Steven Shapin

Last updated
Steven Shapin
Steven Shapin, HSS 2008.jpg
Shapin in 2008
Born1943
New York City, New York, U.S. [1]
Education Reed College (B.A., 1966)
University of Wisconsin (M.A., 1967)
University of Pennsylvania (PhD, 1971)
Known forResearch on the history and sociology of science
Scientific career
Institutions University of Edinburgh
University of California, San Diego
Harvard University

Steven Shapin (born 1943) is an American historian and sociologist of science. He is the Franklin L. Ford Research Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. [2] He is considered one of the earliest scholars on the sociology of scientific knowledge, [3] and is credited with creating new approaches. [4] He has won many awards, including the 2014 George Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society for career contributions to the field. [5]

Contents

Career

Shapin was trained as a biologist at Reed College and did graduate work in genetics at the University of Wisconsin before taking a Ph.D. in the History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. [1]

From 1972 to 1989, he was Lecturer, then Reader, at the Science Studies Unit, University of Edinburgh, and, from 1989 to 2003, Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego, before taking up an appointment at the Department of the History of Science at Harvard. He has taught for brief periods at Columbia University, Tel-Aviv University, [1] and at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy. [6] In 2012, he was the S. T. Lee Visiting Professorial Fellow, School of Advanced Study, University of London. [7]

He has written broadly on the history and sociology of science. Among his concerns are scientists, their ethical choices, and the basis of scientific credibility. [8] He revisioned the role of experiment by examining where experiments took place and who performed them. He is credited with restructuring the field's approach to “big issues” in science such as truth, trust, scientific identity, and moral authority. [4]

"The practice of science, both conceptually and instrumentally, is seen to be full of social assumptions. Crucial to their work is the idea that science is based on the public's faith in it. This is why it is important to keep explaining how sound knowledge is generated, how the process works, who takes part in the process and how." [9]

His books on 17th-century science include the "classic book" [10] Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life (1985, with Simon Schaffer); his "path-breaking book" A Social History of Truth (1994), [11] The Scientific Revolution (1996, now translated into 18 languages), and, on modern entrepreneurial science, The Scientific Life (2008). A collection of his essays is Never Pure (2010). [2] [12] His current research interests include the history of dietetics and the history and sociology of taste and subjective judgment, especially in relation to food and wine. [13]

He is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books [14] and he has written for Harper's Magazine [15] and The New Yorker . [16]

Awards

External media
Steven Shapin CHF-BIO-Society-018.jpg
Audio
Nuvola apps arts.svg "How To Think About Science - Part 1", CBC Radio
Nuvola apps arts.svg "How To Think About Science - Part 16", CBC Radio
Video
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg “Models of Science as Patterns for Econ. Development/Technology Transfer”, CID Harvard
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg “How Does Wine Taste?: Sense, Science, and the Market in the 20th Century“, CSTMS Berkeley
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg “The Long History of Dietetics- Thinking About Food, Expertise and the Self“, Situating Science

His honors include the John Desmond Bernal Prize (2001) [17] and the Ludwik Fleck Prize of the Society for Social Studies of Science (1996), [18] the Robert K. Merton Prize of the American Sociological Association, [19] the Herbert Dingle Prize of the British Society for the History of Science (1999), [20] a Guggenheim Fellowship (1979), [21] the Derek Price Prize of the History of Science Society (1990), [22] a Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (1996–97), [23] and, with Simon Schaffer, the Erasmus Prize (2005). [9] He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. [24] In 2014, he received the George Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society for career contributions to the field. [4] [5] In 2020 he was nominated to be a fellow at Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. [25]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

The history of science and technology (HST) is a field of history that examines the understanding of the natural world (science) and the ability to manipulate it (technology) at different points in time. This academic discipline also studies the cultural, economic, and political impacts of and contexts for scientific practices.

Reproducibility, closely related to replicability and repeatability, is a major principle underpinning the scientific method. For the findings of a study to be reproducible means that results obtained by an experiment or an observational study or in a statistical analysis of a data set should be achieved again with a high degree of reliability when the study is replicated. There are different kinds of replication but typically replication studies involve different researchers using the same methodology. Only after one or several such successful replications should a result be recognized as scientific knowledge.

The scientific community is a diverse network of interacting scientists. It includes many "sub-communities" working on particular scientific fields, and within particular institutions; interdisciplinary and cross-institutional activities are also significant. Objectivity is expected to be achieved by the scientific method. Peer review, through discussion and debate within journals and conferences, assists in this objectivity by maintaining the quality of research methodology and interpretation of results.

William Julius Wilson is an American sociologist, a professor at Harvard University, and an author of works on urban sociology, race, and class issues. Laureate of the National Medal of Science, he served as the 80th President of the American Sociological Association, was a member of numerous national boards and commissions. He identified the importance of neighborhood effects and demonstrated how limited employment opportunities and weakened institutional resources exacerbated poverty within American inner-city neighborhoods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology of scientific knowledge</span> Study of science as a social activity

The sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) is the study of science as a social activity, especially dealing with "the social conditions and effects of science, and with the social structures and processes of scientific activity." The sociology of scientific ignorance (SSI) is complementary to the sociology of scientific knowledge. For comparison, the sociology of knowledge studies the impact of human knowledge and the prevailing ideas on societies and relations between knowledge and the social context within which it arises.

The strong programme or strong sociology is a variety of the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) particularly associated with David Bloor, Barry Barnes, Harry Collins, Donald A. MacKenzie, and John Henry. The strong programme's influence on science and technology studies is credited as being unparalleled. The largely Edinburgh-based school of thought aims to illustrate how the existence of a scientific community, bound together by allegiance to a shared paradigm, is a prerequisite for normal scientific activity.

S. Barry Barnes was Professor of Sociology at the University of Exeter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theda Skocpol</span> American sociologist and political scientist (born 1947)

Theda Skocpol is an American sociologist and political scientist, who is currently the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. She is best known as an advocate of the historical-institutional and comparative approaches, as well as her "state autonomy theory". She has written widely for both popular and academic audiences. She has been President of the American Political Science Association and the Social Science History Association.

Neil Joseph Smelser (1930–2017) was an American sociologist who served as professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was an active researcher from 1958 to 1994. His research was on collective behavior, sociological theory, economic sociology, sociology of education, social change, and comparative methods. Among many lifetime achievements, Smelser "laid the foundations for economic sociology."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Schaffer</span> British academic

Simon J. Schaffer is a historian of science, previously a professor of the history and philosophy of science at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and was editor of The British Journal for the History of Science from 2004 to 2009.

In science studies, boundary-work comprises instances in which boundaries, demarcations, or other divisions between fields of knowledge are created, advocated, attacked, or reinforced. Such delineations often have high stakes involved for the participants, and carries with it the implication that such boundaries are flexible and socially constructed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor Pinch</span> British sociologist (1952–2021)

Trevor J. Pinch was a British sociologist, part-time musician and chair of the science and technology studies department at Cornell University. In 2018, he won the J.D. Bernal Prize from the Society for Social Studies of Science for "distinguished contributions to Science and Technology Studies over the course of [a] career."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Hunter (historian)</span>

Michael Cyril William Hunter is emeritus professor of history in the department of history, classics and archaeology and a fellow of Birkbeck, University of London. Hunter is interested in the culture of early modern England. He specialises in the history of science in seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century England, particularly the work of Robert Boyle. In Noel Malcolm's judgement, Hunter "has done more for Boyle studies than anyone before him ".

Christian Stephen Smith is an American sociologist, currently the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. Smith's research focuses primarily on religion in modernity, adolescents and emerging adults, sociological theory, philosophy of science, the science of generosity, American evangelicalism, and culture. Smith is well known for his contributions to the sociology of religion, particularly his research into adolescent spirituality, as well as for his contributions to sociological theory and his advocacy of critical realism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Sarton Medal</span> Award for historians of science

The George Sarton Medal is the most prestigious award given by the History of Science Society. It has been awarded annually since 1955. It is awarded to an historian of science from the international community who became distinguished for "a lifetime of scholarly achievement" in the field.

<i>Leviathan and the Air-Pump</i> Book by Steven Shapin

Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life is a book by Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer. It examines the debate between Robert Boyle and Thomas Hobbes over Boyle's air-pump experiments in the 1660s. In 2005, Shapin and Schaffer were awarded the Erasmus Prize for this work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Jo Nye</span> American historian of science

Mary Jo Nye is an American historian of science and Horning Professor in the Humanities emerita of the History Department at Oregon State University. She is known for her work on the relationships between scientific discovery and social and political phenomena.

Charles Coulston Gillispie was an American historian of science. He was the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History of Science, Emeritus at Princeton University. He was succeeded by Arno J. Mayer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michèle Lamont</span> Canadian sociologist

Michèle Lamont is a Canadian sociologist who is the Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies and a professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Harvard University. She is a contributor to the study of culture, inequality, racism and anti-racism, the sociology of morality, evaluation and higher education, and the study of cultural and social change. She is the recipient of the Gutenberg Award and the Erasmus award, for her "devoted contribution to social science research into the relationship between knowledge, power, and diversity." She has received honorary degrees from five countries. and been elected to the British Academy, Royal Society of Canada, Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques, and the Sociological Research Association. She served as president of the American Sociological Association from 2016 to 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hobbes–Wallis controversy</span>

The Hobbes–Wallis controversy was a polemic debate that continued from the mid-1650s well into the 1670s, between the philosopher Thomas Hobbes and the mathematician and clergyman John Wallis. It was sparked by De corpore, a philosophical work by Hobbes in the general area of physics. The book contained not only a theory of mathematics subordinating it to geometry and geometry to kinematics, but a claimed proof of the squaring of the circle by Hobbes. While Hobbes retracted this particular proof, he returned to the topic with other attempted proofs. A pamphleteering exchange continued for decades. It drew in the newly formed Royal Society, and its experimental philosophy to which Hobbes was opposed.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Curriculum Vitae, Steven Shapin" (PDF). Harvard University. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Steven Shapin Franklin L. Ford Research Professor of the History of Science". Harvard University. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  3. ↑ Thompson, Charis (2005). Making Parents: the ontological choreography of reproductive technologies. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. p. 36. ISBN   9780262201568 . Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 Reuell, Peter (November 18, 2014). "A lifetime of scholarship, recognized". Harvard Gazette.
  5. 1 2 "Sarton Medal". History of Science Society. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  6. ↑ "Visiting Professors". Università degli Studi di Scienze Gastronomiche. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  7. ↑ "Harvard's Professor Steven Shapin to join London's School of Advanced Study as ST Lee Visiting Fellow". Universities News. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  8. ↑ Society's Choices: Social and Ethical Decision Making in Biomedicine. National Academies Press (US). 1995.{{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  9. 1 2 "Former Laureates". Praemium Erasmianum Foundation. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  10. ↑ Cohen, H. Floris (2010). How modern science came into the world. Four civilizations, one 17th-century breakthrough (Second ed.). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. pp. 506–508. ISBN   978-9089642394 . Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  11. 1 2 Rabinow, Paul; Dan-Cohen, Talia (2006). A machine to make a future : biotech chronicles (New ed.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. pp. 99–100. ISBN   9780691126142.
  12. ↑ "Publications". Harvard University. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  13. ↑ Keighren, Innes M. (2011). "Review of Shapin, Steven, 'Never Pure: Historical Studies of Science as if It Was Produced by People with Bodies, Situated in Time, Space, Culture, and Society, and Struggling for Credibility and Authority'". H-HistGeog, H-Net Reviews.
  14. ↑ "Steven Shapin". London Review of Books. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  15. ↑ "Steven Shapin". Harper's Magazine. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  16. ↑ "Contributor Steven Shapin". The New Yorker. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  17. ↑ "John Desmond Bernal Prize". Society for Social Studies of Science. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  18. ↑ "Ludwik Fleck Prize". Society for Social Studies of Science. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  19. ↑ "Steven Shapin". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  20. ↑ "Dingle Prize". British Society for the History of Science. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  21. ↑ "Steven Shapin". John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  22. ↑ "Price/Webster Prize - History of Science Society". hssonline.org. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  23. ↑ "Steven Shapin | Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences". casbs.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  24. ↑ "The American Academy of Arts and Sciences". Reed College. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  25. ↑ "Professor Steven Shapin | IASH".
  26. ↑ "An interview with Steven Shapin author of The Scientific Life: A Moral History of a Late Modern Vocation". University of Chicago Press. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.