Hub Zwart Psychoanalysis of Technoscience PDF-Muster LIT Verlag 28/01/19 Philosophy and Psychology in Dialogue Philosophie und Psychologie im Dialog edited by / herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. Hub Zwart (Erasmus University Rotterdam) Volume/Band 1 LIT PDF-Muster LIT Verlag 28/01/19 Hub Zwart PSYCHOANALYSIS OF TECHNOSCIENCE Symbolisation and imagination LIT PDF-Muster LIT Verlag 28/01/19 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. ISBN 978-3-643-91050-9 (pb) ISBN 978-3-643-96050-4 (PDF) A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. © LIT VERLAGGmbH&Co.KGWien, Zweigniederlassung Zürich 2019 Klosbachstr. 107 CH-8032 Zürich Tel. +41 (0) 44-251 75 05 E-Mail: [email protected] http://www.lit-verlag.ch Distribution: In the UK: Global Book Marketing, e-mail: [email protected] In North America: Independent Publishers Group, e-mail: [email protected] In Germany: LIT Verlag Fresnostr. 2, D-48159 Münster Tel. +49 (0) 2 51-620 32 22, Fax +49 (0) 2 51-922 60 99, e-mail: [email protected] e-books are available at www.litwebshop.de PDF-Muster LIT Verlag 28/01/19 Psychoanalysis of Technoscience 5 Series Preface: Philosophy and Psychology in Dialogue In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory for psychological research in Leipzig: the birth or “primal scene” of psychology as an independent research field. By transforming into an experimental discipline, psychology emancipated from philosophy and during the twentieth century (the era of behaviorism, cognitive psychology and neuroscience), the distance between psychology and philosophy significantly increased. While psychology evolved into an experimental research practice of immense proportions, conducted in laboratories worldwide, philosophy drifted into the margins of academic life. Currently, however, we experience a drive towards dialogue and convergence. Philosophy has taken an empirical turn and is becoming increasingly interested in the tools and methods of psychology as a social science, while both aim to be more than academic pursuits and aspire to address real-life challenges and urgent issues of human and social existence. 1900 was a decisive year (an annus mirabilis), for science as such, but also for the relationship between philosophy and psychology. Max Planck discovered that light and other forms of energy are discharged, emitted and absorbed in discrete packets which he called quanta. The work of Gregor Mendel was rediscovered: the start of what came to be known as the century of the gene, while the discovery of the electron by Joseph John Thomson in 1897 and of the virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898 was also part of the constellation. The quantum concept paved the way for elementary particle physics, anti-matter and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (where the hunt for the inexorable Higgs- boson was launched), while the rediscovery of Mendel inaugurated the birth of genetics, thereby setting the scene for the rise of molecular biology and the sequencing of the human genome. In 1900, the landscape of philosophy and psychology was drastically reshaped as well. The publication of Husserl’s Logical Investigations marked the birth of phenomenology as a movement (both in philosophy and in psychology), while Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams, formally published in 1900 as well (although it actually appeared in 1899), heralded the commencement of psychoanalysis: an intellectual event destined to have a tremendous impact, not only on psychotherapy, but on the humanities as well. Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg, Ivan Pavlov discovered the conditioned reflex. As indicated, however, during the decades to follow, philosophy and psychology diverted from one another. While philosophy split into “continental” author studies and “analytical” problem solving, psychology evolved into “human resource management”, as Jacques Lacan phrased it. Time has now come to reconsider their common ground. This series builds on the conviction that, to address the complex societal and cultural challenges we are facing today, philosophers and psychologists must work together. To understand the disruptive and transformative impact of science and technology in a globalising world, methods and concepts of both philosophy PDF-Muster LIT Verlag 28/01/19 6 Symbolisation and Imagination and psychology are necessary, as complementary (rather than as incompatible) approaches. More specifically, this series aims to contribute to a revitalisation of research traditions which evolved in the boundary zone between philosophy and psychology and still have a significant potential for contributing to a transdisciplinary diagnostic of the present, such as phenomenology and psychoanalysis. Whereas philosophy of science is shifting its focus increasingly to the “context of discovery” (where new technologies generate new forms of experience and affect the way in which knowledge is actually fabricated), an assessment of the socio-cultural meaning of new technologies requires a detailed consideration of their impact on the life-world. We need to re-open the dialogue between empirical and normative areas of research. A research field such as economics, for instance, is not only about patterns of behaviour and consumer choices, but also about responsibility and integrity. In the area of politics and governance, the clashes between global economic trends and local identities call for a coalition of social sciences and humanities approaches. And food production is not only about health and risks, but also about equity and identity, sustainability and global justice. Special interest will be given to efforts to use “genres of the imagination” in coming to terms with the challenges of the present. We are interested in scholarly publications which see novels, movies, poetry and theatre as imaginative laboratories, where emerging societal and technoscientific scenarios are probed, enacted and assessed. This monograph is the first publication in the series. It envisions a psychoanalysis of technoscience, not only by studying science directly, but also via “triangulation”, i.e. by comparing scientific breakthroughs with literary highlights, thus fleshing out a “comparative epistemology” with the help of three cases studies: the palaeoanthropology of Eugène Dubois, the conditioning experiments of Ivan Pavlov and the vicissitudes of virology as a major twentieth century research field. PDF-Muster LIT Verlag 28/01/19 Psychoanalysis of Technoscience 7 Table of Contents I. Psychoanalysis of technoscience: symbolisation, imagination, triangulation .. 9 Introduction: a diagnostic of contemporary technoscience ........................... 9 Why psychoanalysis? ................................................................................. 10 The anatomy of resistance .......................................................................... 12 Imaginative laboratories ............................................................................ 14 Carl Gustav Jung and Gaston Bachelard on science .................................. 16 Two forms of thinking ................................................................................ 17 Symbolisation and imagination .................................................................. 18 Post-Faustian science ................................................................................ 20 II. Archetypes of science: science and imagination ......................................... 25 Obscurum per obscurius: Jung’s psychology of science .............................. 25 Psychoanalysis and alchemy ...................................................................... 29 Archetypes of science ................................................................................. 30 The mandala and the prophet ..................................................................... 33 III. Iconoclasm and imagination: Bachelard’s philosophy of technoscience .... 35 Facta ficta ................................................................................................. 35 Scientific discourse and its imaginary double: two oeuvres......................... 39 The imaginary ............................................................................................ 42 Sublating the epistemological rupture ........................................................ 46 The resurgence of the Mother Earth archetype ........................................... 48 The sciences and their archetypes .............................................................. 51 IV. Lacan and science .................................................................................... 55 The matheme of desire ............................................................................... 55 The scientific revolution and the emancipation of the subject ...................... 56 The domestication of the object .................................................................. 59 Reforming the subject ................................................................................. 61 The dialectics of experimental research ...................................................... 62 The vicissitudes of university discourse ...................................................... 64 Symbolisation of the real: the four discourses............................................