Dawkins and Latour. A Tale of Two Unlikely Fellows

In Arno Bammé (ed.), Yearbook 2005 of the Institute for Advanced Studies on Science, Technology and Society. Profil. pp. 99-124 (2005)
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Abstract

Two popular, yet highly controversial concepts of non-human agency from two different fields of knowledge are compared in this essay: the theory of the Selfish Gene, introduced into neo-Darwinian evolutionary biology by Richard Dawkins, and Actor-Network Theory, as brought forward in Science & Technology Studies by Bruno Latour. It is argued that the two theories, despite all apparent differences, share key motifs and motivations when they try to forward knowledge in their respective fields by adopting a vocabulary that aims at metaphorical redescriptions of the origins of intentionality – in both senses: as purposefulness of action and as meaning.

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Hajo Greif
Warsaw University of Technology

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References found in this work

Inquiries Into Truth And Interpretation.Donald Davidson - 1984 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
We have never been modern.Bruno Latour - 1993 - Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.Charles Darwin - 1897 - New York: Heritage Press. Edited by George W. Davidson.
Anti-Latour.David Bloor - 1999 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 30 (1):81-112.

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