Harry Collins (1)

I read the Traditional Chinese edition of it. The following review contains a little bit of thoughts specifically on the Chinese edition.

從兩位作者的辯證態度到譯者李尚仁老師的譯文風格都很喜歡！作為一個信奉現代醫學體系的人來說，這本書其實更多地是從社會學的角度客觀展現了另一方的視角，讀後對堅信乃至於迷信另類醫療（落實到生活實際上來說主要指中醫）的人以及 anti-vaxxer show more 們多了幾分諒解（。保留參考書目和原文某些重要詞彙的英文也很有幫助，只不過英文部分應該沒有校對，不時出現 trial 變 trail 之類的錯誤⋯⋯很巧的是，在看到書的結尾處柯林斯記錄平區夫婦如何選擇百日咳疫苗的例子時，剛好陪朋友去看病，醫生的診斷結果含糊且不大看好，在決定治療手段之前也恰巧採取了和平區夫婦相似的舉措：翻查該醫生此前發表的論文⋯⋯ show less

I pondered a long time whether or not I should read this book. In retrospect, I think I made the wrong choice in deciding to read it. I was disappointed by the way the argument is structured. The authors begin in chapters 1 and 2 with a "periodic table of expertise". There's nothing periodic about it and its logic seemed confused to me. But even so, the discussion that follows in chapters 3 and 4 provides a reasonable review of various types of knowledge, with particular emphasis on the show more "interactional expertise" that trumps everyday knowledge but falls short of "contributory expertise".

The concept of interactional expertise is indeed interesting. However, I couldn't understand why the authors wanted to connect it to things like "embodiment", deafness, color blindness or perfect pitch in later parts of the book. I think they stray too far from scientific expertise into vague domains like social psychology. Chapter 5 on demarcating science from non-science also seemed quite naive. I don't think Wittgenstein's linguistic idea of family resemblance can be a satisfactory demarcation criterion, and the authors' obscure conceptualization of science as a "form of life" certainly does more harm than good.

For the most part this book is clearly written and the authors have obviously put a great deal of work into it. The problem is that they steer their work in an uninteresting direction. I would have like to see a much greater emphasis on political questions and on "meta-expertise". Instead the authors work the concept of "interactional expertise" towards more psychological questions, which simply didn't interest me at all. show less

This book does a bit more than its title might suggest: instead of being simply a defence of scientific expertise in a time when the expert is more challenged than ever before, this work actually traces the growth of skepticism amongst the general public.

This book contains much knowledge that will already be known to most people, but much new, certainly to me. The work is valuable, not only for the new information, but also for its ordering of the whole melange. Perhaps even the most show more doubting Thomas would have a little more respect for the scientific perspective were they to read this tome. I shall certainly be more cautious about dismissing the scientific point of view in future! show less

When the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) announced its first detection in 2016, I wondered whether sociologist-of-science Collins would write a fourth book about the project. _Et voici_; it's a good one, too. Leaving aside a couple of late chapters and the various back sections, much of the main text has the style of an edited, present-tense, insider's diary of the 5 months between "The Event" and the announcement. The kind of secrecy LIGO imposed during this show more period (of analysis and paper preparation) gets thoroughly criticized. show less