知
DOI：
10.1177/107554709301500205
复制
发表时间：
1993
影响因子：
9
通讯作者：
David Nord
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Holly Stocking;L. Holstein;Michael Smithson;JoAnn Campbell;Marti Crouch;Peter Killeen;David Nord
无知与不确定性：澳大利亚社会学家迈克尔·史密森（Michael Smithson）观察到，曾经专注于知识的西方知识分子越来越多地思考无知。他补充说，那些没有这样做的人应该考虑这样做。这是一个引人注目的建议，就像艺术教师经常对绘画学生提出的那样：不要看人物;看人物周围的空间。一旦注意力集中在无知而不是知识上，人们就会开始看到无知并不是简单的缺乏知识。相反，就像物体周围的空间一样，无知有它自己的结构。它在数量、形式和实质上各不相同，取决于视角。就像艺术家利用空间的表现力一样，科学家和非科学家也经常操纵无知，最大化或最小化它，从而影响我们所知道的可信度。在发展这一论点时，本文借鉴了历史学家、哲学家、大众传播和法律的学者、话语分析家和科学社会学家的见解，来考察科学家在科学建设和科学公共政策中使用无知主张的情况。它还研究了非科学家有时如何利用并试图操纵此类主张，通常是通过新闻媒体。文章认为，这种使用反映并服务于索赔人的利益。反过来，新闻媒体又适当地强调那些无知的说法，以促进和保护他们自己的特殊关注。
In Ignorance and Uncertainty: Emerging Paradigms, Australian sociologist Michael Smithson observes that Western intellectuals, who once preoccupied themselves with knowledge, are increasingly pondering ignorance. Those who are not, he adds, should consider doing so. It is an arresting suggestion, not unlike the one art instructors often make to students of drawing: do not look at the figure; look at the space around the figure. Once attention is focused on ignorance rather than on knowledge, one begins to see that ignorance is not the simple absence of knowledge. Instead, like the space around objects, ignorance has its own configurations. It varies in amount, form, and substance, depending on the perspective. And just as artists make use of the representational power of space, scientists and nonscientists alike often manipulate ignorance, maximizing or minimizing it in ways that affect the credibility of what we know. In developing this argument, the article draws on the insights of historians, philosophers, mass communications and legal scholars, discourse analysts, and sociologists of science to examine scientists' use of ignorance claims in the construction of science and in science for public policy. It also looks at how nonscientists sometimes appropriate and attempt to manipulate such claims, often through the news media. Such uses, the article argues, reflect and serve claimants' interests. The news media, in turn, appropriate and emphasize those ignorance claims that advance and protect their own particular concerns.