The Subway Series A Joint Colloquium Between Harvard History of Science and MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society
What is the Thinker doing? The Ethnographic Study of a Statue Hélène Mialet, University of California, Berkeley Abstract: I begin by drawing your attention to a special, but at first sight merely curious feature of the notion of doing something, or rather of trying to do something. In the end I hope to satisfy you that this feature is more than merely curious; it is of radical importance for our central question, namely, what is le Penseur doing? Gilbert Ryle What was for the philosopher a pure thought experiment has been fleshed out for the ethnographer into an improbable scene: the meeting of Stephen Hawking, the man with Stephen Hawking the statue. The scene takes place in Hawkings office. A statue representing Hawking (along with his wheelchair and computer) has been presented for approval before a definitive version is made. Hawking, his assistants, his colleagues, the sculptor and the ethnographer are present. The paper describes the interaction between these different actors. In taking into account the materiality of the statue, its circulation, its presence and what it allows, I will follow the mise-en-scène, the articulation and shaping of an identitythe Thinker (le Penseur). Where is Hawking? Where the original, where is is the replica? Who is who? Who is what? And what is Hawkingthe Thinker, the man/the statuedoing? These are some of the questions I will address through a thick description, to use Geertz term, which, as we will recall, was inspired by Ryles What is le Penseur doing? The social sciences have for a long time made subjects into silent agentsstatuesthat are put into action and into words by others, society, culture, habitus Or, on the contrary, they have made them all-powerful by overlooking the non-humans to which they are attached. Rethinking the role of a statue will enable us to rethink the role of the subject, and not any random subject, but one that embodies the mythical figure of the isolated genius capable of attaining the ultimate laws of the universe on the sole basis of his reasoningthe Knowing Subject, the Cartesian Subject, the Thinker. Tuesday, November 3, 2009 4pm Located at Harvard Science Center 469
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