Texture in the Work of Ian Hacking

Michel Foucault as the Guiding Thread of Hacking's Thinking
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-3-030-64784-1
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, Band 435, 175 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 465 g

Reihe: Synthese Library

This book offers a systematized overview of Ian Hacking's work. It presents Hacking’s oeuvre as a network made up of four interconnected key nodes: styles of scientific thinking & doing, probability, making up people, and experimentation and scientific realism.

Its central claim is that Michel Foucault’s influence is the underlying thread that runs across the Canadian philosopher’s oeuvre. Foucault’s imprint on Hacking’s work is usually mentioned in relation to styles of scientific reasoning and the human sciences. This research shows that Foucault’s influence can in fact be extended beyond these fields, insofar the underlying interest to the whole corpus of Hacking’s works, namely the analysis of conditions of possibility, is stimulated by the work of the French philosopher.

Displacing scientific realism as the central focus of Ian Hacking’s oeuvre opens up a very different landscape, showing, behind the apparent dispersion of his works, thefar-reaching interest that amalgamates them: to reveal the historical and situated conditions of possibility for the emergence of scientific objects and concepts.

This book shows how Hacking’s deployment concepts such as looping effect, making up people, and interactive kinds, can complement Foucauldian analyses, offering an overarching perspective that can provide a better explanation of the objects of the human sciences and their behaviors.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Martínez Rodríguez, María Laura

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Westliche Philosophie: 20./21. Jahrhundert

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments.- Contents.- Introduction.- Chapter 1. “Taking a look” at Ian Hacking’s work.- Chapter 2. Styles of scientific thinking & doing. A genealogy of scientific reason.- Chapter 3. Probability. Books that smell like other books.- Chapter 4. Making up people. A project of more than three decades.- Chapter 5. Classifications, looping effect and power.- Chapter 6. Experimentation and Scientific Realism. A return of Francis Bacon.- Chapter 7. On Foucault’s shoulders.- Epilogue.- References.- Index.

Über Autor(innen)

María Laura Martínez, PhD, is Adjunct Professor of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the Universidad de la República (Uruguay). The focus of her research are the History and Philosophy of Science and the History of Science in Uruguay. She has published articles in those areas and is author of 75 primeros años en la formación de los ingenieros nacionales. Historia de la Facultad de Ingeniería (1885-1960) [The first 75 years in the education of national engineers. History of the School of Engineering (1885-1960)] (2014) and Realismo científico y verdad como correspondencia: estado de la cuestión (2009) [Scientific realism and correspondence theory of truth; state of the art] (2009). She has received the National Prize of Literature in the category Philosophy Essays, from the Ministry of Education and Culture of Uruguay (2016).