Diphtheria Serum as a Technological Object by Jonathan Simon
This book is a philosophical analysis of the development and production of the anti-diphtheria serum in France from 1894 to 1900. Jonathan Simon's unique approach considers serum, a medicinal drug, as a technological object and analyzes its insertion into the therapeutic environment of diphtheria.-
Technopolitical Mediation
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Postphenomenology and Imaging
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Unframing Martin Heidegger's Understanding of Technology
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Sustainability in the Anthropocene
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Postphenomenological Methodologies
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Using Knowledge
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Design, Mediation, and the Posthuman
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Acoustic Technics
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Postphenomenology and Media
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Animal Constructions and Technological Knowledge
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Modernity and Technology
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Postphenomenology and Technologies within Educational Settings
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A Postphenomenological Inquiry of Cell Phones
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Digital Media
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Feedback Loops
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Postphenomenology and Architecture
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Technology and Anarchy
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Technoscience and Postphenomenology
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How Scientific Instruments Speak
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Postphenomenological Investigations
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Moral Hermeneutics and Technology
Diphtheria Serum as a Technological Object is a succinct book examining a pharmaceutical innovation and its dispersal and circulation across bordersIt is clearly written and argued and merits inclusion in research libraries as well as in graduate seminars on the history of medicine, French institutional history, and the history of technology. It will also appeal to those interested in the scholarly turn toward object-based ontologies and how this perspective can illuminate pharmaceutical history. * H-France Review *
Although Simon’s approach is avowedly drawn from the philosophy of technology, his study enriches our historical understanding of the history of the diphtheria antiserum in refreshing and unexpected ways. In their effect on human bodies, medicines are, after all, as much technological objects as scalpels and syringes, and this understanding gives Simon’s study originality and message. From his account of how the serum was made using the blood of specially selected and cared-for horses, through to his masterly analysis of how the serum was inserted into France’s political economy as an instrument of revenge on German medical science for defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, this is no standard history of drug development. * Bulletin of the History of Medicine *
With his in-depth study of the history of diphtheria antiserum in France, Simon makes an original and valuable contribution to the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine. Building on his own extensive and highly regarded earlier work on the history of chemistry and pharmacy, Simon convincingly shows that medicines such as diphtheria antiserum are more than just material objects. They are special technological objects, given form and sense by the context in which they are adopted in and the many roles they fulfill, in return shaping the societies in which they are deployed. The relatively short time-frame (1894-1900) as well as the single national context chosen for his study allow Simon not only to perform a synchronic slice across different spaces, but to engage with philosophical issues about the nature of technology whilst developing a sophisticated and original methodological framework for doing so. -- Viviane Quirke, Oxford Brookes University
Although Simon’s approach is avowedly drawn from the philosophy of technology, his study enriches our historical understanding of the history of the diphtheria antiserum in refreshing and unexpected ways. In their effect on human bodies, medicines are, after all, as much technological objects as scalpels and syringes, and this understanding gives Simon’s study originality and message. From his account of how the serum was made using the blood of specially selected and cared-for horses, through to his masterly analysis of how the serum was inserted into France’s political economy as an instrument of revenge on German medical science for defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, this is no standard history of drug development. * Bulletin of the History of Medicine *
With his in-depth study of the history of diphtheria antiserum in France, Simon makes an original and valuable contribution to the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine. Building on his own extensive and highly regarded earlier work on the history of chemistry and pharmacy, Simon convincingly shows that medicines such as diphtheria antiserum are more than just material objects. They are special technological objects, given form and sense by the context in which they are adopted in and the many roles they fulfill, in return shaping the societies in which they are deployed. The relatively short time-frame (1894-1900) as well as the single national context chosen for his study allow Simon not only to perform a synchronic slice across different spaces, but to engage with philosophical issues about the nature of technology whilst developing a sophisticated and original methodological framework for doing so. -- Viviane Quirke, Oxford Brookes University
Jonathan Simon is lecturer at Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781498531474 |
| ISBN 10 | 1498531474 |
| Title | Diphtheria Serum as a Technological Object |
| Author | Jonathan Simon |
| Series | Postphenomenology And The Philosophy Of Technology |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing Plc |
| Year published | 2016-12-27 |
| Number of pages | 168 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |