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Chapter 11 – Controversies
- Black box: a predictable input-output device something the inner workings of which need not be
known for it to be used. Science and technology produce black boxes, or facts and artifacts that are
taken for granted.
- STS takes a symmetrical approach to studying debates: rather than looking at facts and artifacts after
they have been black-boxed, investigators pay particular attention to controversial stages in their
histories. >> STS attempts to recover rationality in controversies, where the rationality of one or
another side is apt to be dismissed or forgotten.
- The problem of experimenters' regress (Collins): The experimental system is working when it gives
the right answer, but one knows the right answer only after becoming confident in the experimental
system.
- Technical controversies can be seen to be simultaneously social, historical, economic, and
philosophical.
- 5 ways of achieving closure of an active debate: 1. detailed critiques of observation, experiments,
and positions; 2. New tests, and calibration of instruments and procedures; 3. Isolating one position
as more scientific or center, or as deviant; 4. Showing one position to be more useful; 5. Ignoring
deviant viewpoints and data.