Source Code as a Literary Technology? On the Production of Facts in Digital Research
PDF (Czech)

Keywords

literary technology
source code
e-research
scientific knowledge
digital humanites

How to Cite

Source Code as a Literary Technology? On the Production of Facts in Digital Research. (2017). Teorie vědy Theory of Science, 39(1), 31–56. https://doi.org/10.46938/tv.2017.390

Abstract

The increasing use of digital technologies in scientific work and communication raises the question of the epistemological nature of knowledge thus produced. In this essay, I am employing the conceptual apparatus developed by Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer for the analysis of the historical dispute between Robert Boyle and Thomas Hobbes over the ways of producing knowledge in natural philosophy, and applying it to digital research. Their concept of three knowledge-making technologies – material, literary and social – appear to be heuristically useful concepts for reflecting on digital technologies as well. The latter are presented in the essay not as a separate facts-producing technology, but as elements around which the existing scientific technologies are radically reconfigured. Particular attention is paid to the concept of code as a literary technology and the role of digital technologies in the humanities.
PDF (Czech)

Since 2019, TEORIE VĚDY / THEORY OF SCIENCE journal provides open access to its content under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Authors who publish in this journal agree that:

  1. Authors retain copyright and publication rights without restrictions and guarantee the journal the right of first publishing. All published articles are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license, which allows others to share this work under condition that its author and first publishing in this journal was acknowledged.
  2. Authors may enter into other agreements for non-exclusive dissemination of work in the version in which it was published in the journal (for example, publishing it in a book), but they have to acknowledge its first publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are allowed and encouraged to make their work available online (for example, on their personal websites, social media accounts, and institutional repositories) as such a practice may lead to productive exchanges of views as well as earlier and higher citations of published work.

There are no author fees, no article processing charges, or submission charges.

The journal allows readers to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of its articles and allows readers to use them for any other lawful purpose.

A summary of the open access policy is also available in the Sherpa Romeo database.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.