Rated The Quiet American 10/10
book
Edited 51d ago
Rated The Computer's Voice: From Star Trek to Siri 6/10
Wants to read The Psychology of Computer Programming
Rated Empirical Legal Research: A Primer 10/10
Rated The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science 6/10
3.5/5 stars. This book presents an interesting overview of two giants of 20th Century Philosophy of Science — Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn — and of the shortcomings in their overarching views of science. Like those two, Strevens subscribes to the idea that science is characterised by a unique method of looking at the world, but roots this method in the "iron rule": the idea that scientific arguments are not settled through the full arsenal of rationality, but only by resorting to empirical claims. This image of science shows it as an irrational practice, since it excludes various sound arguments from consideration and pushes scientists towards ever-more-minute experiments, but explains why modern science has managed to build an incremental body of knowledge and why it did not appear at other historical junctures.<br/><br/>I am not entirely convinced that his account provides entirely robust responses to the various studies on the relevance of non-epistemic values in science. Also, as various other reviews pointed out, the book would have benefitted from engaging with modern examples (beyond the sketches on string theory in the final chapter). Nevertheless, the general contours of the "iron rule" are persuasive, highlighting both the irrationality of scientific practice and the space for democratic, yet value-free scientific practice (on that topic, see Bright's paper on Du Bois and the value-free ideal): scientific research itself is bound by the iron rule, but science-informed public policy is the proper space for democratic debate and value definition. This book is, therefore, a good read for those interested in the philosophy of science after Kuhn, but readers should feel comfortable to skim large sections of it, especially given how some points are frequently repeated.
Rated Artefacts of Legal Inquiry: The Value of Imagination in Adjudication 8/10
An insightful approach to legal inquiry, drawing from a broad range of sources (such as cognitive sciences, literary theory, and the philosophy of scientific models) toward a surprisingly narrow object (adjudication in common law courts). However, some of its contributions have a broader appeal, such as the critique of the distinction between contexts of discovery and justification that some authors have borrowed from Reichenbach.
Wants to read Elements of Mathematics: From Euclid to Gödel
Rated EU Constitutional Law: An Introduction 6/10
Rated How Artifacts Afford: The Power and Politics of Everyday Things 10/10
Affordances are frequently mentioned in the design and STS literatures. There is no consensus about the content of this term, even though there are multiple attempts to theorise it. The author proposes shifting the focus from "what are the affordances?" to how artefacts afford and under what circumstances, and examines approaches for implementing this vision.<br/><br/>The author attempts to make sense of the current mess, providing a coherent account that attends to the political and social contexts in which technologies operate. In addition, the text presents useful techniques for deploying the concept. Curiously, this successful approach shows the limits of "affordance" as a concept: it allows us to understand modes of interaction with technological artefacts, but even a formulation as elegant as the one presented in this book is still centred on individual artefacts (such as apps, devices, or even platforms). As such, recent attempts to take affordances beyond their use case as a design tool seem misguided. This, of course, is not a problem with the book, which does an excellent job of showing how affordances can be a powerful tool for critical design and engagement with designed artefacts.<br/>
Finished reading Turtle Recall: The Discworld Companion . . . So Far
Rated Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance 10/10
A fascinating book on politics and technology, examining the contingency of technological development through an analysis of the history of nuclear missile guidance until the end of the 1980s. Increased accuracy is not an inevitable or natural consequence of technical change, but rather the product of a complex process of conflict and cooperation between various social actors, such as technologists, laboratories and corporations, and political and military leaders. The book provides a good antidote to technical and political determinisms, coupled with accessible explanations of relevant technical concepts, which are crucial for understanding how seemingly small "technicalities" become focal points in political disputes over visions of the future of certain technologies.