Complexity sciences have become famous worldwide thanks to several popular books that served as e... more Complexity sciences have become famous worldwide thanks to several popular books that served as echo chambers of their promises. These consisted in departing from “classical science” defined as deterministic, reductionist, analytic and mono-disciplinary. Their founders and supporters declared that complexity sciences were going to give rise (or that they have given rise) to a post-Laplacian, antireductionist, holistic and interdisciplinary approach. By taking a closer look at their content and practices, I argue in this article that, because of their physics-oriented, computationalist, and mathematical assumptions, complexity sciences have paradoxically produced knowledge at odds with these four tenets.
The credibility of scientists is currently debated, especially regarding the credibility risks th... more The credibility of scientists is currently debated, especially regarding the credibility risks that may result from researchers' loss of autonomy vis-à-vis economic interests, activist rationale or political agendas. Such situations, where the credibility of scientists is put to the test in the eyes of society and their peers, raise a more general question: how do the scientists who are active in collectives situated in several social worlds build their credibility in the eyes of their colleagues? Do their activities reinforce, or weaken, the classical vectors of scientific credibility? Are new vectors of credibility emerging at the same time? The five articles in this special issue examine the contemporary reconfigurations of credibility based on four dimensions of transformation of the sciences: the rise of open data; science-industry relations; interdisciplinarity; and the public commitments of researchers. In this introductory article, we review the history of the notion of scientific credibility in Science & Technology Studies - as proposed by Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, then Steven Shapin and Thomas Gieryn - and the way it has been applied since then. Subsequently, we present the articles of the issue and draw transversal conclusions from them. We argue that, more than the advent of new vectors of scientific credibility, the articles show transformations at the margin, situational and contradictory.
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2022
In this essay, we first ask what kind of rhetorical styles the theories of global collapse have w... more In this essay, we first ask what kind of rhetorical styles the theories of global collapse have when talking about futures. We claim that these theories manifest in one of three forms: prospective, prophecy, and science-fiction. We then ask if such theories tend to close down or rather open up the space of possible futures. While some observers have argued that they reduce the trajectories of human development to a unique catastrophic one, we will show that they actually give rise to a number of alternative imaginaries for the post-capitalist and post-oil era.
Since their inception in the 1980s, complexity sciences have been described as a revolutionary ne... more Since their inception in the 1980s, complexity sciences have been described as a revolutionary new domain of research. By describing some of the practices and assumptions of its representatives, the present article shows that this field is an association of subdisciplines laying on existing disciplinary footholds. The general question guiding us here is: On what basis do complexity scientists consider their inquiry methods and results as valuable? To answer it, I describe five “epistemic argumentative regimes,” namely the ways in which complexity scientists argue the credibility of their research, and five “ontological views,” that is the ways in which they interpret the material and formal causes of their study objects and models. Finally, the article proposes the term of “regime of evidence” to designate the specific combination of one ontological view with one or more epistemic argumentative regimes.
Computer models and simulations have become, since the 1960s, an essential instrument for scienti... more Computer models and simulations have become, since the 1960s, an essential instrument for scientific inquiry and political decision making in several fields, from climate to life and social sciences. Philosophical reflection has mainly focused on the ontological status of the computational modeling, on its epistemological validity and on the research practices it entails. But in computational sciences, the work on models and simulations are only two steps of a longer and richer process where operations on data are as important as, and even more time and energy-consuming than modeling itself. Drawing on two study cases—computational embryology and computational epidemiology—this article contributes to filling the gap by focusing on the operations of producing and re-using data in computational sciences. The different phases of the scientific and artisanal work of modelers include data collection, aggregation, homogenization, assemblage, analysis and visualization. The article deconst...
En el presente articulo el autor realiza una interesante retacion entre el Pensamiento Débil de G... more En el presente articulo el autor realiza una interesante retacion entre el Pensamiento Débil de Gianni Vattimo y el Pensamiento Complejo, particularmente en la [ormuìocion de EdgarMorin para luego proponer el Pensamiento Complejo, como una de Lasmejores ...
… : revista especializada en reptiles, anfibios y …, 2006
Información del artículo Discoglossus pictus: aspectos generales y observaciones sobre una poblac... more Información del artículo Discoglossus pictus: aspectos generales y observaciones sobre una población siciliana.
National audienceSince the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, "epidemiological models" ... more National audienceSince the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, "epidemiological models" have emerged in an unprecedented way in the public space, giving rise to numerous debates. In particular, they have been mobilized as justifications for radical policy decisions such as lockdown, the closure of national borders or the monitoring of citizens' movements. Where do these models come from, and what does their apparent irruption of the last months mean?Depuis l'essor de l'épidémie de COVID-19, les « modèles épidémiologiques » ont surgi de manière inédite dans l'espace public, donnant lieu à de nombreux débats. Ils ont notamment été mobilisés comme justifications à des décisions politiques radicales comme le confinement, la fermeture des frontières nationales ou la surveillance des déplacements des citoyen•ne•s. D'où viennent ces modèles, et que recouvre leur apparente irruption de ces derniers mois
Complexity sciences have become famous worldwide thanks to several popular books that served as e... more Complexity sciences have become famous worldwide thanks to several popular books that served as echo chambers of their promises. These consisted in departing from “classical science” defined as deterministic, reductionist, analytic and mono-disciplinary. Their founders and supporters declared that complexity sciences were going to give rise (or that they have given rise) to a post-Laplacian, antireductionist, holistic and interdisciplinary approach. By taking a closer look at their content and practices, I argue in this article that, because of their physics-oriented, computationalist, and mathematical assumptions, complexity sciences have paradoxically produced knowledge at odds with these four tenets.
The credibility of scientists is currently debated, especially regarding the credibility risks th... more The credibility of scientists is currently debated, especially regarding the credibility risks that may result from researchers' loss of autonomy vis-à-vis economic interests, activist rationale or political agendas. Such situations, where the credibility of scientists is put to the test in the eyes of society and their peers, raise a more general question: how do the scientists who are active in collectives situated in several social worlds build their credibility in the eyes of their colleagues? Do their activities reinforce, or weaken, the classical vectors of scientific credibility? Are new vectors of credibility emerging at the same time? The five articles in this special issue examine the contemporary reconfigurations of credibility based on four dimensions of transformation of the sciences: the rise of open data; science-industry relations; interdisciplinarity; and the public commitments of researchers. In this introductory article, we review the history of the notion of scientific credibility in Science & Technology Studies - as proposed by Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, then Steven Shapin and Thomas Gieryn - and the way it has been applied since then. Subsequently, we present the articles of the issue and draw transversal conclusions from them. We argue that, more than the advent of new vectors of scientific credibility, the articles show transformations at the margin, situational and contradictory.
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2022
In this essay, we first ask what kind of rhetorical styles the theories of global collapse have w... more In this essay, we first ask what kind of rhetorical styles the theories of global collapse have when talking about futures. We claim that these theories manifest in one of three forms: prospective, prophecy, and science-fiction. We then ask if such theories tend to close down or rather open up the space of possible futures. While some observers have argued that they reduce the trajectories of human development to a unique catastrophic one, we will show that they actually give rise to a number of alternative imaginaries for the post-capitalist and post-oil era.
Since their inception in the 1980s, complexity sciences have been described as a revolutionary ne... more Since their inception in the 1980s, complexity sciences have been described as a revolutionary new domain of research. By describing some of the practices and assumptions of its representatives, the present article shows that this field is an association of subdisciplines laying on existing disciplinary footholds. The general question guiding us here is: On what basis do complexity scientists consider their inquiry methods and results as valuable? To answer it, I describe five “epistemic argumentative regimes,” namely the ways in which complexity scientists argue the credibility of their research, and five “ontological views,” that is the ways in which they interpret the material and formal causes of their study objects and models. Finally, the article proposes the term of “regime of evidence” to designate the specific combination of one ontological view with one or more epistemic argumentative regimes.
Computer models and simulations have become, since the 1960s, an essential instrument for scienti... more Computer models and simulations have become, since the 1960s, an essential instrument for scientific inquiry and political decision making in several fields, from climate to life and social sciences. Philosophical reflection has mainly focused on the ontological status of the computational modeling, on its epistemological validity and on the research practices it entails. But in computational sciences, the work on models and simulations are only two steps of a longer and richer process where operations on data are as important as, and even more time and energy-consuming than modeling itself. Drawing on two study cases—computational embryology and computational epidemiology—this article contributes to filling the gap by focusing on the operations of producing and re-using data in computational sciences. The different phases of the scientific and artisanal work of modelers include data collection, aggregation, homogenization, assemblage, analysis and visualization. The article deconst...
En el presente articulo el autor realiza una interesante retacion entre el Pensamiento Débil de G... more En el presente articulo el autor realiza una interesante retacion entre el Pensamiento Débil de Gianni Vattimo y el Pensamiento Complejo, particularmente en la [ormuìocion de EdgarMorin para luego proponer el Pensamiento Complejo, como una de Lasmejores ...
… : revista especializada en reptiles, anfibios y …, 2006
Información del artículo Discoglossus pictus: aspectos generales y observaciones sobre una poblac... more Información del artículo Discoglossus pictus: aspectos generales y observaciones sobre una población siciliana.
National audienceSince the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, "epidemiological models" ... more National audienceSince the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, "epidemiological models" have emerged in an unprecedented way in the public space, giving rise to numerous debates. In particular, they have been mobilized as justifications for radical policy decisions such as lockdown, the closure of national borders or the monitoring of citizens' movements. Where do these models come from, and what does their apparent irruption of the last months mean?Depuis l'essor de l'épidémie de COVID-19, les « modèles épidémiologiques » ont surgi de manière inédite dans l'espace public, donnant lieu à de nombreux débats. Ils ont notamment été mobilisés comme justifications à des décisions politiques radicales comme le confinement, la fermeture des frontières nationales ou la surveillance des déplacements des citoyen•ne•s. D'où viennent ces modèles, et que recouvre leur apparente irruption de ces derniers mois
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