Steven Shapin

Nov 1, 2024 | jhiblog.org | Steven Shapin

by Steven ShapinThree facts about Bruno Latour. He was from a wine-growing family; he was from Burgundy; and he was Catholic. These facts are related, and they are pertinent to understanding what his philosophical project was about. Bruno was born with silver in his mouth and that silver was a tastevin. I don’t believe that Bruno ever needed the money that came from an academic career. The stunning Parisian flat in the rue Danton was an inheritance from the family.

Jun 26, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | Christy Spackman |Steven Shapin

Among​ all the things that people take into their bodies, water is special, its necessity matched by its neutrality. There’s no doubt about the necessity. Human bodies are mostly water: about 60 per cent in adult men; a little less in adult women. Without water, death comes within days. A sedentary man of roughly normal weight, living in a temperate climate, requires about three litres per day; women need less; athletes and people living in tropical environments more.

Mar 22, 2023 | lrb.co.uk | Steven Shapin

The​ tragedy of Thomas Kuhn’s life was to have written a great book. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was published in 1962, when he was forty, and he spent the rest of his life distressed by its success. It has sold 1.7 million copies, and has been translated into 42 languages. Very few academic books sell in those numbers and scarcely any are still seen as state of the art sixty years after publication. Structure crosses disciplines.