Steve Fuller
From ResearchID.org
Steve Fuller was born in 1959 in New York City. He is a leader in science and technology studies, and the founder of the research program of social epistemology.
Fuller recieved a d M.Phil. from Cambridge and a PhD from Pittsburgh, both in the History and Philosophy of Science, and in 1994 became a professor of sociology and social policy at Durham University. He is currently a chair in the sociology department[1] at the University of Warwick, where he has worked since 1999.
He is the author of more than 200 academic articles and has given over 500 public talks across the world. His book, Dissent Over Descent: Evolution’s 500 year war on intelligent design, will be published in May 2007.
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Research
Fuller is most closely associated with social epistemology as an interdisciplinary research program. Social epistemology is a normative discipline that addresses traditional problems of knowledge using the tools of history and the social sciences. Fuller founded the first journal (1987) and wrote the first book (1988) devoted to this topic.
Fuller is a prolific author and speaker, having written more than 200 academic articles and given over 500 public talks around the world. His works have been translated into fifteen languages. He has been active in public understanding of science initiatives in the UK, where he moved in 1994. He currently holds a chair in sociology at the University of Warwick.
There are some characteristic themes and tendencies that distinguish Fuller in his writing:
- A distrust of disciplinary boundaries as an indicator of epistemological significance. Fuller's critique of Thomas Kuhn revolves around this point, given that Kuhn defended the view that knowledge requires discipline-like paradigms.
- A strong futurist orientation tied to socialist and progressivist ideologies of the 18th to 20th centuries, including liberation theology. Fuller calls his brand of politics "civic republican" and, over the years, has shown an increasing interest in constitutionalism.
- A concern with the social role of the intellectual, especially whether it can be fostered within academic life. Fuller defends of a fairly classical model of the university, as a unique institution that unifies teaching and research. His critique of knowledge management points in that direction.
Public Intellectual Work
Since moving to the UK, Fuller has increasingly oriented himself towards public intellectual expression, including television and radio, which he interprets as a natual outgrowth of his version of social epistemology. Two of his books have been recognised in this regard. Kuhn vs Popper was Book of the Month for February 2005 in the US mass circulation magazine, Popular Science. The Intellectual was selected as a Book of the Year in 2005 by the UK liberal-left magazine, New Statesman. He periodically contributes a column to the Project Syndicate, associated with George Soros' Open Society project, which appears in several languages in newspapers across the world.[2] In 2006 he also taught a course on the 'epistemology of journalism' at an international summer school at the University of Lund, Sweden.[3]
Steve Fuller was an expert witness for the defense in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.
Bibliography
- Social Epistemology, Indiana University Press, 1988, ISBN 0253215153
- Philosophy of Science and its Discontents , 1993, ISBN 0898620201
- Science, 1997, ISBN 0816631255
- The Governance of Science: Ideology and the Future of the Open Society, 2000, ISBN 0335202349
- Thomas Kuhn: A Philosophical History of Our Times, University of Chicago Press, 2000, ISBN 0226268942
- Knowledge Management Foundations, 2001, ISBN 0750673656
- Philosophy, Rhetoric and the End of Knowledge, 2003, ISBN 0805847677
- Kuhn vs Popper: The Struggle for the Soul of Science, Icon Books (UK) and Columbia University Press (US), 2003, ISBN 0231134282
- Philosophy of Science and Technology Studies, 2005, ISBN 0415941059
