Laboratory Epistemologies

"Jenny Boulboullé brilliantly revises superficial clichés about Descartes: as foundational to French rationality, as opposed to British practicality, and to the dualism of subject versus object; as conceiving of cogito as purely in the mind; and as invested in skepticism as his primary method. An experimentalist and vivisectionist, Descartes was prouder of his experiments than his philosophy, and, with his correspondents, helped devise the ‘literary technology’ that led to the scientific method of the Royal Society. Boulboullé argues that Laboratory Epistemologies begin in touch and the sensory followed by cogito-mathematical consolidations that often erase their empirical origins, and for Descartes required a theological overlay." - Michael M. J. Fischer, author of Probing Arts and Emergent Forms of Life

“Jenny Boulboullé calls her study a ‘multisited historioethnographical investigation,’ thus condensing its spirit in one combined expression. The book brings together an impressively wide reading in contemporary historical and ethnographical science studies, a longue dureée philosophical perspective, and hands-on participatory experiences both in molecular biology and in the aesthetic practices of contemporary bio-artists. A highly original study of scientific practice that makes for fascinating reading.” - Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, author of Split and Splice: A Phenomenology of Experimentation

“This book is a theoretically ambitious interdisciplinary contribution. . . . In tracing the historical-philosophical erasure of manual labour and material manipulation from rationalism’s canon, Boulboullé reframes Cartesian epistemology as entangled with the bodily regimes it purportedly transcended, giving her critique its distinctive force. Her argument challenges persistent myths about modern science’s origins, while offering a material genealogy of rationalist epistemology.”

“Taking as her focus the role of the body in molecular biology and biochemistry laboratories, Boulboullé argues for a 'hands-on perspective' in the history, philosophy, and social studies of science. In doing so, she combines a surprising array of materials, from early modern scientific practice to her own auto-ethnographic experiences learning to pipette and work in sterile conditions. A work that spans centuries and disciplines but that makes a consistent case for the embodied nature of experimental observation." - Rose Trappes, Metascience

“Laboratory Epistemologies makes six important interventions for historians and science studies.” - Michael M. J. Fischer, Journal of Anthropological Research

"In the final analysis, Boulboullé is right: Procedure and practice count, and they should be made more explicit in theories of knowledge." - Oren Harman, Common Knowledge