Page 372 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

scientific instruments 1673

might look impressive, like the gilt brass telescopes of out about the natural world, but this use is the underly-
eighteenth-century European observatories, or they might ing idea behind the other four: Instruments provide ways
be deceptively plain, functional and compact black boxes of looking at, understanding, and telling others about the
packed with electronic circuitry. What links all these natural world.
instruments is that they were made and used to study the Recent work in the sociology of scientific knowledge
natural world or to tell others about the natural world: has shown that the actual processes of (Western) scien-
activities common to many world cultures. However, the tific researchers and their use of instruments are less
custodians of these collections sometimes have trouble objective than the third-person passive-voiced articles
defining what to include under the heading “scientific reporting their results would have the reader believe.The
instruments” and therefore what to collect. Deborah role of skill and tacit knowledge looms large, and espe-
Warner, a curator at the Smithsonian Institution in Wash- cially so in the use of instruments. Thus, if in the much
ington, DC, in an article entitled “What Is a Scientific better-studied case of Western scientific investigation we
Instrument, When Did It Become One, and Why?,” have much to learn about the ways that people use
explores the changing meanings of the term scientific objects to find out about the natural world, in other
instrument and concludes that the term is problematic. world cultures we have even more to learn.
She says that it should not be used as often as it is and Helene Selin, editor of the Encyclopedia of the history
should be replaced by terms contemporary with the of science, technology and medicine in non-Western cul-
instruments that are being studied. tures, believes that to study science in non-Western
Albert Van Helden and Thomas L. Hankins also dis- cultures we must accept that each culture has its own sci-
cuss the ambiguity of the term scientific instrument in ence that defines and predicts natural events and that
their introduction to a collection of essays entitled Instru- each science is valid in terms of its culture. She contends
ments, suggesting that the ambiguity inherent in the that our own science also is a reflection of its culture and
terms science and instrument might be a virtue. They that culture is a factor in each step of doing science.
believe that we should look at the variety and contexts of Acknowledging the Western focus of most scholarship
the uses of such instruments rather than make a list of on scientific instruments,Van Helden and Hankins sug-
which kinds of objects we are to count as scientific gest that,“Looking at instruments in a non-Western soci-
instruments.They list four uses to which instruments are ety teaches us that their use and intended purpose is not
put. First,Van Helden and Hankins point out that instru- obvious, and warns us, by reflection, that the role of
ments confer authority and settle disputes—instruments instruments in Western science is sure to be even more
are part of the attempts by practitioners to convince oth- complex . . .” (Van Helden and Hankins 1994, 6).
ers of the validity of their ideas. Second, and linked to the They suggest that we look at how scientific instruments
first use,Van Helden and Hankins point out that instru- have worked in humanity’s consideration of the natural
ments are created for audiences, that is, the wider com- world—the different uses to which objects have been put.
munity, including patrons and supporters, who is In Selin’s terms, we must look at how instruments have
interested in the practitioners’ activities. Third, Van worked within the different frameworks that she calls “sci-
Helden and Hankins suggest that one use of instru- ence”—the ways that people consider and have consid-
ments is to act as a bridge between natural science and ered the natural world.
popular culture, through the symbolic and educational This focus on how objects are used, by whom, and for
uses of objects. Fourth, Van Helden and Hankins note what purposes means that we can see objects that are
that the role of instruments changes when they are used superficially similar in function but that relate to people
to study living things. In none of these four uses is there and their activities in quite different ways. For example,
an explicit statement that people use instruments to find navigation at sea in eighteenth-century Europe relied on