Alex Wellerstein on Twitter: "When I read L closely, I don't find his critique to be similar to the old critiques. But I agree that when he gets "reduced" for very popular consumption (cough cough NYT, but sometimes even scholars) it just turns into "deconstruction is dangerous!"… https://t.co/tjjXFvoP5m"

@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

Joined September 2011

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All Too Suman‏ @SumanSeth42 1 Dec 2018

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All Too Suman Retweeted SSRC

Hmmmm... Well, not that I’m a laureate, but my STS is absolutely about deconstruction. And it’s definitely a critique of Science and Truth, if not science and truth.https://twitter.com/ssrc_org/status/1068651025689657345 …

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SSRCVerified account @ssrc_org

"Science and Technology Studies (STS) is not about deconstruction... but about understanding what makes knowledge robust." Hirschman Laureate Sheila Jasanoff argues against critiques of the discipline she helped build as an attack on science and truth.

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Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 1 Dec 2018

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Replying to @SumanSeth42

I see deconstruction as a tool, that you can put to different ends. STS is probably big enough to encompass all of those ends. (I also think there is an important difference between "critique" and "attack.")

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All Too Suman‏ @SumanSeth42 1 Dec 2018

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Sure. But you’re not actually defending the statement as written, are you?

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Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 1 Dec 2018

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Replying to @SumanSeth42

I mean, I would probably change it to be "can be" (which I agree with), but the ellipsis and obvious lack of context make me pause before giving much comment. I think SJ's point that STS is not really about "attacking" science is correct.

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Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 1 Dec 2018

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I mean, you and I both know that SJ is not exactly naive about the problematic nature of the authority of science.

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All Too Suman‏ @SumanSeth42 1 Dec 2018

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Agreed. But there has been a trend among some of the founders of our field—at least the ones studying the contemporary—to try to pull back from the symmetry logics that once galvanized us. -[or, we could call it a partial return to the scientism of original SSK].

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Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 1 Dec 2018

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Sure. Though even Latour's ideas (as much as I can claim to understand them) seem to me to be very clearly not about a re-embrace of scientism, but rather a reframing of what the aims of epistemology are.

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All Too Suman‏ @SumanSeth42 1 Dec 2018

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I actually had Collins in mind (I can understand him) more than Latour, the latest of which I’m still trying to get a handle on.

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Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 1 Dec 2018

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In L's famous critique/steam piece, he likens these tools to weapons and wonders if we are training for the right battle, etc. I think I might ask: how many old generals of past wars successfully retooled for the next wars? In my reading, very few.

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All Too Suman‏ @SumanSeth42 1 Dec 2018

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I’d buy this more easily if the new critiques of deconstruction didn’t look suspiciously like the old critiques of deconstruction.

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Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 1 Dec 2018

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When I read L closely, I don't find his critique to be similar to the old critiques. But I agree that when he gets "reduced" for very popular consumption (cough cough NYT, but sometimes even scholars) it just turns into "deconstruction is dangerous!"

8:49 AM - 1 Dec 2018

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1. All Too Suman‏ @SumanSeth42 1 Dec 2018
  
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  On L, agreed .
  
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