How Scientific Instruments Speak: Postphenomenology and Technological Mediations in Neuroscientific Practice

(Hardback)

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Science is highly dependent on technologies to observe scientific objects. For example, astronomers need telescopes to observe planetary movements, and cognitive neuroscience depends on brain imaging technologies to investigate human cognition. But how do such technologies shape scientific practice, and how do new scientific objects come into being when new technologies are used in science

In How Scientific Instruments Speak, Bas de Boer develops a philosophical account of how technologies shape the reality that scientists study. We should understand scientific instruments as mediating technologies. Rather than mute tools serving pre-existing human goals, scientific instruments play an active role in shaping scientific work. De Boer uses this account to discuss how brain imaging and stimulation technologies mediate the way in which cognitive neuroscientists investigate human cognitive functions. The development of cognitive neuroscience runs parallel with the development of advanced brain imaging technologies, drawing a lot of public attentionsometimes called neurohypebecause of its alleged capacity to demystify the human mind. By analyzing how the objects that cognitive neuroscientists study are mediated by brain imaging technologies, de Boer explicates the processes by which human cognition is investigated.

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"How Scientific Instruments Speak sheds a radically new light on the role of technology in scientific practice. With a strong focus on neuroscience, Bas de Boer explains with much rigor and depth how scientific instruments help to shape the frameworks of scientific interpretation and explanation. A much-needed and innovative contribution to the philosophy of science, the philosophy of technology, and their intersections."

This author argues that technology mediates the reality that is studied by scientists. In accomplishing this, de Boer takes a fascinating turn at studying the reliance of cognitive neuroscience on its advanced medical technologies, focusing in particular on the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)...De Boer's arguments seamlessly straddle two domains: the philosophy of science--by looking carefully at the role of justification--and the philosophy of technology--by focusing on how humans relate to the world through tools and technologies. Researchers in both philosophy of science and philosophy of technology will no doubt want to heed de Boer's important contribution. Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.

This wonderfully written and well-researched book on material hermeneutics, postphenomenology, and technological mediations in neuroscientific practice--was recently published in the Lexington Books series Postphenomenology and Philosophy of Technology. In sum, de Boer's book is thought provoking, it provides fresh perspectives to the area of postphenomenology, and it is highly readable and written in an accessible and engaging language. He explains terms and concepts to such a degree that the book easily can be read by almost any student wanting to understand what postphenomenology is and as such, it can very well serve as an introduction to postphenomenology.

Author Bio

Bas de Boer is a philosopher of technoscience working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Twente.