CSI: Kuhn and Latour

Abstract

I have been always most moved by those whose views I have ended up opposing. I say 'ended up' because the views are typically ones in which I originally invested considerable study and interest. But then a version of the 'familiarity breeds contempt' principle sets in, and my intellectual immune system generates antibodies that ward off later, more virulent strains of such thinkers' thoughts. So fortified, I welcome the opportunity to reflect on the significance of Kuhn (1962) and Latour (1987), who have been influential figures in my thinking about science and technology studies (STS) ever since I began to encounter the field as a graduate student in the early 1980s. In fact, I had read The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (SSR) as part of Columbia University's required general education course, 'Contemporary Civilization', in 1976. As for Latour's work, I first read Laboratory Life in Mary Hesse’s MPhil seminar at Cambridge in 1980, and I remember purchasing my copy of Science in Action (SIA) in the Brunel University bookshop shortly after it came out in 1987. I had been there, I believe, courtesy of early Latour collaborator Steve Woolgar. The trip also coincided with the founding of the journal Social Epistemology at the Taylor & Francis headquarters in London. In both cases, my first impression was very favourable – in a way that did not extend to the rest of their works.