In the 1960s and 70s, a countervaling shift took place. This model wasn’t just a way of doing science – it was a worldview, a way of living, a weapon against hypernationalism, and Nazism. In this model, theory is an epiphenomenon of observation – theories evolve as observations come in. The Positivists were anti-theorists, and hoped to bring scientific discovery out of the realm of big theories and into the realm of the accumulation of data in “atomistic bits” connected by logic.
In the 1920s and 30s, the picture of scientific information was shaped by Positivist thinking. His talk at the Berkman Center begins with an outline of a revolution in scientific thinking. Not only has he done a great deal of work on the structure of scientific discovery – he’s got a forthcoming film about the NSA and secrecy which will show at Sundance this year.
He’s Joseph Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard, and a Macarthur Fellowship recipient, a scholar of the history of science.
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