别把STS做小了!——唐纳德·麦肯齐访谈录

Broadening the Horizons of STS!——An Interview with Donald MacKenzie

从统计学历史到导弹防御系统,再到金融市场、碳交易、信贷风暴,麦肯齐以数学知识贯穿其中的研究主题从不仅是狭隘的学术研究。若将一个看似相当有限的技术问题置于社会、文化、科技、历史的脉络之下,即可解释清楚那些关乎人类生存的重要议题。有限论与描述指涉活动的"操演性"概念对于科学知识社会学、特别是经济学研究大有助益。贯穿爱丁堡学派理论主轴的是科学知识社会学的强纲领,以及由此发展而来并补强了强纲领的有限论。强纲领就某种意义上而言是方法论的,而有限论运用于科学上时,实质上更像是理论性的。建议中国科技与社会学界不要把STS想得太窄,这个领域最令人兴奋之处也许就是那些从传统议题中超脱出来的部分,应该将目光放在像这样的知识的良机上。

For decades, Professor Donald MacKenzie has explored new fields in the sociology of science and technology, especially those that deeply affect people＇s lives such as the eugenics movement, the accuracy of nuclear weapons, emissions markets, and his recent work on current credit crunch. We attempted to find a thread from a diversity of his research topics. He responded that most of his studies have revolved around the application of mathematics and its impacts on our daily lives. We also asked for his comments on the Bloor-Latour debate. To this request, he replied what he described as a ＂very biased Edinburgh School answer＂. That is, he sees the attacks on the Edinburgh School as being attacks on a sociologically reductionist misunderstanding of its posi- tion. At the end of this interview, he encouraged East Asian scholars to move away from the traditional topics and to be prepared to search for novel ones.