Steve William Fuller (born July 12, 1959) is an American social philosopher and philosopher of science in the field of science and technology studies. He is the Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology at the University of Warwick. He served as the president of the British Science Association's sociology division from 2008 to 2009. He has published in the areas of social epistemology, academic freedom, and in support of intelligent design and transhumanism.
Early life and education
Fuller was born on July 12, 1959, in New York City. He attended Regis High School in Manhattan. After high school, Fuller graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in history and sociology in 1979. As an undergraduate at Columbia College, he was a John Jay Scholar.
After graduation, Fuller was awarded a Kellett Fellowship to complete graduate studies in England at the University of Cambridge, where he earned an M.Phil. in the history of science and philosophy of science in 1981. He then earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in the history and philosophy of science in 1985. His doctoral dissertation, "Bounded Rationality in Law and Science", explored the implications of the views of Herbert A. Simon for political theory and philosophy of science.CV
Career Fuller held assistant and associate professorships at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Virginia Tech and the University of Pittsburgh. In 1994, he was appointed to the chair in sociology and social policy at the University of Durham, England. He moved in 1999 to the University of Warwick, England. In July 2007 Fuller was awarded a D. Litt. by Warwick in recognition of "published work or papers which demonstrate a high standard of important original work forming a major contribution to a subject". Higher Doctorates for Warwick People, University of Warwick In 2008, Fuller served as President of the Sociology section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In that capacity, he staged a play, "Lincoln and Darwin—Live for One Night Only!", at the BA's annual Festival of Science in Liverpool. The play was later produced as a podcast in Australia.
Fuller has been a visiting professor in Denmark, Germany, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden (where he held a Fulbright Professorship in 1995 at Gothenburg University), and the United States (UCLA).
In 2010, Fuller became a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Interdisciplinarity at the University of North Texas. In 2011, the University of Warwick appointed him to the Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology. In 2011, Fuller was appointed a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences. In 2012, he was appointed to an Honorary Professorship at Dalian University of Technology, China.(in Chinese) . News.dlut.edu.cn (24 May 2012). Retrieved on 14 May 2016. In 2012, he was made a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in Division I (Humanities).European Academy of Sciences and Arts. Euro-acad.eu. Retrieved on 14 May 2016.
Work Fuller is most closely associated with social epistemology as an interdisciplinary research program. Social epistemology is a normative discipline that addresses philosophical problems of knowledge using the tools of history and the social sciences. Fuller founded the first journal (1987) and wrote the first book (1988) devoted to this topic. The most obvious feature of Fuller's approach, already present in his 1988 book, is that he rejects out of hand the Cartesian problem of skepticism.
Along with 21 books, Fuller has written 65 book chapters, 155 academic articles and many minor pieces. He has given many distinguished lectures and plenary addresses, and has presented to academic and non-academic audiences throughout the world, including over 100 media interviews. His works have been translated into fifteen languages. 23 academic symposia have been published on his work. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1994, the year he organized a conference in Durham on "Science's Social Standing".
Since moving to the UK, Fuller has increasingly oriented himself towards public intellectual expression, including television, radio and internet, which he interprets as a natural outgrowth of his version of social epistemology. Two of his books have been recognized in this regard. Kuhn vs. Popper was Book of the Month for February 2005 in the US mass circulation magazine, Popular Science. However, Rupert Read wrote: "I did not have to read far into this book in order to conclude that it is worthless. ... In sum: this book offers only a cartoon opposition of a fake 'Popper' to a fake 'Kuhn.'" Fuller responded, coining the word "Kuhnenstein" (Kuhn + Wittgenstein) to capture Read's view of Kuhn, which Fuller calls a "figment of Read's – and other's – fertile imagination." The Intellectual was selected as a Book of the Year in 2005 by the UK left-wing magazine, New Statesman. He periodically contributes a column to the Project Syndicate, associated with George Soros' Open Society project, which appears in several languages in newspapers across the world.Project Syndicate. Project Syndicate. Retrieved on 14 May 2016. In 2006 he also taught a course on the epistemology of journalism at an international summer school at the University of Lund, Sweden.The Epistemology of Journalism Course Description , University of Lund
Academic freedom
Fuller believes (modeled on what he takes to be the German model) that academic freedom is a freedom reserved for academics, not a special case of freedom of speech. Debating the "statement of academic freedom" made by Academics for Academic Freedom (AFAF). This includes the right to "cause reasoned offence", if within the terms of reason and evidence appropriate to the academic profession. He believes it important for academics to be able to express intellectual opinions for further debate which can result in progress. He also argues that students are equally entitled to academic freedom.
Intelligent design Fuller has made many statements about his support for the teaching of intelligent design (ID) and authored two books on the subject. In 2005, in the case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, he testified on behalf of a local school system in the United States that required the teaching of intelligent design. The decision of the U.S. District Court held that intelligent design was a form of creationism and that its inclusion in the curriculum violated the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on the establishment of religion. The decision repeatedly cited Fuller's testimony to undermine the school system's position. Some of Fuller's critics within the Science and Technology Studies community described his participation in the trial as "naïve" and suggested that the field needs further development before it can constructively engage the legal community on the nature of science.
Fuller has said that he does not support intelligent design "but feels that it should have a 'fair run for its money. In his book Dissent over Descent, he says he sees religion in general as a motivating influence in scientific pursuits and believes that the difference between science and religion is more institutional than intellectual.Schools for the Enlightenment or epiphany?: Steve Fuller, The Times Higher Education Supplement, 25 December 2005 Critics have called his views on science postmodernist, though others characterize them as more closely related to social constructionism.Brief for Amicus Curiae, Scipolicy Journal of Science and Health Policy , Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School DistrictSteve Fuller and The Hidden Agenda of Social Constructivism, Norman Levitt, Talk Reason
On February 21, 2007, Fuller debated Lewis Wolpert at Royal Holloway, University of London on whether evolution and intelligent design should be accorded equal status as scientific theories. Fuller supported the proposition. Fuller endorsed a work in support of intelligent design, the Discovery Institute's textbook Explore Evolution: The Arguments For and Against Neo-Darwinism (2007).Endorsements, Explore Evolution website
Appearing in the 2008 documentary-style propaganda film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, Fuller claimed that "abortion and euthanasia" are natural consequences of the acceptance of evolution by natural selection. He also believes that religious belief has furthered the development of science.
Transhumanism
Much of his work focuses on questions around technological enhancements and how they can improve the capacities of human beings.Steve Fuller. Ieet.org. Retrieved on 14 May 2016. Fuller argues that the pursuit for enhancements is based on a need ″to create some distance between ourselves and the other animals.″ For Fuller, transhumanism offers humanity the prospect "to re-engineer the human body to enable us to live longer so as to work and play harder."
He featured in the 2016 documentary The Future of Work and Death.
Principal works
Science Vs Religion? In 2007, Fuller wrote Science Vs Religion?: Intelligent Design and the Problem of Evolution. In addition to introduction and conclusion chapters, it has chapters on the history of the relationship between religion and science, the thesis that modern science has its basis in an attempt by humanity to transcend itself and reach God, how Fuller believes complexity distinguishes ID from "other versions of creationism", legal issues, and the future of "Darwinism".Review of Science Vs Religion? , Sahotra Sarkar, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 7 August 2008
Professor of mathematics at Rutgers University Norman Levitt, in a review, described it as "a truly miserable piece of work, crammed with errors scientific, historical, and even theological". Levitt took issue with the following points: Fuller's acceptance at face value of William Dembski's claims on complexity and randomness, and his failure to come to grips with the wealth of results that this field has generated and with the trenchant criticism of Dembski's claims (or even to describe these claims accurately); Fuller's disparagement of evolutionary biology, without doing "serious analysis of the working methods and logical structure of biology itself" on which to base it; Fuller's misrepresentation of Isaac Newton's religious beliefs in order to make a point that is in fact antithetical to Newton's views; Levitt infers that Fuller's views arise from an "animosity to science as such and to its cognitive authority [that] still pervades academic life outside the dominion of the science faculty".The Painful Elaboration of the Fatuous, Norman Levitt, eSkeptic, Skeptic magazine Fuller later responded to these points, accusing Levitt of axe-grinding and questioning his understanding of the book, which Fuller claimed was less a defense of contemporary intelligent design theory than a demonstration of its rootedness in the history of science. Fuller also claims that Levitt misquotes one of the three passages Levitt cites from the book, making it mean the opposite of the original.Steve Fuller Responds to Norman Levitt's Review of Science v. Religion E-Skeptic, 16 January 2008 Levitt subsequently responded at length to Fuller, concluding that "Fuller's misreading of the politics that generated and sustains the ID movement is so complete as to constitute a peculiar pathology all its own."Norman Levitt Responds to Steve Fuller E-Skeptic, 23 January 2008 Fuller has long been highly critical of the views of science of his opponents in the Science Wars, including Levitt, dating back at least to 1994.Can Science Studies be Spoken in a Civil Tongue?, S Fuller, Social Studies of Science, 1994