{
  "id": "humans-not-instruments-11354",
  "type": "article-journal",
  "title": "Humans not Instruments",
  "author": [
    {
      "literal": "Harry Collins"
    }
  ],
  "container-title": "Spontaneous Generations: A Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science",
  "volume": "4",
  "issue": "1",
  "issued": {
    "date-parts": [
      [
        2010,
        8,
        9
      ]
    ]
  },
  "URL": "https://spontaneousgenerations.com/articles/humans-not-instruments-11354/",
  "page": "138-147",
  "DOI": "10.4245/sponge.v4i1.11354",
  "abstract": "I argue that it is serious mistake to treat instruments as having parity with humans in the making of scientific knowledge. I try to show why the parity view is misplaced by beginning with the “Extended Mind” thesis which can be seen as an individualistic version of Actor/ant Network Theory, and then move on to instruments. The idea of parity cannot be maintained in the face of close examination of actions as simple as doing a calculation or accepting the reading of an instrument. The key difference is that humans are embedded in language communities—the locus of knowledge-making—and nothing else is."
}