Laboratory Epistemologies

In Laboratory Epistemologies: A Hands-On Perspective, Jenny Boulboull examines the significance of hands-on experiences in contemporary life sciences laboratories. Addressing the relationship between contemplation and manipulation in epistemology, Boulboull combines participant observations in molecular genetics labs and microbiological cleanrooms with a longue dure study of the history and philosophy of science. She radically rereads Descartess key epistemological text Meditations on First Philosophy, reframing the philosopher as a hands-on knowledge maker. With this reading, Boulboull 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 todays techno-scientific spaces. By reassessing the Cartesian legacy and arguing that epistemology should be grounded in the standpoint of a hands-on practitioner, Boulboull offers the philosophical and historical foundation to understand and study contemporary life sciences research as multisensory embodied practices.