Types of Statements...

Among the many things that Latour, et. all, noticed while studying the laboratory environment was this obsession with inscription. There were a variety of papers everywhere: some papers the lab attendants brought with them into the lab; others they generated while in the lab – just papers, papers, papers! Later in the chapter 2, the author begins to analyze the content of some of these documents, and ends up with by categorizing the statements of the lab environment into 5 types. If being ranked; the lowest being Type 5 and the highest, Type 1. Type 5 statements are assumed knowledge (what you initially come into the lab with). Type 1 statements are conjectures (it’s what you’re asserting after you’ve done some scientific work in the lab). As was discussed briefly during in class today, the assumption is that somehow, in the process of performing the duties associated with being a member of the lab environment and/or being a SCIENTIST, your statements magically become transformed from a Type 5 into a Type 1 and now, are all-of-a-sudden yours statements are “worthy” of being put onto a piece of paper.

Two things dawned on me during this discussion during class (and some of my peers alluded to this as well):

(1) Are not Type 1 statements a kind of assumption/assumed knowledge as well – the only distinction is that now these assumptions are based on SCIENCE? So then, is there a real difference between Type 1 and Type 5 statements?

(2) Once your statements have gone through this “magical” transformation process and you now are deemed worthy to make Type 1 statements, what happens if you leave this specific lab environment and perhaps, go to another lab… By this circular process, don’t your hard-earned Type-1-statements automatically become assumed knowledge again?

Reference:
Latour, Bruno & Steve Woolgar. (1986) Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientic Facts. Princeton University Press. Chapter 2: An Anthropologist Visits the Laboratory, pp. 43-103