Toward an epistemology of nano-technosciences Probing technoscience from a historical perspective: on today’s surprising prevalence and relevance of Francis Bacon

This paper aims to contribute to the attempts to clarify and classify the vague notion of ‘‘technosciences’’ from a historical perspective. A key question that is raised is as follows: Does Francis Bacon, one of the founding fathers of the modern age, provide a hitherto largely undiscovered programmatic position, which might facilitate a more profound understanding of technosciences? The paper argues that nearly everything we need today for an ontologically well-informed epistemology of technoscience can be found in the works of Bacon—this position will be called epistemological real-constructivism. Rather than realist or constructivist, empiricist or rationalist, Bacon’s position can best be understood as real-constructivist since it challenges modern dichotomies. Reflection upon the contemporary relevance of Bacon could contribute to the expanding and critical discussion on technoscience. In the following I will reconstruct the term ‘‘technoscience’’. My finding is that at least four different understandings or types of the term ‘‘technoscience’’ co-exist. In a second step, I will analyze and elaborate on Bacon’s epistemological position. I will identify central elements of the four different understandings in Bacon’s work. Finally, I will conclude that the epistemology of technoscience is, indeed, very old—it is the epistemological position put forward by Bacon. Résumé Cet article vise à contribuer aux tentatives de clarifier et de classifier la notion vague de «technosciences» à partir d’une perspective historique. La question clé soulevée est la suivante: Francis Bacon, un des pères fondateurs de la période modern, fournit-il une position pragmatique en grande partie non découverte qui pourrait faciliter une compréhension plus approfondie des technosciences? L’article J. C. Schmidt (&) Unit of Social, Culture and Technology Studies, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Haardtring 100, 64295 Darmstadt, Germany e-mail: [email protected] 123 Poiesis Prax (2011) 8:103–124 DOI 10.1007/s10202-011-0104-z