Philosophy, Rhetoric, and the End of Knowledge: The Coming of Science and Technology Studies

Rhetoric of the Human Sciences

by Steve Fuller

Seeking to recover language as a force that collectively enables people to transform their world, Fuller (Center for the Study of Science in Society, Virginia Tech) promotes the idea of social epistemology in order to foster closer cooperation between humanists and social scientists in the emerging interdisciplinary complex known as Science and Technology Studies (STS). STS practitioners employ methods that enable them to fathom both the "inner workings" and the "outer character" of science without having to be expert in the fields they study. The success of such a practice bodes well for extending science's sphere of accountability, presumably toward a greater democratization of the scientific decision-making process. Paper edition (unseen), $22.50. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Genres: Philosophy

421 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1993

About the author

Steve Fuller graduated from Columbia University in History & Sociology before gaining an MPhil from Cambridge and PhD from Pittsburgh (1985), both in History and Philosophy of Science. He currently holds the Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick.

He is the founder of the research program of social epistemology. It is the name of a quarterly journal he founded with Taylor & Francis in 1987, as well as the first of his more than twenty books. His most recent work has been concerned with the future of humanity, or 'Humanity 2.0'.