The lacunae of science: observing the unobserved in the practices of knowledge

Author: Rauch, Alan

Source: Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, Volume 28, Number 3, September 2003 , pp. 209-216(8)

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Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to address the interstitial spaces that exist not only between disciplinary methods, but often even within distinct modes of inquiry guided by their own strict disciplinary rules. Case studies are used, drawn from cetacean behaviour as well as from the history of science, in an effort to explore the role of absences - 'lacunae' - in patterns of human inquiry. This is an approach that owes a great deal to the field of cultural studies, which has undertaken in recent decades to understand what is 'missing' from the canonical frameworks of literature and culture. Rather than being an expression of the need for more or better knowledge, or even for more diverse knowledge, what is at the heart of this venture is the desire to understand and appreciate the cultural 'topography' of knowledge. In the constantly shifting landscape of knowledge, where determinative lacunae are inescapable, knowledge will, as a consequence of cultural values, reconstitute itself in terms of meaning, of visibility, of significance, and of consequence.

Keywords:

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/030801803225005247

Publication date: 2003-09-01

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