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Processes on Paper: Writing Procedures as Non-Material Research Devices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2013

Christoph Hoffmann
Christoph Hoffmann*
Affiliation:
University of Lucerne E-mail: [email protected]
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Argument

The paper focuses on the instrumentality of writing in the context of scientific research. It is suggested that the tool-character of writing is related to specific writing procedures, such as the list. These procedures can vary in their degree of complexity and often follow rules that are not codified. In any case, writing procedures can be characterized as non-material devices of “concretion.” Two examples from the notebooks of the physicist and philosopher of science, Ernst Mach (1838–1916), will help to develop the notion of writing procedures. Typical for Mach's use of his notebooks, they highlight the effects of writing in the context of reasoning and reflecting.

Type
Research Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 26 , Special Issue 2: Knowledge in the Making , June 2013 , pp. 279 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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