Public assent to scientific claims is no longer based upon public familiarity
with the phenomena or upon public acquaintance with those who make the
claims. We now believe scientists not because we know them, and not because
of our direct experience of their work. Instead, we believe them because
of their visible display of the emblems of recognized expertise and because
their claims are vouched for by other experts we do not know. Practices
used in the wider society to assess the creditworthiness of individuals
are no longer adequate to asses the credibitility of scientific claims.
We can, it is true, make the occasional trip to places where scientific
knowledge is made. However, when we do so, we come as visitors, as guests
in a house where nobody lives.
Stephen Shapin 'The house of experiment in seventeenth century England'(
ISIS, 79, pp. 373-4030, p. 404
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Louise Murray
Looking with Book
oil on linen
38cm x 45.5.cm
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