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wellerstein's profile
Alex Wellerstein
Alex Wellerstein
Alex Wellerstein
Verified account
@wellerstein

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Alex WellersteinVerified account

@wellerstein

Historian of science, secrecy, and nuclear weapons. Professor of STS at @FollowStevens. UC Berkeley alum with a Harvard PhD. NUKEMAP creator. Coder and web dev.

Hoboken, NJ / NYC
blog.nuclearsecrecy.com
Joined September 2011

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    1. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 13 Jul 2018
      • Report Tweet

      Alex Wellerstein Retweeted Audra J. Wolfe

      There seems to be a lot confusion in the replies here regarding what Audra is saying — which is an entirely uncontroversial statement within the academic disciplines that study how science works now and in the past (e.g., the History, Anthropology, & Sociology of Science).https://twitter.com/ColdWarScience/status/1017211382176059392 …

      Alex Wellerstein added,

      Audra J. WolfeVerified account @ColdWarScience
      | ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄| Science has always been Political |___________| (\__/) || (•ㅅ•) || /   づ #HistorianSignBunny
      12 replies 140 retweets 418 likes
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    2. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 13 Jul 2018
      • Report Tweet

      One thing to make very clear first: Audra is an honest-to-god historian of science. She has the relevant PhD, has published peer-reviewed books and articles, presents at conferences, and is well-known and respected within the field. And a friend of mine.

      1 reply 1 retweet 89 likes
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    3. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 13 Jul 2018
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      She also has science degrees, but that is less relevant than people seem to think (a degree in STEM does not by itself tell one how science works historically or across disciplines). So attacks against her expertise are at best mislaid, at worst seem heavily tinged with sexism.

      1 reply 3 retweets 110 likes
      Show this thread
    4. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 13 Jul 2018
      • Report Tweet

      That aside: When Audra says that science has always been political, she is not saying that science is always "tainted" by politics, or that it is always *partisan*. She is saying that claims to nature have always been joined with claims to power of some sort.

      5 replies 24 retweets 140 likes
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    5. Chris Colose‏ @CColose 15 Jul 2018
      • Report Tweet
      Replying to @wellerstein

      This is precisely the claim in question- whether there is any significance to "Science is political" or just an extension of deconstruction philosophy and that cannot also be attached to any aspect of life. If nothing is being said, then we can move on.

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    6. Chris Colose‏ @CColose 15 Jul 2018
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      Replying to @CColose @wellerstein

      The problem is no separation is made (or perhaps even believed in) between the human institution of science, and the process that does give it superior epistemic status and disproportionate weight in obtaining objective knowledge.

      2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
    7. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 15 Jul 2018
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      Replying to @CColose

      To rephrase this, what you're really asking is, "is science special? does it actually get objective knowledge (unlike everything else in the human world)?" which is a related but somewhat different question.

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    8. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 15 Jul 2018
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      Replying to @wellerstein @CColose

      And a question that there are many different philosophical and historical takes on (there is no single consensus view in the communities that study this specific question seriously).

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    9. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 15 Jul 2018
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      Replying to @wellerstein @CColose

      Personally, I think there is a big difference between saying "science gets us to objective truth," and saying "science is the most reliable method we have for generating knowledge about the natural world."

      1 reply 1 retweet 1 like
    10. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 15 Jul 2018
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      Replying to @wellerstein @CColose

      The first position is not compatible with a subtle idea of the interconnections between science and the rest of human activity. The second however is very compatible, and does not denigrate scientific knowledge much (it keeps it as a form of human knowledge, but a reliable one).

      2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 15 Jul 2018
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      Replying to @wellerstein @CColose

      For what it is worth, I think the second position is much more compatible with the study of the history of science than the first position: it allows more room for error, improvement, and evolution, without reducing the possibility of science being a means to reliable knowledge.

      8:33 AM - 15 Jul 2018
      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 15 Jul 2018
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          Replying to @wellerstein @CColose

          Which is why I say that most of these things are not "really" postmodern in the way people tend to read them. There are perfectly respectable epistemic positions that do not require science to be "pure" to be useful and "true" in a qualified sense ("it fits our evidence so far").

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 15 Jul 2018
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          Replying to @wellerstein @CColose

          As for whether this approach is more actionable — I actually believe it is, and I say this as someone who is something of a science communicator and is, indeed, trying to engage in real world issues. But that's a longer Tweet-storm than I suspect anyone wants to read. 🙂

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
        4. End of conversation

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