Keywords
Scientific Playthings
Thinking Things
Variant Invariance
How to Cite
Abstract
INSTRUMENTS AS PLAYTHINGS: AN ALTERNATIVE METHODOLOGY FOR THE STUDY OF SCIENTIFIC ARTEFACTS
Abstract: This article proposes that thinking of scientific instruments as playthings or philosophical toys offers a method for looking at the ways in which we learn from made things and from the act of making in investigating the world. Rather than approaching artefacts as stable ob- jects, definable and categorisable in terms of their function, this method puts forward the instability and mobility of artefacts on several levels: in terms of their movements between hands, social contexts and systems of knowledge, in terms of their physical articulations and of their changing functions, and in terms of the flows and processes of materials at work within and through them.
Keywords: historical affordance; scientific playthings; thinking things; variant invariance
Přístroje jako hračky: alternativní metodologie výzkumu vědeckých artefaktů
Abstrakt: Uvažovat o vědeckých pří- strojích jako hračkách či filosofických hračkách nabízí specifickou metodu zkoumání způsobů, jimiž se z vytvo- řených věcí i způsobů jejich vytváření učíme při zkoumání světa. Nepřistu- puje k artefaktům jako ke stabilním předmětům, definovatelným a kla- sifikovatelným na základě jejich funkce, nýbrž zdůrazňuje nestabilitu a mobilitu artefaktů na několika rovinách: jejich pohybu mezi ru- kama, sociálními kontexty a systémy vědění; jejich fyzické artikulace a proměn funkcí těchto artikulací; materiálních procesů působících v nich i jejich prostřednictvím.
Klíčová slova: historická afordance; vědecké hračky; myšlení věci; variantní invariance
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