Laboratory Epistemologies

In <i>Laboratory Epistemologies: A Hands-On Perspective</i> Jenny Boulboullé examines the significance of hands-on experiences in contemporary life sciences laboratories. Addressing the relationship between contemplation and manipulation in epistemology Boulboullé combines participant observations in molecular genetics labs and microbiological cleanrooms with a <i>longue durée</i> study of the history and philosophy of science. She radically rereads Descartes's key epistemological text <i>Meditations on First Philosophy</i> reframing the philosopher as a hands-on knowledge maker. With this reading Boulboullé subverts the pervasive modern conception of the disembodied knower and puts the hands-on experimenter at the heart of life sciences research. In so doing she contributes a theoretical model for understanding how life processes on cellular and molecular levels are manually produced in today's techno-scientific spaces. By reassessing the Cartesian legacy and arguing that epistemology should be grounded in the standpoint of a hands-on practitioner Boulboullé offers the philosophical and historical foundation to understand and study contemporary life sciences research as multisensory embodied practices.