Decentring Nanoethics toward Objects

It is now widely accepted that Research & Development in nanotechnology and biotechnology should be accompanied by research programs in ethics. This paper first critically assesses the initiatives that characterize this “ethical turn” by clarifying its underlying philosophical assump-tions and its consequences. Current trends in nanoethics enhance the concern for responsibility and develop an attitude of prudence. However nanoethics focused as it is on designers’ responsibility, reinvigorates the anthropocentric modern ideal of man as the lord of nature and master of the future. Technological objects are viewed only as means for human needs and sources of profit. An alternative approach to nanoethics considers artefacts as individual entities with a life of their own and takes into account the specificities of the nanoworld

A Historical perspective on science and its 'others'

International audienceReflecting on the debate concerning the value to historians of the category "popular science", this paper argues that the model of legitimate science that is currently emerging, invites us to consider how the notions of science and the public have been mutually configured and reconfigured over time. First, it points to the tremendous impact of technosciences on the public sphere. The recent shift from the deficit model to the participatory model has profoundly changed the values underlying science communication. Whereas previously it was performed in the name of science, it is now performed in the name of democracy. This political turn suggests that we should consider symmetrically not only how science and its public face are socially constructed but also how the notion of a lay public has been constructed by scientific practices. Finally I suggest that historical studies should focus on the mechanisms of demarcation and discrimination between science and rival forms of knowledge

« A view of the past through the lens of the present. »,: Concluding remarks

International audienceIn this paper I would like to venture some historiographical reflections on the revival of interest for this period of chemistry. How are we to understand that a style of chemistry usually dismissed as being pre-modern or pre-scientific appeals to so many historians? What makes it so interesting in this early twenty-first century? I will argue that the early modern period regains our attention because the values attached to contemporary science are changing and the patterns of science in society are less and less alien to those of early modern chemistr

Between the possible and the actual: Philosophical perspectives on the design of synthetic organisms

International audienceA number of research projects in synthetic biology funded by public institutions sound like science fiction: for instance DARPA Biodesign project in 2011 aimed at eliminating "the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement, and designing proteins with a 99.5% precision. How should we take such claims? Are they just fantastic visions or hype meant to impress funding agencies and the public or are they symptoms of a specific epistemic attitude? In considering the visions of the future developed in synthetic biology the paper attempts to evaluate the research agendas of synthetic biology from philosophical perspectives. It will first characterize the ambition to re-engineer life and distinguish the visions of the future underlying the various research agendas assembled under the umbrella synthetic biology. Then addressing the question 'who actually believes in such futures?' the paper contrasts the complicit belief of ethicists and critical activists with the doubts occasionally formulated by synthetic biologists. Doubts however never generate scepticism within the synthetic biology community, which develops an epistemic opportunism. Finally the third section discusses to what extent, and in which sense, the futuristic visions of synthetic biology belong to the genre of techno-utopia. It concludes that imagined futures are integral part of the techno-epistemic culture of synthetic biology and that the tension between the possible and the actual is a criterion of distinction between the various trends that constitute synthetic biology

Emile Meyerson chimiste philosophe

Les livres de Meyerson, truffés de citations de philosophes de divers pays et de digressions sur toutes sortes d'épisodes de l'histoire des sciences sont réputés difficiles à lire. Ils laissent entrevoir un lecteur avide, polyglotte, qui pense au rythme des auteurs qu'il rencontre et n'avance jamais un argument qui ne soit étayé sur un long détour dans l'histoire des sciences ou l'œuvre d'un philosophe. Presque rien dans cette oeuvre buissonnante ne laisse soupçonner un praticien, rompu aux analyses de laboratoire. D'après ses biographes, la contribution essentielle de la chimie à l'œuvre de Meyerson serait de l'avoir conduit à une impasse, et poussé à choisir une autre voie. Il faut pourtant remettre en question ce portrait convenu. Est-il si évident que la formation initiale de chimiste soit un détail négligeable pour comprendre l'oeuvre de Meyerson ? Et la chimie n'est-elle présente dans ses livres que pour servir d'anti-modèle ou repoussoir? On montre d'abord que la chimie constitue un lieu de passage vers l'histoire et la philosophie des sciences- comme Meyerson le reconnaît d'ailleurs lui-même. On tente ensuite de repérer et dégager les thèmes empruntés à la chimie qui ont façonné la philosophie et la méthode de Meyerson

: Sur quelques usages de la biographie pour comprendre les technosciences

International audienceBiography is frequently in history of science and technology. The extension of the biographical genre to objects has been inspired by the STS movement and socioanhtropology. Is it more than a rhetorical device for emphasizing the social and cultural dimensions of objects of science and technology ? This paper argues that is a welcome tool to explore the ontological status of technoscientific objetcs.La biographie est un moyen fréquemment utilisé pour aborder l'histoire des sciences et des techniques. L'extension du genre biographique aux objets s'inscrit dans un nouveau courant d'étude des sciences et des techniques fortement inspiré de l'anthropologie sociale. Est-ce plus qu'un artifice d'exposition destiné à souligner l'inscription sociale et culturelle des objets? On montre que la biographie peut constituer un outil pour cerner le statut ontologique des objets technoscientifiques qui peuplent notre univers

Discipline building in synthetic biology

International audienceDespite the multidisciplinary dimension of the researches conducted under the umbrella synthetic biology, the founders of this new research area in the United States adopted a disciplinary profile to shape its institutional identity. In so doing they took inspiration from two already established fields with very different disciplinary patterns. The analogy with synthetic chemistry suggested by the term 'synthetic biology' is not the unique model. Information technology is clearly another source of inspiration. The purpose of the paper focused on the US context is to emphasize the diversity of views and agendas coexisting under the disciplinary label synthetic biology, as the two models analysed are only presented as two extreme postures in the community. The paper discusses the question: in which directions the two models shape this emerging field? Do they chart two divergent futures for synthetic biology

Plastics, materials and dreams of dematerialization

This chapter aims to provide a better understanding of the interplay between the materiality of plastics and their anthropological dimensions. Previous materials, such as glass, wood and aluminium, are referred to by the name of the stuff of which they are made. By contrast, the common name of synthetic polymers derives from one of their physical properties. The linguistic preference for the term 'plastic' is an indicator that plasticity gained a cultural meaning in the twentieth century. This requires a closer look at the physical and chemical properties of the class of materials gathered under the umbrella 'plastics', as well as at their production process. The entanglement between material, technical and cultural aspects shapes artefacts themselves, and reconfigures the relation between nature, artefacts and culture. Following a brief historical sketch about the emergence of plastics-as-plastics and reinforced plastics, the chapter will describe how synthetic polymers contributed to the emergence of a new relation between technology and matter as they generated the concept of materials by design and 'materials thinking' - a new approach to materials in technological design. The next section looks more closely at the cultural values associated with the mass consumption of plastics, such as lightness, superficiality, versatility and impermanence. It emphasizes the utopian dimension of plastics and the striking contrast between the aspirations to dematerialization or impermanence and the neglected process of material accumulation upstream and downstream, which are respectively the precondition and the consequence of the Plastic Age. Finally, taking up the traditional issue of the relations between the natural and the artificial, the chapter considers how plastics are reconfiguring the contemporary vision of nature